Podcasts about hughes aircraft company

How do patents influence emerging technology innovation? How far could AI and DOGE push our current IP regime? Does it matter that China issues way more patents than the US does? To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed ​​Andrei Iancu, who served as the director of the US Patent Office under the first Trump administration. Andrei has degrees in aerospace and mechanical engineering, and worked at the legendary Hughes Aircraft Company before going to law school. He is currently in private practice at Sullivan and Cromwell. Co-hosting today is ChinaTalk editor and second year law student at Duke, Nicholas Welch. We get into… The mounting evidence that China's patent system now dominates America's, and whether these indicators constitute an emergency in the innovation ecosystem, Why some US companies now prefer Chinese courts for patent enforcement, The fundamental tension between private rights of inventors and public access to innovations, What congressional inaction on patent eligibility means for AI innovation, and the bills that congress could pass to immediately jumpstart emerging tech investment, What the current administration could do to help USPTO juice the economy, Controversy surrounding the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), and whether DOGE could put PTAB on the chopping block, How Trump will approach patent law and intellectual property rights, including perspectives on appointments and potential reforms. Thanks to CSIS for partnering with us to bring you this episode, the first in a three-episode CSIS Chip Chat series. Outtro Music: Lil Green, I'm Going to Copyright Your Kisses (1941) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ye39JuJZ4k&ab_channel=LilGreen-Topic Nellie Hill, I'm Gunna Copyright Your Kisses (1951) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3OcMdxpWas&ab_channel=krobigraubart Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do patents influence emerging technology innovation? How far could AI and DOGE push our current IP regime? Does it matter that China issues way more patents than the US does? To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed ​​Andrei Iancu, who served as the director of the US Patent Office under the first Trump administration. Andrei has degrees in aerospace and mechanical engineering, and worked at the legendary Hughes Aircraft Company before going to law school. He is currently in private practice at Sullivan and Cromwell. Co-hosting today is ChinaTalk editor and second year law student at Duke, Nicholas Welch. We get into… The mounting evidence that China's patent system now dominates America's, and whether these indicators constitute an emergency in the innovation ecosystem, Why some US companies now prefer Chinese courts for patent enforcement, The fundamental tension between private rights of inventors and public access to innovations, What congressional inaction on patent eligibility means for AI innovation, and the bills that congress could pass to immediately jumpstart emerging tech investment, What the current administration could do to help USPTO juice the economy, Controversy surrounding the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), and whether DOGE could put PTAB on the chopping block, How Trump will approach patent law and intellectual property rights, including perspectives on appointments and potential reforms. Thanks to CSIS for partnering with us to bring you this episode, the first in a three-episode CSIS Chip Chat series. Outtro Music: Lil Green, I'm Going to Copyright Your Kisses (1941) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ye39JuJZ4k&ab_channel=LilGreen-Topic Nellie Hill, I'm Gunna Copyright Your Kisses (1951) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3OcMdxpWas&ab_channel=krobigraubart Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jim De La Rosa shares his compelling narrative in 'Building the Apollo Capsules,' chronicling the evolution of his career in aerospace engineering and his crucial role in the Moonshot program. From working on Hound Dog cruise missiles to testing Apollo's unmanned capsules, Delarosa provides a detailed account of the rigorous testing procedures that preceded the manned moon missions. This memoir also sheds light on the pivotal contributions of Hispanic engineers, celebrating their often-overlooked dedication and expertise in one of humanity's greatest technological achievements.LISTENER DISCOUNT CODE: BESTPARTReceive a 25% discount on Jim's book from McFarland's website by using the coupon code BESTPART at checkout: mcfarlandbooks.com/product/building-the-apollo-capsules/BOOK & DESCRIPTIONBuilding the Apollo Capsules: An Engineer's Memoir of the Moonshot Program and Its Debt to Hispanic Team Members. McFarland, softcover (2023) mcfarlandbooks.com/product/building-the-apollo-capsules/This firsthand account of the development of the Apollo 11 mission gives a behind-the-scenes look at the 1969 moon landing mission from an engineer's perspective. The technical problems and solutions of designing a capsule to carry three astronauts—Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins—safely to the moon and back are covered in detail from the author's point of view. The contributions of Latino personnel in the Apollo program are described.ABOUT JIMJim De La Rosa is a retired aerospace engineer living in Tucson, Arizona. He has taught Radar electronics in the Air Force, worked for Hughes Aircraft Company, designed electronic circuits for Airborne Radar systems, designed Flight Control Systems for Guided Missiles at North American Aviation, designed systems for the Apollo capsules that took astronauts to the moon, designed electronic systems to fly the Space Shuttle, designed systems for rockets at The Aerospace Corporation and was a Consultant Engineer.ABOUT MCFARLANDMcFarland, a leading independent publisher of academic and general-interest nonfiction books, is perhaps best known for the serious treatment of popular culture. Founded in 1979, McFarland is recognized among authors and readers as adventurous in range and a reliable source of worthy books that other publishers overlook. They have about 7500 unique works for sale and each year publish about 350 new titles. Meeting high library standards has been a major focus since the company began, and many McFarland books have received awards from the academic-oriented (e.g., Choice Outstanding Academic Title, ALA Outstanding Reference Work) to the mainstream (Hugo, Edgar, Stoker, and Eisner, among others). www.McFarlandBooks.comSIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTERhttp://eepurl.com/iPkvx2

Tonight on Cryptique:  Ryan and J welcome renowned neuroscientist Dr. Eric Haseltine to discuss AI and the amazing abilities you already have!  Dr. Eric Haseltine is an author, futurist, and neuroscientist.  He has held several senior executive positions in private industry and the public sector.  He was the associate director and CTO for national intelligence at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the director of research at the National Security Agency, an executive vice president at Walt Disney Imagineering, and a director of engineering at Hughes Aircraft Company. For the past few years, he has been developing completely new forms of digital media, entertainment, and advertising, in addition to cutting-edge cyber and industrial security solutions. Websites: drhaseltine.com Books: Brain Safari, Long Fuse, Big Bang, The Listening Cure, Spy in Moscow Station, Riding the Monster Share with everyone! and let us know what you think at cryptiquepodcast@gmail.com Check out our merch at https://cryptiquepodcaststore.com  TikTok @cryptique_podcast YouTube @cryptiquepodcast X @podcastevil

In this week's episode, we're sharing a talk given by BSI co-founder Greg Glassman in April 2023. Roughly 500 people gathered to hear about The Broken Science Initiative which was cohosted by Hillsdale College's Academy for Science and Freedom and BSI.   Glassman explains, there are significant widespread issues within many areas of science, specifically within social sciences and medicine. In these areas, we are witnessing a shift towards pleasing gatekeepers and promoting industry interests. Glassman expresses his concern about the adverse impact this has had on medicine, as entire departments and fields have fallen victim to what he calls "epistemic debasement."   Glassman shares personal anecdotes from his childhood. Reflecting on his own educational trajectory, he talks about his father, Jeff Glassman, who was the head of research and development at Hughes Aircraft Company.  Visit our webiste: https://brokenscience.org/

