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Supply shortages have become and continue to be a common problem, especially when it comes to the world of electronics. It's hard to get all the different components for our boards. Heck! It's even tough to get the board themselves too! When electronic components become obsolete or out of stock, design and production can suffer lengthy delays. With current supply chain delays and with an average of 15 end-of-life notices issued every day...

There are all sorts of vanilla version control systems (VCS) out there that people have been using with their PCB design software. As discussed in Why Use a Version Control System, we looked at different options ranging from local hard drive storage to sophisticated online revisioning systems. In this article, we will be reviewing the differences between a vanilla version control system and Altium 365. Version Control System vs Altium 365 We...

Version Control Systems (VCS) has existed for many decades within the software world but can be surprisingly new to some folks in the electronics design industry. This article will give you an overview of what VCS is, what it does, and why to use a version control system for your PCB design projects. What is a Version Control System in PCB Design? A PCB design version control for electronics stores files and keeps revision history. If you wrote...

Take a look at the above image of a PCB layout, specifically the vias and drill holes poking through the silkscreen. It's quite clear that some of these vias are off-center, meaning the drill hit that created these vias was not dead-center in the receiving land. This leaves behind an annular ring, something which might be considered a defect in certain IPC product classes. Under the IPC standards for rigid boards, we have several possible...

There are some guidelines I see many designers implement as a standard practice, often without thinking about it. Some of these practices are misunderstood or implemented without best practices, such as copper pour in signal layers. Others are implemented without thinking about the potential problems, but only because those problems arise in corner cases. One of these is the use of tented vias, which is sometimes implemented in a PCB layout by...

Not all engineers think like hackers, and not all hackers think like engineers. - Joe Grand Let’s jump into a contemporary engineering topic – security and privacy! Today’s guest is Joe Grand, a computer engineer, inventor, teacher, device security expert, and an AltiumLive alum. I am very excited to be talking about IoT and hardware-level security with an engineering celebrity! Together we will dive into the processes and challenges of building...

In a previous blog, we discussed a couple of the top burning questions that bubble up when designers are first looking at this new technology and the ability to now design with 25-micron trace and space. First, how does the Semi-Additive Process work compared to the typical subtractive etch process? Second, can you mix subtractively etch processes and semi-additive processes on the same circuit layer?  Here is a link to the blog post that...

AltiumLive 2022 CONNECT is back.  And this year, it's free to attend. This is an amazing opportunity to connect with thought leaders in the industry. Join us at one of our upcoming broadcasts:      AltiumLive 2022 Connect Americas:  January 26-28, Pacific Standard Time     AltiumLive 2022 Connect Europe:  February 2-4, Central European Time   From its inception, AltiumLive has been a watering hole for PCB designers and engineers to gather and...

What do the top minds in the PCB Design social media space think about the modern landscape? We sat down with Hacksmith Industries, DD ElectroTech, and Electgpl to chat about how they got started, what frustrates them, what they think about A.I., and much more. Chris Thiele - Hacksmith Entertainment Ltd. So I think the most challenging design I've ever made was a Daft Punk helmet, Guy-Manuel. I designed several boards for that project, and...