What Is It?

The IPC Designers Council is an international network of designers. Its mission is to promote printed board and printed board assembly design as a profession and to encourage, facilitate and promote the exchange of information and integration of new design concepts through communications, seminars, workshops and professional certification through a network of local chapters.

The goals of the IPC Designers Council are to:

improve communications
provide designers a greater role in standards development
improve educational opportunities for designers
improve the recognition of the printed circuit board design profession

The Designers Council Charter

To encourage, facilitate, coordinate and promote the orderly interchange and integration of design concepts concerning printed board, printed board assembly, and related technologies through communication, seminars, workshops, local, national and international chapter programming, and other means.

The Designers Council Objectives

Promote and disseminate information regarding current activities and new developments in design technology.
Encourage and develop coordinated input and response to existing and proposed design related standards and publications.
Achieve maximum industry awareness of design standardization issues in printed board, printed board assembly and related design technologies.
Encourage and coordinate the compilation of design information including equipment, equipment capability (tools and technologies) and related information.
Increase the industry awareness of the role that printed board designers play in the product development cycle.
Establish a formal education structure and certification program to ensure designer competency and consistent design standards.
Facilitate the participation of suppliers and OEMs in the designer education and designer profile elevation process.
Stimulate communications among printed circuit board designers and others in related engineering disciplines.

IPC Designers Council History

The Designers Council became a part of IPC's long range plan in 1990, and a formation meeting was held in Atlanta, GA, in January 1992. Since then, the Designers Council has grown and now proudly serves more than 1,100 members. In addition, the Council has also certified over 3,500 designers.

A breakdown of the major events which have led to the formation of the Designers Council:

1957 - IPC founded by six independent board fabricators
1958 - Users/suppliers made members
1966 - Membership offered to companies outside the Americas
1977 - IPC name changed to reflect electronic packaging and programming
1986 - Cooperative liaison with EIA
1988 - Committee restructuring
1991 - IPC Designers Council founded
1995 - Printed Wiring Board certification program established and began certifying qualified designers as Certified Interconnect Designer (CID)
1998 - Workshop incorporated in the PCB Certification Program
2001 - Designers Learning Symposium debuts
2002 - Advanced PCB Certification Program - Part One (CID+) begins
2004 - Designers Summit debuts
2007 - IPC PCB Designers Certification Program Revision A is released