王育霖（1919年－1947年3月31日），臺南人，臺北高等學校、東京帝國大學法科畢業，曾任日本京都地方法院檢察官、臺北地方法院檢察處檢察官、新竹地方法院檢察處檢察官、臺北市立建國高級中學教師，個性耿直。二二八事件時，被便衣人員帶走後失蹤。王育霖之弟王育德，是著名的學者與戰後第一代台灣獨立運動人士。 王克雄 228事件受難者家屬、日治時期第一位台籍檢察官王育霖之子 1963年畢業於台南一中，就讀台大電機系。1968年留學美國。先在南卡羅萊納大學取得電機碩士學位，後在佛羅里達大學的電機博士學位，專攻半導體探測器的研究。曾於芝加哥的荷蘭Philips 公司擔任X光光譜分析儀的研發，以及芝加哥的英國EMI Medical公司從事X光電腦斷層掃描機器的研發。1979年搬到聖地牙哥，在Hughes Aircraft Company研發火箭及轟炸機上的探測儀器。後改行成立大都會地產公司，主要做商業地產的投資與管理。 因為是二二八事件受難家屬，促使他長年以來致力於二二八受難者的平反工作，也幫忙促成「二二八事件處理及賠償條例」的制定，及訂定二月二八日為國定假日。 適逢228事件76周年，228事件受難者家屬王克雄博士新書《化悲憤為力量：一個228遺屬的奮鬥》。內有五份報告指證五個二二八加害者：第一篇《如何證明蔣介石是二二八元凶？》、第二篇《蔣經國誣告林茂生向美國要槍枝》。筆者的前一本書《期待明天的人：二二八消失的檢察官王育霖》也有一篇《中國國民黨是二二八慘案的主謀》。他認為，今天台灣二二八慘案的轉型正義還不能結束，是因為蔣萬安及那些國民黨人仍然不肯承認二二八的罪責，還想硬拗，粉飾那些二二八加害者。 主持人：賴靜嫻 來賓：王克雄 228事件受難者家屬、日治時期第一位台籍檢察官王育霖之子 主題：「化悲憤為力量」 王育霖之子王克雄為二二八轉型正義奮鬥 本集播出日期：2023.02.28 #王克雄 #228事件受難者家屬 #王育霖 #轉型正義 #寶島聯播網 #寶島有意思 寶島有意思 --- 寶島有意思 準時放送 19：00 北部-寶島新聲 FM98.5 嘉義-嘉義之音 FM91.3 高雄-主人電台 FM96.9 21：00 中部-大千電台 FM99.1

Michael E. Boyd is a Physicist, Engineer, and Archaeologist. In 1985 Mr. Boyd received his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics at UCSB. Mr. Boyd began his career as an engineer/scientist starting in 1982 at Hughes Aircraft Company, Santa Barbara Research Center. His career has spanned component manufacturing development engineering in the medical device, microelectronics, telecommunication, semiconductor, and hard drive industry. Michael has published his research in technical publications including the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Journal of Vacuum Science Technology, and the Society for California Archaeology. Mr. Boyd received an A.A. in Anthropology in 2019 and A.S. in Construction Management in 2021 from Cabrillo College in Aptos California. He began working as an Archaeologist in 2017. Mr. Boyd has three United States patents on the world's first spacetime metrics engineering device called the mass-spin-valve or gravitational rectifier; it is a type of gravitational diode. Mr. Boyd is a member of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE), the Society for California Archaeology, and the Santa Cruz Archaeology Society.Beyond The Tinfoil Hat is a weekly podcast brought to you by The Experiencer Support Association. Every week we dive into topics that are deep into the realm of the unknown. Ranging from topics between #ufos, #ghosts, and #monsters This podcast is hosted by Ryan Stacey and is designed to educate and assist the public in understanding the blend of every phenomenon happening in the world. Our guests often include eyewitness testimony.www.experiencersupport.org

Chris Cole is advising several companies including II-VI Inc. and Quintessent Inc., on advanced optical interfaces. Before, he was VP of Advanced Development, Finisar Corp. where he led the definition and development of 10 through 400 Gb/s optical interfaces for datacom and telecom applications. He delivered multiple generations of optical transceivers leading to ~$1billion of Finisar revenue. The 40G, 100G, 200G and 400G interfaces he defined and proposed for IEEE standardization constitute the majority of optical datacom links in datacenters, and account for billions of optics industry revenue. Prior, at Hughes Aircraft Company (now Boeing Space), and MIT Lincoln Laboratory he contributed to multiple communication and imaging satellites. Then, for TI DSP Group and Silicon Systems Inc. (now Analog Devices), he developed voiceband datacom algorithms and ASICs, respectively. Series: "Institute for Energy Efficiency" [Science] [Show ID: 38467]

Chris Cole is advising several companies including II-VI Inc. and Quintessent Inc., on advanced optical interfaces. Before, he was VP of Advanced Development, Finisar Corp. where he led the definition and development of 10 through 400 Gb/s optical interfaces for datacom and telecom applications. He delivered multiple generations of optical transceivers leading to ~$1billion of Finisar revenue. The 40G, 100G, 200G and 400G interfaces he defined and proposed for IEEE standardization constitute the majority of optical datacom links in datacenters, and account for billions of optics industry revenue. Prior, at Hughes Aircraft Company (now Boeing Space), and MIT Lincoln Laboratory he contributed to multiple communication and imaging satellites. Then, for TI DSP Group and Silicon Systems Inc. (now Analog Devices), he developed voiceband datacom algorithms and ASICs, respectively. Series: "Institute for Energy Efficiency" [Science] [Show ID: 38467]

Chris Cole is advising several companies including II-VI Inc. and Quintessent Inc., on advanced optical interfaces. Before, he was VP of Advanced Development, Finisar Corp. where he led the definition and development of 10 through 400 Gb/s optical interfaces for datacom and telecom applications. He delivered multiple generations of optical transceivers leading to ~$1billion of Finisar revenue. The 40G, 100G, 200G and 400G interfaces he defined and proposed for IEEE standardization constitute the majority of optical datacom links in datacenters, and account for billions of optics industry revenue. Prior, at Hughes Aircraft Company (now Boeing Space), and MIT Lincoln Laboratory he contributed to multiple communication and imaging satellites. Then, for TI DSP Group and Silicon Systems Inc. (now Analog Devices), he developed voiceband datacom algorithms and ASICs, respectively. Series: "Institute for Energy Efficiency" [Science] [Show ID: 38467]

Chris Cole is advising several companies including II-VI Inc. and Quintessent Inc., on advanced optical interfaces. Before, he was VP of Advanced Development, Finisar Corp. where he led the definition and development of 10 through 400 Gb/s optical interfaces for datacom and telecom applications. He delivered multiple generations of optical transceivers leading to ~$1billion of Finisar revenue. The 40G, 100G, 200G and 400G interfaces he defined and proposed for IEEE standardization constitute the majority of optical datacom links in datacenters, and account for billions of optics industry revenue. Prior, at Hughes Aircraft Company (now Boeing Space), and MIT Lincoln Laboratory he contributed to multiple communication and imaging satellites. Then, for TI DSP Group and Silicon Systems Inc. (now Analog Devices), he developed voiceband datacom algorithms and ASICs, respectively. Series: "Institute for Energy Efficiency" [Science] [Show ID: 38467]

Chris Cole is advising several companies including II-VI Inc. and Quintessent Inc., on advanced optical interfaces. Before, he was VP of Advanced Development, Finisar Corp. where he led the definition and development of 10 through 400 Gb/s optical interfaces for datacom and telecom applications. He delivered multiple generations of optical transceivers leading to ~$1billion of Finisar revenue. The 40G, 100G, 200G and 400G interfaces he defined and proposed for IEEE standardization constitute the majority of optical datacom links in datacenters, and account for billions of optics industry revenue. Prior, at Hughes Aircraft Company (now Boeing Space), and MIT Lincoln Laboratory he contributed to multiple communication and imaging satellites. Then, for TI DSP Group and Silicon Systems Inc. (now Analog Devices), he developed voiceband datacom algorithms and ASICs, respectively. Series: "Institute for Energy Efficiency" [Science] [Show ID: 38467]

