November 9, 2011. Intercept Technology Inc., a developer in PCB/hybrid/RF electrical engineering applications, has joined the IPC-2581 Consortium. The company said it has always been a supporter of open data transfer and continues to support such efforts with its commitment to provide the IPC-2581 file format. Intercept added that it is one of the few vendors that still utilize open ASCII formats for all of its output files and that it will add IPC-2581 to Intercept’s suite of ASCII manufacturing output options within the next year.
“We are glad to collaborate with fellow EDA vendors to bring designers and engineers a unified path to manufacturing,” said Dale Hanzelka, principal applications engineer for Intercept. “We welcome the opportunity to demonstrate our willingness to transcend the boundaries of competitors for the benefit of the end users.”
IPC-2581 is a generic standard for printed circuit board assembly products’ manufacturing description data and transfer methodology. Developed in 2004 by IPC–Association Connecting Electronics Industry, IPC-2581 is used for transmitting information between a printed circuit board designer and a manufacturing or assembly facility. For nearly every step in the industrial process flow, IPC-2581 offers a standard to help companies ensure superior manufacturability, quality, reliability and consistency in electronics assemblies built for their products
The IPC-2581 Consortium is a group of PCB design and supply chain companies whose collective goal is to enable, facilitate, and drive the use of IPC-2581 in the industry. It is devoted to accelerating the adoption of IPC-2581 as an open, neutrally maintained global standard to encourage innovation, improve efficiency and reduce costs. Members of the IPC-2581 Consortium include OEMs, EDA/DFM/CAM software companies, PCB fabricators, electronics assemblers, and test companies. The consortium is open to any PCB design and supply chain company that is prepared to support or is committed to a roadmap for IPC-2581 adoption.
Intercept Technology Inc.’s flagship layout product, Pantheon, was introduced in the mid-’90s; it facilitates the completion of RF, hybrid, SiP, analog, digital, and mixed-signal designs within a single application. Today, Intercept offers a design flow with Mozaix schematic capture and Indx library management tools; a suite of third-party database translators and interfaces to provide a streamlined migration path from other vendors’ environments.