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We are very delighted to have Min Zhang in this episode. Min is an independent EMC consultant based in the UK. Today, we'll be talking about EMC, both on board and off the board. It will be a very interesting discussion because we will look a little bit deeper at the system level. Listen to Podcast: Download this episode (right-click and save)   Show Highlights: Zach met Min at EMCLive 2021 Let’s hear more about Min’s background and his...

Let’s talk about Electronics reliability with the QA guru Cheryl Tulkoff. In this episode Cheryl and I will talk about risk assessment, planning for not only success but also a failure, and understanding the difference between quality and reliability. This discussion is going to be very informative for every PCB designer who wants to get ahead of their game. Watch through the end, and make sure to check the additional resources below. Listen to...

For hardware engineers, surge protection is about more than buying the right power strip or unplugging a couple of cables. It involves strategically placing transient protection components in the PCB layout and implementing a clear grounding strategy. TVS diodes are a common component used to protect components in a PCB layout. These components are placed on data lines and they operate by diverting current away from a protected component once an...

Working between the Electronic and Mechanical design domains brings unique challenges. ECAD and MCAD tools have different design objectives and have evolved down different paths, and so has the way they store and manage their design and project data. Today's designs of small and complex product enclosures that house multiple, irregular-shaped printed circuit boards (PCB), demand that this challenge be solved. To successfully design these products...

Working between the Electronic and Mechanical design domains brings unique challenges. ECAD and MCAD tools have different design objectives and have evolved down different paths, and so has the way they store and manage their design and project data. Today's designs of small and complex product enclosures that house multiple, irregular-shaped printed circuit boards (PCB), demand that this challenge be solved. To successfully design these products...

Take a look online for topics on impedance matching, and one of the topics you’ll inevitably run across is the use of transmission line sections for impedance matching. I wrote a piece recently that goes deep into this topic (you can read it here), and I explained why these transmission line sections can only match narrowband signals. To summarize, because the transmission line’s input impedance is very sensitive to the wavelength of a...

In this second “Vias 101” article, we will be continuing on from our previous discussion of essential via parameters. This time we will examine aspects of via placement, problems with via placement leading to plane voiding, and finally looking at some unique use cases of vias termed transfer vias and stitching vias. Keep in mind that there are far more parameters and details to vias in PCB design than we will be covering in this short article...

In this first “Vias 101” article, we will be covering the very basics of vias in PCB design, including their characteristic parameters, which standard vias should be used in designs, and talk briefly about current handling capabilities. In the next part, we will examine proper placement of vias, and special use cases such as transfer and stitching vias. Keep in mind that there are far more parameters and details to vias in PCB design then we...

In this two-part series of articles, we are going to be looking at the basic principles and ways you should route and lay out your PCBs to minimise chances of EMI problems, and to maintain proper signal integrity. The first and previous article outlined the basics of signals, energy, and fields, as well as rise and fall times in the digital domain, and what this means for us as PCB designers. This article illustrates a few essential PCB design...