Real Estate is Relationships   We have two JJs in the house!  JJ Azizian currently coordinates the largest real estate networking group in the country, teaching investors how to market themself and build relationships in the real estate industry.  If you are not visible, you are invisible!  JJ shares all the nuggets of social media, especially the importance of engagement.  If you are struggling with your social media presence, you NEED to hit play...right...NOW!   JJ Azizian is a graduate of the USC School of Business.     Right out of college, I spent several years working for Hughes Aircraft Company,  in their Space and Communication Group.  Upon being hired, I quickly became the youngest Supervisor in the history of Hughes, and then became the youngest Senior Staff Administrator, heading up the coordination of a division wide productivity measure program.     I've worked behind camera, as a Productions Manager and Producer, in the freelance film industry of Hollywood, having worked on over 200 productions, and over 1000 days on set; working on Music Videos, commercials, Feature Films, documentaries, and episodic television.   I spent several years working for Lowe's Home Improvement, as the Customer Service Manager, and ran the front end for what was at the time the 3rd largest grossing store in the country.   I've been running my family's portfolio of residential and commercial real estate for the last 15 years.   In the last, I have taught horse back riding, country western dance, and coached little league baseball for kids from the ages of 5 to 14, as well as coached Junior Varsity football for a local high school.   From aerospace, to the film industry, to retail sales, to coaching sport teams, my expertise is building teams, building leaders, and training people to work together to run efficient departments, companies, and organizations.   www.facebook.com/JJ.The.Connector.Azizian   www.instagram.com/jj.azizian   www.linkedin.com/in/jjazizian   jjazizian.com     To learn more about Jen Josey, visit www.TheRealJenJosey.com To join REIGN, visit www.REIGNmastermind.com

Michael E. Boyd Physicist - Engineer - Archaeologist In 1985 Mr. Boyd received his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics at UCSB. Mr. Boyd began his career as engineer/scientist starting in 1982 at Hughes Aircraft Company, Santa Barbara Research Center. His career has spanned component manufacturing development engineering in the medical device, microelectronics, telecommunication, semiconductor, and hard drive industry. Michael has published his research in technical publications including the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Journal of Vacuum Science Technology, and the Society for California Archaeology. Mr. Boyd received an A.A. in Anthropology in 2019 and A.S. in Construction Management in 2021 from Cabrillo College in Aptos California. He began working as an Archaeologist in 2017. Mr. Boyd has three United States patents on the world's first spacetime metrics engineering device called the mass-spin-valve or gravitational rectifier, it is a type of gravitational diode. Mr. Boyd is a member of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE), the Society for California Archaeology, and the Santa Cruz Archaeology Society. Michael E. Boyd can be found at: @BoydMichaelE A copy of Mr. Boyd's CV may be found at: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8039-4166 Steph can be found at: UAP_Experiencers IG UapExperiencers Twitter UapExperiencers FB Steph can be found at: UAP_Experiencers IG UapExperiencers Twitter UapExperiencers FB CAB Podcast Network www.youtube.com/c/CallingAllBeings Available on: Amazon Music Google Podcast Apple Podcast SoundCloud Stitcher ListenNotes Podchaser Spotify PodcastAddict IHeart

Carl J. Meade is a wise man with a lot to share.   First, he was an electronics design engineer at the Hughes Aircraft Company.   Then he went to the U.S Airforce and became a test pilot. And then he got selected by NASA to be an astronaut where he worked for over 10 years going on different Space Shuttle missions. In this interview, Carl teaches you how to create a fulfilling career for yourself. https://okdork.com/podcast/244 Use this link to get 10% off at checkout on AppSumo: https://appsumo.com/?coupon=noah10&code=noah10

As we celebrate Black History Month (February 2021), CivitasLA is excited to be joined by Prof. Hal Walker and his wife, Dr. Bettye Walker, as we discuss his groundbreaking career in the world of science and space technology in Southern California. And how that life’s work led them to launch the African – American Male Achievers Network (A-MAN) in Los Angeles, and subsequently expand that work to South Africa, to grow access to opportunities for communities of color in the science and technology arena.   Hildreth “Hal” Walker, aerospace engineer and scientist, was an early pioneer in the field of laser telemetry who, amongst many accomplishments, was the first person to successfully fire the Laser to the Moon during the Apollo 11 Moon Landing in 1969. Walker’s space technology career dates to 1959 where he served as a technical member of the RCA Corporation’s Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) team; served as a laser systems specialist for KORAD Laser Systems in the early 1960’s; and participated in the development of the first Tactical Laser Target Designator System for the U.S. Army while at Hughes Aircraft Company, where he retired after serving in management.   With his wife Bettye, an educational leader in the Los Angeles area, they co-founded A-MAN, with a mission to utilize STEM-related projects as a motivational tool to advance educational achievement, intellectual and career development of   African American, Latino and other under-represented minority students from pre-Kindergarten thru 12th grades. A-MAN works to increase diversity and representation in this thriving sector.   Join us in our conversation with Hal and Bettye, as we discuss their work in bringing science and technology to life for young minds; the community A-MAN has developed and their achievements; and share their perspectives on growing diverse representation and participation in science and technology careers. To learn more and get involved, please visit: (http://www.aman.org/our-history.html; http://www.a-mansasciencecenter.com/about/)   For more information, please visit www.CivitasLA.com. And we hope you’ll rate and review our show; and connect with us on Facebook (@CivitasLA), Instagram (@Civitas_LA) and Twitter (@Civitas_LA).

The business pioneer and Hollywood movie producer changed the course of history. A legendary pilot, he founded Hughes Aircraft Company and owned TWA and much of Las Vegas. But after becoming one of the richest men in the world, Howard Hughes disappeared from public view. Now world-renowned pathologist Dr. Michael Hunter examines the detailed autopsy of Howard Hughes to discover the real reason for his mysterious death. Next week… Autopsy examines the death of Janis Joplin. Like what you hear and want more true crime and mystery? Go to https://www.reelz.com/podcasts/

Before he became a surgeon in Santa Monica, Dr. Howard Krauss worked as an aerospace engineer for Hughes Aircraft Company in Long Beach, California. In making the switch, he traded one kind of orbit for another. He came out of earth’s orbit and into the human ones: the two sockets in the skull that hold the eyes and all their accompanying structures. He is one of a few surgical neuro-ophthalmologists on the planet who specializes in surgery within the orbit. He and his colleagues at PNI have pioneered minimally invasive techniques for treating diseases that threaten vision, and for using the orbit as an entry point for removing tumors in the brain. Dr. Krauss works on the forefront of “retinal analysis,” looking for microscopic changes in structures there that signal underlying diseases including Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease. New research there, he says, could show that the eye really is a window into the human body and mind. For more information: pacificneuro.org | pacificbraintumor.org | (310) 829-8265

Professor Knott's research examines the optimal environment and policies (economic, industrial and firm) for innovation, and is best summarized in her book, How Innovation Really Works (March 2017). This interest stems from issues arising during an earlier career in defense electronics at Hughes Aircraft Company. Prior to joining Olin, Professor Knott was an Assistant Professor... The post Professor Knott joins the Circuit of Success appeared first on The Circuit of Success with Brett Gilliland.

What I learned from reading Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos and Letters; The Definitive Biography of the First American Billionaire.If you want to listen to the full episode you’ll need to upgrade to the Misfit feed. You will get access to every full episode. These episodes are available nowhere else.As a bonus you will also get lifetime access to my notebook that contains key insights from over 285 podcasts and lectures on entrepreneurship.The Misfit Feed has no ads, no intro music, no interviews, no fluff. Just ideas from the greatest entrepreneurial minds in history. Upgrade now.  

