1:30:35 Dan Beeker Industry Keynote: Electromagnetic Fields for Normal Folks It’s All About the Space! Basic principles of electromagnetic fields, presented in easy to understand language with plenty of diagrams. Discover how understanding EM field behavior allows you to design more robust PCBs with better EMC performance. This is not rocket science, but an easy to understand discussion of how to use PCB geometry to control the fields. This session will, after an introduction to EM field behavior, describe several Watch Video Design Guidelines for Your Next Wireless PCB As a child, I used to watch Star Trek and always marveled at all the technology. Anything wireless on the show was particularly fascinating, especially to a 5-year old. As I aged, and as so many cool things from science fiction became reality, I realized that all these capabilities start with great PCB design. Whether you’re building a better Wifi router, GPS system, or two-way radio, you’ll need to decide which type of antenna to use and how to Read Article How Autorouters Help Expedite Traces Design Routing traces around on your PCB is like knitting a quilt. Not only can it take forever, but it requires very precise steps to ensure that all your stitches fit together seemlessly. If you get your stitches wrong, then everything can fall apart. Just like we have automatic threading sewing machines that increase productivity, autorouters can do the same for your PCB. But be wary: not all autorouters have the same capabilities. The best PCB Read Article Electronic Component Distributors Harnessing the Power of One-Stop Shopping Every year, I spend time working on my house and car to keep them maintained. Trips to the hardware store include adding parts to my stash at home and I try to keep the trips to a minimum so I can enjoy my downtime. There’s nothing worse than chilling to tunes in my garage on a warm summer day only to find that I don’t have a part. Dropping everything to make a run to the hardware store means completely disrupting my afternoon. So managing my Read Article Win at Power Delivery System Design This article is intended to define the new challenges and provide guidance in how to successfully engineer the Power Delivery System (PDS) so it meets the needs of new technologies. As integrated circuit technology has made it possible to put billions of transistors on a single IC it has resulted in very powerful systems on a chip. This has made it possible to put the equivalent of supercomputers inside video games, cell phones and a host of Read Article Confused About Differential Signaling or Clocks? Check out this quick snippet of the Altium Podcast with guru of high speed design Lee Ritchey The primary reason that differential signaling is dominating the digital world is that far higher data bandwidths can be achieved over a pair of wires than with parallel, single-ended signaling protocols. The Internet as we know it would not be possible without differential signaling. This information is intended to clear up any confusion about Read Article Everything You Need for Successful PCB Stackup Design There are three demands placed on stackup design: controlled impedance, crosstalk control and the need for interplane capacitance. Some fabricators could get the impedance right in a stackup, but there is no way for them to account for the other two. This responsibility rests with the design engineer who is the only one who knows what is needed and how to implement the needed control. This information is intended to provide guidance on the Read Article Noise Transfer is Annoying in PCBs, Learn How to Contain Crosstalk from expert Lee Ritchey The words crosstalk and coupling are used to describe the injection of electromagnetic energy from one transmission line to another running nearby. In printed circuit boards crosstalk is usually two traces running side by side in the same layer or one over the top of the other in adjacent layers. This coupled energy appears as noise on the victim trace and can cause malfunctions if the amplitude is too large. Learn how this noise is transferred Read Article How to Control Switching Signals with Terminations for Best Signal Quality A transmission line is a pair of conductors used to deliver energy in the form of an electromagnetic field. Most of us are familiar with the wires that lead to our houses to deliver the power needed to operate our lights and appliances. In the context of PCB design, it is a signal in a signal layer on top of a plane or between two planes. TRANSMISSION LINES AND TERMINATIONS The purpose of this section is to explain what transmission lines are Read Article Building Your Treasure Trove of Component Information Learn about PCB data Management and how it interrelates to the PCB Design process and roles of everyone involved. According to the business dictionary, a process is defined as: “A sequence of interdependent and linked procedures which, at every stage, consume one or more resources (employee time, energy, machines, money) to convert inputs (data, material, parts, etc.) into outputs. These outputs then serve as inputs for the next stage until a Read Article Systems and Structures to Avoid the Sound of Deadlines Whooshing By Adopt the SMART rules of PCB Data Management and avoid additional cost and/or lost design time. When we begin to look in more detail at how to do anything, it becomes a little problematic. The reason is that every organization varies in product, structure and management requirements. We can guarantee that there will not be a “single” answer or solution to the questions at hand. My intention therefore is not to prescribe a sole structure or Read Article Drinking From the Firehose of PCB Data There are several problems that are directly impacting the PCB Design area and specifically the PCB Data Management. For some time, it has not been business as usual, it is vital to understand these issues and develop a good strategy to handle them. With the invention of the internet, civilization dragged itself (sometimes kicking and screaming) out of the industrial age and into the “Information Age”, as an official description of the 21st Read Article A Brave New World: PCB Data Management and the Great Paradigm Shift PCB Data Management is the acquisition, storage, verification, usage, distribution and maintenance of all the data connected to the development of printed circuit boards or PCBs In what some refer to as the “Olden Days” of the Electronics industry, it was definitely a different time. There wasn’t much need for PCB Data, let alone anything to manage it with. Tasks such as creating schematics, BOMs, drawings, and gerber files were problematic at Read Article Get to Know Microvia Manufacturing Processes and HDI Substrates Initial HDI Fabrication High Density Interconnect printed circuits actually started in 1980, when researchers started investigating ways to reduce the size of vias. The first innovator is not known, but some of the earliest pioneers include Larry Burgess of MicroPak Laboratories (developer of LaserVia), Dr. Charles Bauer at Tektronix (who produced photodielectric vias), [1] and Dr. Walter Schmidt at Contraves (who developed plasma-etched vias) Read Article 11 HDI Materials You Need to Know Happy Holden shows us some of the important materials used to produce high density interconnect PCB designs. Read Article Introduction to High Density Interconnects and the Evolution of Electronics The Evolution of Electronics Electronics is a relatively new industry, since it has been only 65 years since the transistor was invented. The radio tube was developed nearly 100 years ago but blossomed in WWII, with communications, radar, ammunition fusing (especially the radar-altimeter electronic fusing for the first atom bomb) and has evolved into the world largest industry. All electronic components must be interconnected and assembled to Read Article How Does the Cloud Change the DFX PCB Design Process? Let’s face it: Engineers rarely design modern board systems on their own. However, it didn’t use to be that way. Not long ago, engineers primarily focused on form, fit, and function. Addressing those requirements was extremely difficult on its own. Constraints on cost, power, or part availability were secondary concerns. The prime directive was to get it to work. Fast forward to today, and the focus has flipped. It is a given that board systems Read Article Pagination First page « First Previous page ‹‹ Page124 Current page125 Page126 Page127 Page128 Page129 Next page ›› Last page Last » Load More