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One of the more common questions I’ve seen asked, both in terms of PCB design and regarding RF systems in general, is related to the use of ground near an antenna. As I’ve detailed in other articles, and as is indeed well known, a grounded conductor generally provides some shielding against electromagnetic waves that would otherwise propagate into a material. In fact, the conductor does not need to literally connect to ground (earth), it only...

In this article, we’ll examine a few tips and guidelines for high-speed printed circuit board designs. When it comes to high-speed designs, we are typically concerned with two areas. The first of them is signal integrity (SI), and issues related to crosstalk due to trace spacing, reflections due to impedance mismatches, attenuation of the signal, and problems such as ringing. Of course, we would like to minimize those problems to the best of our...

Project creation and definition: The first step is to import the schematics generated and edited using OrCad and the PCB file from Mentor Graphics through the Wizard Import. After adding the newly generated PCB file to the imported schematics project, you need to define the Project Option as follows: Connection Matrix: The imported schematics don’t include the properties of each pin of components, so you need to set as “No Report” every...

The migration to the cloud is nothing new to the software community. Engineers in the software field have been working in collaborative cloud based environments for quite some time. As pandemic hit, all of us discovered the immediate need to migrate off our local machines and into a more centralized environment. The migration off shared network drives and onto more centralized systems became a necessity for us to collaborate more efficiently. For...

Let’s take a glimpse into a life of a young process engineer. In this episode, our guest Paige Fiet talks about her career path in the world of PCB manufacturing. She will also share how she landed her role as the Student Liaison in the IPC. Watch this episode through the end or listen on the go. We hope to inspire young engineers to become more motivated to jump into the PCB industry. Listen to Podcast: Download this episode (right-click...

When you’re ready to manufacture a new device at production volume, there are many aspects of the product that must come together. The enclosure, cabling and connectors, embedded software/firmware, and of course the PCBA all have to be considered in totality. There is a quick way to get your product into a usable enclosure, complete with input power and cabling, and with a form factor that fits your PCBA. This overused route to a new product is a...

In comparison to the build-up of a PCB, the stackup is more concerned with the electrical type of each layer. Material thicknesses or what dielectrics are used is of less importance than which layers are dedicated to what, such as signal (SIG) layers, ground (GND) layers, or power (PWR) layers. Signal layers contain predominantly signal-carrying traces (sometimes with routed power or copper pours), whereas power and ground layers are...

We spend a lot of time talking about these “new” processes. However, these processes are not new at all; they have been used in the electronics industry for a long time. What is new is that this technology has transitioned from the semiconductor and super high-volume PCB market (i.e., smartphones) to mainstream printed circuit board fabricators that can now offer this technology for low to medium-volume applications. It’s about time, isn’t it?  ...

Nothing causes more worries for a designer than the PCB components. Your mind probably starts racing whenever you send out a design for fabrication and assembly, and phone calls start coming in.   What did I forget? Did I use all of the correct components? Did I make a mistake that's going to cost the company? Can we meet the deadline to get the design respinned? Why can't I get this right?   The problems you can experience with...