See all the show notes here.  Julie Ellis started her career as a representative for a semiconductor manufacturer after completing her Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering. Now she is a Field Applications Engineer (FAE) at TTM Technologies, the third-largest circuit board manufacturer in the world. Listen to Julie and Judy discuss seamless global transfer and recommendations on working with offshore fabricators. Learn how to avoid excessive technical queries and how to migrate from prototype to production while optimizing global processes. Bonus update on AltiumLive: Julie and Carl Schattke will be presenting at AltiumLive 2018, introducing new stackup and impedance tools in Altium Designer 19, so be sure not to miss them! Show Highlights: Julie Ellis did a presentation about Documentation at AltiumLive 2017. What is Seamless Global Transfer? Transferring PCB manufacturing from onshore prototype level into production and offshore. Julie started her career at Hughes Aircraft, where she completed her Electrical Engineering Bachelor Degree - best decision of her life More women (not just circuit board barbie) need to get into STEM!  #WomenInTech. Julie always encourages young women who are interested in STEM, to get a degree that will enable them to move into fascinating jobs with a variety of opportunities. Julie’s first job was as a semiconductor manufacturer’s representative; realized she liked the circuit board side of the business more than ICs and migrated over. On TTM: It’s like working at Google for circuit boards, I can always call someone for answers about manufacturing best practices. Seamless global transfer - the concept is that you aren’t just designing for the prototype but for global manufacturing i.e. avoid 100 technical queries What makes migrating over such a difficult process? Because the 6-Sigma 6Ms, are not the same when it transfers over to Asia. What are the 6Ms?  Method, Mother Nature “Environmental”, (Man) People, Measurement, Machine, Materials. Equipment sets are different for mass production, production lines are longer, there is not as much human oversight, production lines must be scheduled and you cannot stop/start the process. The tolerances are different and they need to be accomodated in the designs. Throughput and drilling is always a bottleneck and to reduce this and reduce turn time, mass production sites have tweaked processes to get the highest yield. Internationally the general rule is 4 mil lines and spaces on half ounce copper; 10 mil is the most common size drill which results in an 8 mil finish hole size. As you go up in copper thickness you need to add a little bit to the pads. Blind vias are the ones that are on the outside but end up on an internal layer. Buried vias are buried completely inside the board. Working with offshore production house while still in prototype development phase. Recommendation - design for volume and technology. Qualify the design for the final production region and technology. HDI (High Density Interconnect) is anything 0.4 mm pitch and under that has a track running through the pads. Judy wants to throw everyone inside a fab house! There are at least 30 different processes required to manufacture one 4-layer board. Julie works directly with Carl Schattke and they will do a stackup presentation at AltiumLive 2018 Materials are a significant cost in Asia, whereas here in the states the material is less of a cost (20% in USA, 50% in China). With production panels where you're trying to get as many cookies cut, you also need to consider and discuss with your manufacturer the tiny 2x2 inch pieces.   Links and Resources: AltiumLive 2018: Annual PCB Design Summit AltiumLive 2017 Presentation TTM’s Interface Between Designer and Fabricator TTM Technologies Website Carl Schattke   Hi everyone this is Judy with Altium's OnTrack Podcast thanks again for joining. We're happy to have you again. I would like to continue to invite you to AltiumLive, and I also wanted to put a shout out that we have a call for presentations right now, so if you are an Altium Designer user, and you have some tips or tricks or some kind of breakthrough you've had on design please contact me at Judy.warner@altium.com and I'd love to hear from you ASAP. We'd love to have you present in San Diego or in Munich. Munich is January 15th through 17th and San Diego we are there October 4th, and 5th so look forward to hearing from you all. Once again I have another talented and amazing guest with me; Julie Ellis from TTM technologies which as you know is one of the largest board manufacturing companies not only in North America but in the world today so Julie is an FAE at TTM and a very well respected technologist as well as a dear friend. So Julie, welcome it's good to have you. Thank you. So Julie presented at AltiumLive last year on documentation. I've sat through many of her talks and learned much from her, so today we want to talk about what it takes to move jobs from onshore prototype level into production and offshore. She calls it seamless global transfer but before we get into that we'll hear a little bit about Julie's background. We both started in the printed circuit board industry in the 80s - which dates us a little bit I know -  we're not going to say the year we're just gonna go with the round numbers the 80s but I always... -we were child savants though so we say we were 12 -we were 12 -five -okay five, yeah we were five. So Julie just came in and noticed my super cool Career Barbie of 2018, which is a Robotics Engineer Barbie. She's got circuit board patterns on her shirt and a laptop, she kind of looks like us, so we're just gonna call her Circuit Board Barbie and you know blondes... smart ladies you know. Finally, there's a Barbie we can really relate to, and we want women to get into science and STEM and everything - so go for it and aspire to be this Barbie here. Right on, yeah! Girl Power. We want to get more women in here, and it's just about exposure and motivating others, so we hope that throughout this podcast we inspire maybe somebody to give a girl a little nudge out there. We've enjoyed long enjoyable careers. So, okay Julie before we get started, why don't you kick off and tell our audience a little bit about who you are and your background - how you got into this wonky industry? I am Julie Ellis; I started as a Design Engineer at Hughes Aircraft Company. I was awarded a student engineering scholarship there, which paid for most of my schooling - the rest of my schooling after I moved out here from Iowa - so I always tell everybody that getting a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering was the best decision I've ever done in my life, so I really do encourage people. If you're interested in Math, Science, Biology - anything - get a good STEM degree so that you can always move forward into interesting, fascinating jobs with a lot of variety of opportunities. It's a really, really good way to go and I encourage youth and people to get into this kind of field. So I started as - once I graduated from Cal State Fullerton - I stayed on it until the 1990s when things got really tight in the military market, and I was on loan to one department, but I couldn't hire in, so I took the first job that was offered to me as a semiconductor manufacturer’s rep and I had circuit board industry or circuit board experience at Hughes and as a rep I also had a couple of circuit board lines and I really, really liked the printed circuit board side even compared to the ICS and memory sales and everything.  So I ended up migrating toward the printed circuit boards. Fast forward eight years, landed a great job at TTM as a Field Applications Engineer just a little over four years ago and it's been a fantastic opportunity. TTM is the world's third-largest printed circuit board fabricator, and we would probably be number two if it didn't include Flex because the top two manufacturers have a lot more flex and rigid-flex than we do, so I'm surrounded by experts in this field. It's like living in Google for printed circuit boards because whenever I really want to know something I can go call somebody within my company and find the answer, so it's it's really good working here. Really it's impressive, and you're right - like you really can go to anyone to get the latest and greatest information on manufacturing best practices which are really, really fun. So we wanted to talk today about Seamless Global Transfer, and I know that we've talked a lot on this podcast about there's no such thing as the quick and dirty prototype so why don't we just jump off from there? Like what does it mean? So you design a board it's gonna go into production, but you've got deadlines, you need to crank it out really quick, you crank it out really quick and then it's like: hey it works let's migrate offshore! [laughter] That’s right - that way exactly. That would be like the worst case scenario, like you heading for Niagara Falls and not knowing it. So why don't you talk about the myth of the quick and dirty prototype and why you really need to think about global manufacturing up front while you're just developing the circuit board and designing it? Yes, so Seamless Global Transfer is the concept that you're not just designing for your prototype to get it through a quick turn shop here in the United States in five days. Because I worked - one of the numerous positions - was as a Circuit Board Commodity Manager and a contract manufacturer and a lot of the projects we got had already been tested and proven and developed here in the United States. They sent it to us for mid-level production, we’d try to send the parts overseas, and everybody would come back with a hundred technical queries and say: we can't build it because we don't have this capability over in China. Oh, you need to change this on the design - it's not going to work, and by the time you've given your job to a contract manufacturer your engineers do not want to make changes to the design that they've already tested. So global seamless transfer plans ahead and thinks about: what is our migration path from quick turn development prototype and taking it over until long-term production and so there's a lot of background that goes into that, and that's what Judy and I wanted to talk about here.   So what is it that you think that makes that migrating over makes that a difficult process? Because the Six Ms: man, machine, materials, environment - which is another M that I can't remember. Everything is not the same when it transfers over to Asia. The equipment sets are different for mass production, the production lines are so much larger and often much more automated, so they can't get the human element,  you know. Watch this, watch that, we don't get the babysitting of our project over in China like we can here. In Asia or China, we have to schedule the production lines, and you can't just interrupt a line there to quickly throw this job in front of everybody else. The schedules are a lot different, the process tolerances are different, and because the process tolerances are different, we have to accommodate those in our designs. Okay, so there seems to be a perception anyways that once we have a pretty robust design here that we can just kind of throw it over the pond. Why is that, I mean you just talked about some reasons but what are some like tangible snags you're gonna run into if you try to do that? A lot of it has to do with the drilling. Like over in China most mass production shops, except for the really advanced HDI shops which would all go laser micro vias all the way through, as a rule don't drill using six mil drill bits because they're expensive, they break and they can't be re-sharpened and they break more easily and they have to be changed out twice as often as bigger drill bits. And bigger drill bits can be stacked, or you know, panels can be stacked. So if you can drill two or three panels at one time you've just got your throughput and drilling which is one of the largest bottlenecks in fabrication. You reduce your turn time significantly and time is money. What we're paying for in printed circuit boards besides materials, is the time it takes to get through the processes. So Asia and mass production sites have all tweaked their processes to achieve the highest yields, in the least amount of time, at the lowest cost. But there is a sacrifice to that and sometimes at the sacrifice of we need a better, bigger pad around a drill hole. We're going to stack two or three panels high instead of drilling a six mil drill and our plating processes are a little bit different so we may have to have more edge compensation. Which means that, that will drive a little bit larger requirements for line, width, and space. So on those, is there a recommended -  that's kind of a broad question - but are there recommended kind of hole sizes and pad sizes and/or trace and space sizes to help on the throughput? If you have it. Yeah kind of the general rule of thumb internationally, is 4 mil lines and spaces, on half ounce copper is a good start. Anything under that on half ounce copper is going to be a premium. And ten mil is the most commonly sized drill which would drop you down to an eight mill finish hole size. And we'd like to see the hole size plus ten mil for the pad. So if you've got an 18 or an 8 mil finished hole size, we would drill it probably at 10 or 12. We'd like to see at least an 8+, 10 and 18 mil pad on that hole. That's just for a single lamination through-hole in multi-layer printed circuit boards. As we go up in copper thickness, we need to start adding a little bit to the pads. Okay, and how does that change when you start adding buried and blind vias in? It depends on the construction. If we're talking like a real traditional blind via board; blind vias are the ones that are on the outside, and they end up on an internal layer. Buried are vias that are buried completely inside the board, and those are different technologies. But so if we're talking standard blind vias where we might have 1 to 6 and then 7 to 12, both being blind via stack-ups, we would actually stack up the material layers 1 to 6, drill and plate, and then we would stack up the materials layer 7 to 12 - drill and plate. And then we would laminate all those together, and then we would drill and plate and etch the outer layers. So those definitely have different rules because the two outer layers already have plating - additional plating - on the outer layers which means that we have to etch through thicker copper because of the foil plus the plating, and we're going to require slightly bigger line widths and spaces on that particular design. So one thing we were chatting about as we were preparing for the podcast, that I thought was obvious, but also fascinating, is the idea of working with your - you know, I kind of want to move into now, sort of takeaways for our audience. So you were talking about working with your offshore production house while you're in your prototype development stage which I think is kind of counterintuitive. I don't know, is it? Actually, if we are in the prototype development stage, it's the best way to do it because if - I always recommend that my clients design for volume. Whatever their final volume is you know, we all know the term DFM, but we really have to take it to heart to figure out, qualify the design for the final production region. Final production technology, whether it's a single lamination or a multi-lamination that's not HDI board like I just brought up, or whether it's an HDI board that has blind and buried vias, but with laser micro vias and advanced HDI board which I categorize as anything 0.4 millimeter pitch and under, that has a track running through the pads. So if you start at your before-prototype stage, qualified the design for the volumes and the technology so that you can pick your final production sites, get the design guidelines for those sites, get the stack up for those sites, and have the stack up and the design guidelines identified before you even route the board. And if you do that then you're not going