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Project Overview In this article, we will be covering the basics of ESD protection and TVS diodes. We will cover a few different aspects, such as why we require ESD protection, how an ideal TVS diode operates, and typical TVS diode parameters. ESD Protection Basics ESD, which is short for electrostatic discharge, is a sudden release of electricity from one charged object to another when these objects come into contact. One of the most common...

Matt Kelly is the  Chief Technologist at IPC. In this episode we will discuss all about the technological challenges the industry is facing. Matt will help us understand the “ecosystem” involving the semiconductor industry, advanced packaging, and IC substrates. Watch this episode or listen on the go! Check the show notes and additional resources below. Listen to Podcast: Download this episode (right-click and save) Watch the Video: Show...

In my years as a practising electronics engineer, one of the most significant inefficiencies I have noticed has always been communication between teams, freelancers, contractors, and clients. This has always been the most noticeable when working with firmware developers. And it doesn’t matter if I am working with the firmware developer internally on a permanent team or if I am working with an external contractor who will develop the firmware for...

Materials Science and how this can level up your PCB manufacturability. In this episode, our guest Geoffrey Leeds the product manager at Insulectro talks about how material science can help solve the unique manufacturing challenges fabricators are dealing with HDI designs. Watch through the end and check the additional resources below. Listen to Podcast: Download this episode (right-click and save)  Watch the Video: Show Highlights: G...

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When a product needs to be designed and produced as a number of variations of that product, where each has different options or capabilities, the ability to implement Design Variants avoids the need to create a unique version of the design for each variation. This Tech Tip looks at a couple of examples of how it is used in Altium Designer.

High-speed designs will only operate successfully when they are built with the right PCB stackup. Your stackup must have the correct arrangement of power and ground planes, with enough layers allocated to signal, and all with material sets and copper selection that can be manufactured at the appropriate scale and cost. If a designer can get the stackup correct, then routing with ensured signal integrity is much easier, and many of the simpler EMI...

As much as we would like to build every high speed PCB perfectly, with ideal SI/PI/EMI characteristics, it isn’t always possible due to many practical constraints. Sometimes a stackup can be “good enough,” even for a high-speed PCB. This always comes from the need to balance engineering constraints, functional requirements, and the need to ensure signal and power integrity in a high-speed design, and finally to ensure compliance with EMC...

Complete Guide to DFM Analysis A good friend of mine has a joke about planning a new PCB design for manufacturing: he’ll often ask “have you called your fabricator today?” to stress that you should engage with your manufacturing partner multiple times in the design process. This is something that designers often forget, and it can lead to major headaches ahead of full-scale manufacturing. The fact is, your board should go through multiple rounds...