Hello, Welcome to the Altium Learning Hub

In an earlier blog, I discussed some of the basic points in preparing routing rules for 2-layer PCBs to support routing and layout with digital signals. In particular, we looked at some of the basic stackup and routing rules needed to support a digital interface like I2C or SPI on a 2-layer PCB. When working with these interfaces, a few simple guidelines can help ensure signal integrity in your board and cut down on EMI. What about an impedance...

In this article, I’m going to guide you through the standard ferrite core selection and design process used in applications such as a DC-to-DC converter or a power filter inductor. The process involves a sequence of steps requiring the use of several data sheets and, should the ferrite core inductor design need to be gapped, some degree of iteration. These are the stages of ferrite core selection and inductor design we'll go through: Stage...

One of the most common points of failure of a device, especially when prototyping occurs even before you start to layout your circuit board. Mistakes in your schematic design can easily make their way all the way into prototypes or production without a second thought once the layout starts. In many companies, design reviews are performed to approve a schematic design to proceed with the layout - whether the schematic engineer is the layout...

Power conversion is an essential part of modern life, and probably the most important for practical purposes in electronics is AC to DC conversion. Rectifiers are the essential circuits used to transform AC to DC and they may fall into one of the following categories: Half-wave rectifier Center-tapped full-wave rectifier Bridge rectifier The functionality of these rectifiers is the same, i.e. AC to DC conversion, but each uses a different...

Component creation is a necessary evil when it comes to design, and it’s something we all need to do. But instead of spending hours creating your components and having them turn into a complete roadblock, let it be just a simple bump on the road. Altium Designer has several tools available to you in order to create the different aspects of a component, including the symbol, footprint, 3D model parametric data, supply chain information, and more....

Energy harvesting sources from the environment is a technique that uses natural or man-made energy sources and is now an increasingly popular technique for powering electrical devices. Solar-powered lights and pumps for decorative ponds are cheap, plentiful, and commonplace. Widespread exploitable energy sources include solar energy, natural geothermal and solar heating, man-made heating, and vibrational energy as a by-product of machinery...

Microcontrollers are reliant on their clock source. The processor, the bus, and the peripherals all use the clock to synchronize their operations. The clock determines how fast the processor executes its instructions, so it is fundamental to performance. But how important is the clock source? What is clock frequency in microcontroller?Does it matter how accurate it is? The short answer is that it depends… it depends on what the microcontroller is...

Our guest today is John Coonrod, the Technical Marketing Manager at Rogers Corporation. John will generously share with us today a glimpse of his recent keynote presentation at PCB West 2021, Advancements in Prepreg Enabling New Applications for Millimeter-wave and High Speed Digital. Listen to the Podcast: Download this episode (right click and save) Watch the video: Show Highlights: Quick overview of High-Speed Design Overview &...

All of the pads and traces in your PCB layout will eventually need to be fabricated. How exactly do you translate your layout data from your CAD system into manufacturing instructions. The answer is simple: generate output files in an appropriate format. Today, there are multiple options for output files you can generate for your design, but overwhelmingly, your project will likely use the Gerber file format. Other available design output file...