to route a whole board, send it over to China, and China is going to say: oh sorry those line widths and spaces, there's not enough space for us to compensate the etch and artwork during etch, we can't build it this way. Go increase your spaces, and if you don't have room on a tightly designed board, or if your pads aren't big enough to achieve the annular ring that you're asking for, your design is no good for manufacturing. So my term is ‘design for volume,’ but it means whatever your volume is. And the reason I'm doing that, or I'm saying 'your volume' is because we have customers that do 200 printed circuit boards a month, and we have customers that do a million circuit boards a month. And the shop that does the million circuit boards a month is not going to take the 200 circuit boards per month order, but they have a much higher level technology - so I can't design for that technology knowing that I could never run it in that particular site. Right, so it's both volume and technology. I feel like it's such a good service, in many ways on the prototype end, that we can kind of do push-button ordering now, but I also feel like what's has been lost is how complex the fabrication process is and I just wish -  I want to throw everyone inside a fab shop. Because it's like when you - think you can just push a button and then a package shows up on your door; you know what I'm saying? That every shop is a little unique is for a variety of reasons. It's not - for reasons that enable different types of technologies - they do it with high intention and lots of precision and all of that, and so you have to design for that shop. It's not just push-a-button and out it comes. Especially the more complex the board gets, so, on the one hand, I'm a fan to get the prototypes out fast, onshore when you can, have maybe available that kind of service. But on the other side, if you're going into volume, I don't know - I think it gives people sort of a false perception of what it's like on the other end. Talk about - I think you mentioned this stack up; getting this stack up right at the... I really like that DFM right, design for volume, that was kind of a new concept to me that you introduced me to. So you're saying that the stack up should be kind of vetted and worked out with the volume as well as, what kind of board, what kind of technology buried/blind vias, you have the space levels to also work out the stack of details. Yeah we need all that information to be able to create the stack up because most of those multi-layer boards with VGAs also require controlled impedance like for the high-speed digital that we're doing all the autopilot, industrial controls, medical controllers, everything seems to be working off some sort of USB and PCI, and we need to manage the controlled impedance. Controlled impedances based on line width, space, and how thick the dielectric is and to a little teeny effect, how thick the copper is. So we have to play all these together while creating a stack up and also keeping track of, if we're doing stacked or offset micro vias. We build those from the inside out and just keep adding layers, drill the outer layer down to the next layer, then on both sides then we add two more layers drill the outer layer down to the next layer. But each time we do that, we have to figure out how we're going to plate those and how thick the plating is going to be and those are process variances are you know. There are process capabilities and variations from site to site, and there can be unintended consequences along the way, like putting additional copper on that outer layers - it's the more complex it gets you have these: if you do this, then this you know, what I'm saying there's so many! Anybody who has seen my presentations knows that I always say that I'm always splitting hairs. Because a human hair is about 2.5 to 3 mils in diameter, and I'm always worrying about unintended consequences because if a customer comes in and they say: I want thick plating inside my hole walls you know, give me 2 mils of plating inside my hole walls. Well for one I can't think of one fabricator in China that would do that. The IPC standard for class three is 1 mil average plating in the hole walls. But the other thing is, remember whenever we plate inside the hole walls we're also plating the surface, the outer surfaces, the thicker those outer surfaces get, the harder they are for us to etch fine lines and spaces. Well, why don't you just put it through the machine that just spits out the board Julie? We need a magic machine! If I could do that I wouldn't have to be here... I'd be somewhere on my own Island in Bora Bora... Barbie we need a magic machine to spit out - maybe Barbie will get you to know either a Barbie plane and maybe she'll have a Barbie magic PCB? That'd be great. Then you know, in Barbie's world I think we'll just spit it out, I know - it's very complex and by the way. Let me stop right here and say that Julie helps every top brand that you could probably think of in Silicon Valley and beyond; helps them to do their stack-ups and come up with these you know, calculations to help work out all this hair-splitting and she's very skilled and capable. And that's why she will be presenting at AltiumLive with a senior PCB designer who she works with directly which is Carl Schattke, I cannot tell you what brand he works for, or I would get in trouble, but suffice it to say he's in Silicon Valley and works for the top electric car manufacturer and I am delighted that Julie and Carl will present on stack up on this very subject, and you couldn't get two more qualified people - I’m so excited that you're doing that. Thanks, we are too - I think it will be fun. It'll be really fun, and so they're so used to being deep in the weeds they'll be such a resource. So before you move on though, it's not just the stack up, it's also the pad stack line, widths, and spaces that need to be provided to the customer with the stack up. Because we want to make sure that they know all of those design requirements before the board guy starts routing everything. You talked about DFM and DRC's for final site and prep for the prototype. Is that - I just wrote myself a note here - have we covered most of that here? Yeah, we have for the stack up and the design rules. But one thing I'd like to bring up is everybody's trying to stay competitive and because of the processes and the way that production panels are laid out in Asia. Materials are a significant cost over in Asia compared to here in the prototype shops. Here we pay for the quick turns, for the setups and things like that which are insignificant compared to those. So the material here is only about 20% of the average cost compared to 50% of the cost in Asia. So if you can also plan your size to fit well up on a production panel so that like, imagine an 18 by 24 inch production panel, and you're trying to get as many cookies cut on that production panel, but you also want to think if you've got really small pieces your assembler is not going to be able to load those tiny little 2x2 inch pieces. Their conveyor equipment can't hold them, and it would take them forever to go through those linearly, so another really cost-saving exercise is to work with both your fabricator and your assembler to come up with a multiple up-array for smaller boards and also make sure that you know whether you've got enough clearance on the two long sides of your array, or your printed circuit board for the parts to be conveyed through assembly. There's sometimes parts hanging off the edge which really makes things fun. Yeah and that needs to be planned for in advance, whether: do you need an extra rail on a leading edge, because there's a big connector hanging there, or is the assembler going to put that on after the fact? But if you also take into account design for assembly - put all your test points on the board because once the board is designed and you can access test points, nobody's going to be able to go back in and design an in-circuit test fixture or functional test fixture and unpick those plates. So don't just design for volume. Like I said really, truly design for DFX, design for fabrication, assembly, test, and long-term reliability. Good, good, good, good advice. So can you give some real-life examples from your real life career? We won't name names of brands but suffice it to say there; you work with major consumer brands that if we could say names everyone would recognize them and tell us some of the, you know challenges that they had by actually not thinking about some of these ideas ahead. And these are the brightest of the brightest - I think what we want to share here is, everybody is challenged in this area, right? It's a challenging area, so we're not saying, oh we're so smart, and you know the audience what do they know? No, the top designers, the top printed circuit board designers almost in the world,  are challenged by some of these issues. So just talk about some real-life examples and how it went wrong or how it went right?   Okay one real-life example in the last quarter was a major commercial customer like you said, they had worked with a - probably a Silicon Valley shop - they built their boards, tested them out, proved them, and they wanted to go into mass production. Their start date is like August, to start delivering mass production so that they can you know, start shipping their product. Well it turns out they had a design that had a six mil drill - mechanical drill through a standard thickness board with a ten mil pad and when I said, remember I said like, do your finish hole size plus ten for the pad, this only gave the hole size plus four, and it wasn't enough to make sure that people wouldn't totally drill you know, have too much because of misregistration material movement. Every time you add a process, you add misregistration. Nobody in Asia would take this business, and we actually had to help the customer convert the whole design to another via structure type to be able to pull it off. And the way this happens is one of two things: if you're a major customer and you go to a, you know like a smaller shop, they are going to be so hungry for your business they're not going to say, no, no, no - we can't do that. They are going to babysit every single panel and put them in the drill machine by hand and make darn sure that they're going to get that for you. Or there are probably a few select super, super advanced shops that are just doing onesie-twosie jobs and they can meet these kind of requirements, and these tight process tolerances, using direct imaging everywhere you know, using single headed drills for the production panel rather than five or six spindles that we use. And so it's not even saying that that particular circuit board fabricator was a bad designer - it's just that they're only designing for their site capabilities and probably pushing technology to make a big customer happy. Right, and that may be their niche, that may be their niche market - but again they're not thinking particularly ahead, they're trying to help their customer be - - so it's kind of myopia. They're just designing for that, and they're great shops, they're great shops very, very capable, but not unless you tell them up front or you start this conversation up front it can go bad like that. On a consumer product that, okay it's August let's go into production and then wait, stop. Stop everything and the cost, the headache to that customer, they have to respin the board, run the protos over again and do all the testing over again. And now, schedules are lost, time to market is lost, you know so that it can become really painful very quickly and very costly. Yeah very costly. And I had another similar design that my customer had a design with 5 mil mechanical drills and 9 mil pads and most shops I know don't really drill mechanical 5 mils. So that was a tough one for him to go into production. So that's a real common example. The wrong size drill with the wrong size pad, or one that I just saw recently, was a really thick dielectric that still needed a blind hole and it was planned on being a laser hole because they wanted some big RF circuits on the outer layer. Which means they needed a thick dielectric and normally if you're using laser micro vias you have very thin dielectrics. And I was able to confirm that we can do it over in China but it's - it wouldn't have been my first choice for a design you know, and it kind of set me back but - but we were capable on that one. Yeah so, you have a saying that I like which is: pick your experts wisely. So tell us what that means? What you mean when you say that; pick your experts wisely? Well if you're going to listen to an expert, they're going to segue you to the path that they know, and if you pick the wrong expert and they take you down a garden path that nobody else can fabricate. I know that there are shops that they'll say: let's do this and let's have the customer design it this way because then they can't go anywhere else. It's a way to guarantee their business. I can confirm that you know, I've seen entirely that. It locks you into that job. It locks you into that job, and you know, I can see both sides. I'm like this ambidextrous Gemini so I can see both sides of the story. I can see an internal engineer wanting to secure future business for their location. But on the other hand, it may not be good long-term for the customer. And I'm in it for the long haul you know, I've been both sales and technical support, and a lot of times I have to work with customers to make slight modifications and design engineers; these are your babies. You don't want to have somebody coming in from the outside and saying, you know what, I really can't quite achieve that. Can we tweak your design a little bit? Who wants to hear that? But if I have credibility, as somebody who's thinking for the customer, for the fabricator, and working towards the best solution long-term. I've - you develop trust, and you can get better work done. So, I choose to do the good path even though it probably means that I tell everybody I'm a conservative designer and so that means that if you design a stack up - if I design your stack up, give you the design rules, if you can meet them chances are one of my competitors can also do the work. Yeah, but on the other hand you know, the relationship most of the time means a lot. Right it does, and not everybody has both the technical depth that you have, the integrity you have, and you have reached to top, top fabrication experts in the world. So that gives you a really broad perspective which I appreciate. So Julie thank you so much. This has been so great, and I feel like we've just scraped the surface but I would like to invite our listeners, if you are available, to come to AltiumLive and Julie will dig into - she and Carl Schattke have an hour-long presentation plus QA and, will be introducing some new stack up and impedance tools in Altium Designer 19, and so they will be giving a really rich treatment of the subject of stack up. So if you want to hear more from Julie, come on out to AltiumLive, and we would love to have you. Thanks again Julie, it's always - I always learn from you every- - - thank you. Every time we talk. So there is one other thing that we should talk about. What should we talk about? Okay the other background of seamless global transfer is that if you're working with a company that has multiple sites like DTM - we can take that - we can take the lessons learned from the prototypes, and transfer the data, and transfer the lessons learned over to the final fab site, so that it's not a new learning curve once it goes overseas. And that's a real advantage about really paying attention to this. Right, which is a good point. Yeah. Do you transfer the learning curve along with just the data files right? That's right yeah. So good point. Okay, thanks for inserting that again. This has been Judy Warner with Altium's OnTrack podcast, and Julie Ellis of TTM. We look forward to you joining us again next time. Until then, remember to always stay OnTrack.

