As part of an aggressive expansion program, the company adds controlled-impedance capabilities to its arsenal of design resources with the installation of a Burkle 6-opening vacuum press, Polar TDR software and test equipment, and a fully-automated strip-etch-strip line for precise copper processing. According to the company, a growing number of PCB users are incorporating impedance requirements in their fabrication specs primarily due to ever-increasing speeds and switching rates. As a result, some of the laws of physics which could be ignored at lower frequencies now have to be given serious consideration. In higher speed ac circuits with sharp changes in voltage and/or current, impedance and its resulting effects can become significant. This can become critical to design functionality because of the effects that changes in impedance along the signal's path from transmitter to receiver will have on the efficiency of power transfer as well as signal integrity.