Mentor Graphics Corporation announced the call-for-entries of its 24th annual Technology Leadership Awards (TLA) competition, continuing its tradition of recognizing excellence in printed circuit board (PCB) design.

The Mentor Technology Leadership Award contest is open to any designs created with the Mentor PCB solutions, including the Board Station, Expedition Enterprise and PADS design flows. Judging will be based on overcoming complexity challenges, such as small form factor, high-speed content, design team collaboration, advanced PCB fabrication technologies and design-cycle time reduction. Judging will start July 31 and winners will be announced September 23 on a worldwide web broadcast.

Started in 1988, this program is the longest-running competition of its kind in the electronic design automation (EDA) industry. It recognizes engineers and CAD designers who use the Mentor Graphics® innovative technology to address today’s complex PCB systems design challenges and produce industry-leading products.

Prominent experts in the PCB industry will judge the contest, including: Happy Holden, director of electronics technologies, Gentex Corporation; Gary Ferrari, technical support director, FTG Circuits; Pete Waddell, president of UP Media, publisher of Printed Circuit Design & Fab/Circuits Assembly Magazine; Andy Kowalewski, senior interconnect designer, AdvantagePCB; and Rick Hartley, senior principal engineer, Avionics Division of L-3 Communications.

This year, entrants will be able to submit their design accomplishments in any of seven categories representing a wide variety of industries:

• Consumer electronics and handheld
• Industrial control, instrumentation, security and medical
• Military and aerospace
• Computers, blade and servers, memory systems
• Telecom, network controllers, line cards
• Transportation and automotive
• University

“Our annual PCB Technology Leadership Awards contest provides a worldwide opportunity for talented designers to showcase innovative designs. Each year we see ever-increasing challenges and the use of new technologies implemented,” said Dan Boncella, director of marketing, Systems Design Division, Mentor Graphics. “The submissions for this contest are really quite impressive. We are expecting this year’s competition to be bigger than ever, with entries from many major electronics companies as well as from smaller teams.”
Winners will be named for each category as well as a Best Overall Design recipient. The timeframe for submitting entries is from June 11, 2012, through July 31, 2012. Entrants can apply online.