In his role as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Andrei Iancu provides leadership and oversight to one of the largest intellectual property offices in the world, with more than 12,000 employees and an annual budget of over $3 billion. He also serves as the principal advisor to the Secretary of Commerce on domestic and international intellectual property policy matters. Prior to joining the USPTO, Mr. Iancu was the Managing Partner at Irell & Manella LLP, where his practice focused on intellectual property litigation. Mr. Iancu appeared in a variety of high-profile matters in front of the USPTO, U.S. district courts, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the U.S. International Trade Commission. He has represented clients across the technical and scientific spectra, including those associated with medical devices, genetic testing, therapeutics, the internet, telephony, TV broadcasting, video game systems, and computer peripherals. Mr. Iancu has also taught patent law at the UCLA School of Law, and has written and spoken publicly on a variety of intellectual property issues. Prior to his legal career, Mr. Iancu was an engineer at Hughes Aircraft Company. Throughout his career, many organizations have recognized Mr. Iancu for his work. Among his legal community accolades, the Daily Journal, California Lawyer magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Chambers USA, Best Lawyers in America, and many others have acknowledged his expertise in commercial litigation and intellectual property law. Mr. Iancu has also been the recipient of the Patent and Trademark Office Society 36th Annual Rossman Award, the Hughes Aircraft Malcolm R. Currie Innovation Award, and the Melville B. Nimmer Copyright Award.   The Inventors Launchpad Network – Is proud to present Tuttle Innovation, Co-Hosted by Warren Tuttle and Carmine Denisco. Warren has served as President of the Board of Directors for the UIA since 2010, and is a prolific speaker at inventor clubs and industry tradeshows, where he shares his his extensive knowledge and expertise to help educate aspiring inventors, patent holders and product developers.  Warren wants to educate inventors using stories from the industries most influential people.  

