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Overvoltage, overcurrent, and heat are the three most likely events that can destroy our expensive silicon-based components or reduce our product’s life expectancy. The effects are often quite instant, but our product might survive several months of chronic overstress before giving up the ghost in some cases. Without adequate protection, our circuit can be vulnerable to damage, so what should we do? Or do we need to do anything? For instance, if...

One thing is certain: power supply designs can get much more complex than simply routing DC power lines to your components. RF power supply designs require special care to ensure they will function without transferring excessive noise between portions of the system, something that is made more difficult due to the high power levels involved. In addition to careful layout, circuitry needs to be designed such that the system provides highly...

In Low Cost Solutions for Automated Hardware in the Loop Testing, we reviewed the idea of using low-cost testing devices to validate our hardware designs. In this article I want to zoom in on a specific application that can have a high barrier to entry when it comes to verification: Digital Signal Processing (DSP), specifically signal filtering. Rather than belabor the topic of DSP I will define it simply as “digitizing signals that come into...

August 2021 VOL. 5 No. 2   Full Article | Watch Video | Brain Food AltiumLive is Back...Save the Date! Altium is excited to announce that AltiumLive is back! There’s been many exciting and challenging things going on behind the scenes, here at Altium, that’s...

Sending a board out for fabrication is an exciting and nerve-wracking moment. Many sleepless nights have resulted from an initial fabrication run, and it’s important to ensure everything is reviewed, re-reviewed, and can pass a DFM inspection! If you need to get a design into fabrication, one of the important pieces of documentation you can create is a fabrication drawing. Inside this drawing, you’ll need to include PCB fabrication notes that...

AltiumLive is Back..and Better than Ever! Altium is happy to announce that AltiumLive is back! Many of you have been eagerly waiting to hear about our plan for our annual users conference that typically takes place in October. For a variety of reasons, including the shifting landscape of public health conditions, we have moved AltiumLive San Diego to January 26-28, 2022.  In an all new and expanded format, AltiumLive will be a hybrid conference...

AltiumLive 2022 and IPC Apex 2022 are joining forces to bring together all stakeholders in the PCB industry. We have two executives joining us in this episode. Our very own Chief Ecosystem Officer and head of Altium Nexar, Ted Pawela; and IPC’s Vice President of Standards and Technology, Dave Bergman. They will share with us some exciting news about the most anticipated exhibits in the PCB community.   Listen to the Podcast: Download this...

Most designers that work with a bench-top power supply are likely using an isolated regulated (switching) PSU that plugs into the wall. Everything needed to provide stable power at a specific DC or AC level, and with relatively low noise is built into the unit, and you as the designer don’t really have to do anything except connect some leads to the board. Unfortunately, real systems with integrated power sections, or even just power regulator...

As engineers, we make decisions about whether to buy or build all the time. If we need an amplifier or some kind of signal processing circuit, we look for ready-made integrated circuits (ICs) with high-level functionality, respectable performance, and reasonable price. However, if there isn’t an obvious “buy” solution, we split our circuit into smaller segments and design at a more localized level. But, we will only go so far; we don’t choose to...