DownStream Technologies is a software company focused on serving
the high tech electronics manufacturing market. We deliver solutions that
allow engineering and manufacturing teams to work together to transition
engineering designs into physical products. Our core products support the
verification of Printed Circuit Board (PCB) designs early in the product
development process to ensure that they can be easily produced in
follow-on PCB fabrication processes. We also provide a suite of tools that
support various functions within the PCB fabrication company including
sales, manufacturing engineering, PCB etching, NC drilling and milling,
solder masking, and bare board testing operations. By providing solutions on both sides of the engineering and
manufacturing chasm we believe we are in a unique position to help our
customers bring products to market faster than alternative solutions.
Background
DownStream was founded by Richard A.
Almeida and Joseph G. Clark, both former vice presidents of Innoveda,
Incorporated and prior to that PADS Software, Incorporated. On December 28, 2001, we purchased a source
code license, customer list, and all available trademarks from Innoveda for the CAM350 and
FabFactory product lines. The purpose of this transaction was for
DownStream to continue development, support, marketing, and distribution
of these products for Innoveda’s Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM)
customer base. The founders have had substantial experience and history with the CAM350 and FabFactory
products having worked with these products previously through PADS
Software’s acquisition of Advanced CAM Technologies (ACT) in August
1998. ACT were the original authors of the tools and were assimilated into
PADS to allow PADS to delivery a complete interconnect design solution.
The Innoveda/DownStream transaction
value is undisclosed and was financed with private debt and equity
investments. On February 1, 2002, DownStream opened it’s corporate
headquarters in Bolton, Massachusetts where it houses sales, marketing,
administration, engineering, and manufacturing.
Industry
Today’s high tech design
complexities resulting from smaller, faster and less expense electronic
products, requires careful transitioning of engineering data into the PCB
fabrication process. Electronic engineering organizations now recognize
that problems arising during PCB fabrication can drastically impact
product schedules, cause costly design re-spins, or may require
modifications to the design after release from engineering, compromising
design integrity and intent.
The PCB fabricator is also faced with
similar issues. Shorter fabrication turn around times mean less time to
ensure the design can be fabricated and will not run into problems during
the fabrication process. The paradox of faster turn around at lower cost,
creates higher risks with PCB yields which in turn drives up PCB costs.
The fabricator must ensure that process tasks such as manufacturing
engineering, PCB etching, NC drilling and milling operations, and bare
board test, can be conducted as smoothly and efficiently as possible so
delivery schedules can be met without compromising PCB quality or
performance.
These design issues are requiring more
interaction between engineering and fabrication to communicate fabrication
requirements as effectively as possible. Because most fabrication issues
are not found until fabrication, even good communication between designer
and fabricator is no longer adequate to meet time-to-market objectives.