Lasers are machines that amplify light waves then shoot them out as narrow, intense beams. They are used everywhere today. Lasers read CDs and bar codes, guide missiles, cut through steel, precisely measure distances, entertain people and do a thousand other things. Lasers are used in several applications in urology. Most relevant to our discussion today is that we use lasers to break up kidney stones. L.A.S.E.R. is an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. A laser's light is different from regular light and has three properties. A laser's light is coherent, collimated, and monochromatic. The idea and concept of the laser traces itself back to Albert Einstein in 1917, but it wasn't until May 16, 1960 that the first laser was actually built and fired in a laboratory at the Hughes Aircraft Company by Dr. Theodore Maiman. Dr. Maiman, who was trained in both engineering and physics bested many other scientists working at other prestigious institutions such as IBM, Bell Laboratories, and MIT. One of his breakthroughs was the use of artificial rubies as the active medium, persisting when other scientists had given up on the ruby due to failed calculations. Another breakthrough was the use of a flash bulb to stimulate the ruby rather than continuous light. On July 7, 1960 Dr. Maiman's laser was introduced to the world at a news conference in Manhattan, New York. When introducing the laser at the press conference Dr. Maiman was prescient but also humble about his new invention. “A laser is a solution seeking a problem,” he said. In urology, the laser solution has discovered a long standing medical problem in urinary stone disease. The history of lithotomy (treatment and removal of urinary stones) dates back to antiquity. The treatment of stones, which at the time most commonly occurred in the bladder, was very dangerous, often lethal.  As such, it led to the development of the lithotomist, who opened the urinary tract and removed stones directly. Recognition of this unique set of skills earned a distinction in the Hippocratic oath, written by Hippocrates around 400 B.C. and still recited by graduating medical students: “I will not cut for the stone, but will leave this to be done by practitioners of this work…” Today, “cutting for stone,” has been replaced by minimally invasive techniques.  We have discussed the shock wave lithotripsy in episode 30 and the percutaneous nephrolithotomy in episode 34. In today's episode, I want to discuss the third in the trio of options to treat kidney stone disease that has eliminated our need to “cut for stone.”  In this episode, we are discussing ureteroscopy, taking a small scope into the ureter to remove a stone. While this is the third option we are discussing it is the most common way to treat kidney stones in our specialty today. Here is some simple urinary anatomy. The kidney filters blood to make urine. Urine drains from the kidney into a collecting system consisting of individual renal calyces draining into a common, funnel shaped renal pelvis. The renal pelvis tapers into a narrow, long, muscular tube called the ureter that peristalsis and “milks” the urine into the bladder. The bladder stores urine, fills, and empties through the urethra. If you are a man your urethra travels through the prostate and the penis. The female urethra is much shorter. When urine is concentrated the minerals in the urine will form crystals.  When the crystals layer on top of one another they will form a kidney stone. When a stone chooses to try to come out it must travel through the ureter into the bladder and out through the urethra. The ureter is the narrowest part of the urinary tract. When a stone is too large to pass through the narrow ureter it will get stuck as it tries to come out. The analogy I use is let's say you have a strawberry milkshake, the kind where they used real strawberries.  I used to love those as a kid. But if there are strawberry chunks they get stuck in the straw. Maybe with some real sucking power you can get a small chunk all the way through the straw but if the chunk is too big you just can't suck hard enough. That's like a stone that won't pass.   In episode 7 we learned how a young Lyndon Johnson, the future President, had a stone stuck in his ureter during a campaign for the U.S. Senate and how doctors at the Mayo Clinic would perform a risky “blind basket” technique that allowed him to continue his campaign and win the Senate seat. Although we continue to basket stones to remove them we now we have advanced technology to actually get into the ureter and actually see what we are doing. We call this ureteroscopy. A ureteroscope is an endoscope designed to visualize and work within the ureter. We use both semi-rigid scopes as well as flexible scopes. The rigid scopes give us access just to the lower part of the ureter. Flexible scopes allow us to access all the way back into the kidney and have active deflection on the end of the scope that will allow us to see into all of the calyces within the collecting system. Once we perform ureteroscopy if the stone is small enough we are able to extract it using baskets, thin wire instruments that trap a stone so we can pull it out. But for stones too large to just pull out we have to use form of lithotripsy to break up the stone. These day we use a holmium laser to break the stone up into fragments small enough for us to remove safely. Advances in ureteroscopy and laser technology in stone care parallels my time in urology. It was in the late 1990's and early 2000's, while I was a resident and early on in my practice that ureteroscopes could routinely access and treat stones in the kidney and the laser technology to break up the stones was readily available. In fact, when I first moved to St Paul, MN in 2000 to start my practice we did not have lasers in the hospital at all times but they were brought in on special occasions. A doctor would have to order it well ahead of time.  Now almost all of our hospitals have a laser available where we can use the technology even on the weekends or in the evenings. When I started my practice, along with other younger surgeons I began to order the laser routinely and it quickly became obvious it would be economical for the hospital to buy a laser. Because this was brand new in the hospital this was a big deal, and introducing the technology in a safe manner was paramount. Lasers can do damage to your eyes. This is not a joke. When we first brought the technology into the the hospital we had to educate physicians and staff about laser safety to make sure we all understood the potential harm of the laser. So it was that one Saturday morning my partners and I all gathered for breakfast at the hospital to learn about laser safety.  To prove our knowledge and competence in the safe use of the laser we had to use the laser to bust up something. We weren't going to be allowed to just use the laser for the first time on a patient. So, we put a bunch of eggs in a pan of water. All of my partners and I stood around the pan of eggs, wearing our laser safety goggles taking turns cracking the eggs with the laser, laughing because we were feeling a little silly but, nonetheless, checking off the laser safety box. Such was the introduction of the holmium laser into routine use in St Paul, MN. Different laser mediums (solid, liquid, or gas) emit laser light in different wavelengths. Molecules, proteins, and pigments absorb light only in a specific range of wavelengths. In the real-world application of lasers in medicine different wavelengths of various lasers do different things and may have unique applications. The wavelength determines if the laser can or should be used on the skin, eyes, kidney stones or on some other tissue. The Holmium: yttrium-aluminum-garnet laser (Ho: YAG) is a solid-state, pulsed laser that emits light with a wavelength of 2.1 microns. It can transmit energy through a flexible fiber.  Because the wavelength rapidly absorbs in water the power dissipates quickly after it is released through the fiber and can be safely fired near the ureteral wall. The laser energy is able to fragment all stones regardless of composition. Lithotripsy using the holmium laser produces small fragments, a weak shockwave, and less retro-pulsion of the stone fragments than other forms of lithotripsy. All of these factors are important when breaking up a stone stuck in the very narrow, thin-walled ureter or renal pelvis. Accurate fiber contact against a stone is the primary safety factor. A clear visual field is important. Most surgeons will have their preferred settings on the laser machines they are familiar with but in general we start with low-pulse energy and pulse rate and increase as needed. Because we are breaking up the stone while we are observing using ureteroscopy we move the laser over stone surface in a “painting” fashion, creating stress lines that fragment a stone and/or vaporize it. A “snowstorm effect” is created as the stone breaks up because of the small particles created so patience and adequate irrigation is required. Much discussion in our field has centered recently around the technique of stone removal. Historically we would break the stone into fragments, like a rock quarry, and extract the fragments using a stone “basket.” But a “dusting” technique has developed as the lasers have become more powerful and are able to fire at a very high frequency. The current data suggests that basketing rather than dusting is probably a better technique in most cases but urologists should be familiar with all ureteroscopic treatment techniques. Ureteral anatomy, width, the ability to pass an access sheath, the available laser, as well as the stone themselves will mandate one technique over another for any particular patient. As you would expect, short term recovery for this procedure can be uncomfortable. Complications for this procedure also exist. Often urologists will leave a temporary ureteral stent to prevent swelling of the ureter as a result of the procedure. Blood in the urine after the procedure is common. Infections can occur.  Perforation of the ureter or long-term damage causing a stricture can also occur but is rare. Regardless of the technique used, the ultimate goal of the procedure should be to leave the patient free of stones. Stone-free is a big deal in the urology world. Residual fragments are likely sources of future stone formation. Crystals form on top of other crystals (listen to episode 3 of this podcast for my rock candy analogy). Residual stones commonly lead to growth, passage, and need for retreatment of more stones in the future. Lastly, surgery to remove a kidney stone is not the end of the relationship with a patient. A patient having ureteroscopy needs follow-up imaging of the kidneys to determine if all of the stones have been removed, whether or not a ureteral stricture (scar) has formed and whether kidney swelling (hydronephrosis) persists after the procedure. Furthermore, as many as 50% of people who have made their first stone will make another within 10 years. If you have ever had a kidney stone there are benefits to dietary counseling, metabolic testing, surveillance imaging, and other practices to prevent and detect stones over the long-term. We have come a long way since Einstein first proposed the laser in 1917, Dr. Theodore Maiman first displayed the laser in 1960, and I was learning laser safety cracking eggs in a hospital basement in 2001. To end this episode, here is a condensed excerpt from the Obituary for Dr Theodore Maiman published in the New York Times May 11, 2007. Theodore Harold Maiman was born in Los Angeles on July 11, 1927, and grew up mainly in Denver. His father, Abraham, was an electrical engineer who worked on inventions, included improvements to the stethoscope. Abraham wanted his son to be a doctor, but Theodore came to feel he had contributed more to medicine with the laser…. Theodore was rambunctious as a boy and aspired to being a comedian, but he was also very good at math. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering physics from the University of Colorado and completed a doctorate in physics at Stanford in 1955…. He went to work for Hughes and after some military contracts fell through, worked on the predecessor to the laser, the maser, which concentrated microwaves, not light… He told his bosses he wanted to make a laser, but they were wary of discouraging reports from other laboratories and said no. They wanted him to work on computers, or “something useful,” his wife said. But he threatened to quit and build a laser in his garage. So, the Hughes executives gave him nine months, $50,000 and an assistant. The assistant was Charles Asawa, who had the idea of illuminating the ruby with a photographic flash, rather than with the movie projector lamp first used. After Dr. Maiman succeeded, a news release predicted that doctors would use lasers to focus on a single human cell. For the rest of his life, Dr. Maiman insisted on emphasizing the laser's healing possibilities… …Dr. Maiman was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize and won many other awards, including the Japan Prize and the Wolf Prize in Physics. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1984, and he published the story of his discovery of the laser in “The Laser Odyssey” (2000). Theodore Harold Maiman died May 5 in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was 79.

Dr. Anne Marie Knott is the author of “HOW INNOVATION REALLY WORKS: Using The Trillion-Dollar R&D Fix To Drive Growth.” She is a Professor of Strategy at the Olin Business School at Washington University, and prior to her position at Olin, Dr. Knott served as Assistant Professor of Management at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Her primary research area is innovation – both large-scale R&D and entrepreneurship, which stems from her previous career at Hughes Aircraft Company developing missile guidance systems. Her research has received two grants from the National Science Foundation and has been covered by CNBC, Forbes, BusinessWeek, and the Wall Street Journal. She has published numerous articles in Harvard Business Review and many other publications. What you’ll learn about in this episode Anne Marie’s background and her innovation research Anne Marie’s work on missile guidance systems How the “Mary Poppins philosophy” helps Anne Marie be productive Why making work fun is the key to accomplishing things How to chunk your day to improve your productivity and creativity Why many successful people lose sight of their accomplishments Why it’s important to have good intuition about what will drive a company’s growth How Anne Marie developed a way to measure R&D Why new ideas are critical How everyday activities are different from strategies Why it’s important to keep sight of your strategy Why business owners should revisit their larger plans on a regular basis How Anne Marie was motivated by being held to high standards What a mentor truly is Why many current lessons about innovation are wrong The biggest reason R&D productivity has declined What a business research quotient (RQ) is and how to measure it Why open innovation is often a mistake How to best connect with Anne Marie: Book: “How Innovation Really Works: Using the Trillion-Dollar R&D Fix to Drive Growth” Email: knott@wustl.edu

'Dead' A-Bomb Hits U.S. Town, 1958/03/13 (1) B-47 a-bomb fell on house in SC, first such accident (2) Los Angeles - automatic control of machine tool production line, using punched tape, developed by Hughes Aircraft Company (partial newsreel). source link https://archive.org/details/1958-03-13_Dead_A-Bomb_Hits_US_Town copyright link https://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/