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High-speed interfaces are commonly constructed as serial buses routed as differential pairs, or as parallel buses that operate at high clock rates. These buses require the traces in the be bus have matched lengths so that the group of signals can arrive at a receiving component within a required clocking window. This length matching is constrained by the length of the clocking signal and the rise time of the signals traveling on the bus. For...

There are many ways to characterize high speed digital channels, with the goal being to verify specific signal integrity metrics that illustrate channel compliance. Things like S-parameters and impedance are useful, but there is one important measurement to be evaluated with a digital bitstream: an eye diagram. The eye diagram is a useful measurement or simulation as part of channel compliance. The measurement shows many different factors that...

In this second and final part of the Altium Designer quick-start tutorial, we’ll continue our simple hardware design project and move on to PCB layout and routing. In case you missed it, I’d highly encourage you to check out part one of this quick-start tutorial, which covered project creation, and schematic capture. Additionally, make sure to watch the full tutorial video below. Be sure to follow along step-by-step to get the most out of...

When starting out with PCB design, it’s common to treat the process as simply ‘connecting the dots’: as long as connections are made, it’s not particularly important how these connections are made.  Unfortunately, this couldn’t be further from the truth. As PCB design engineers, and especially with ever-increasing speeds of electronic devices and more stringent emissions standards, we need to be concerned with the most intricate details of the...

Learning how to use a new ECAD tool may seem daunting at first, especially with modern packages such as Altium Designer containing such a vast and rich feature set. However, once over the initial learning hurdle, the possibilities that tools such as Altium Designer can provide for you and your hardware designs are nearly endless. This quick-start tutorial, together with the accompanying video, will get you up and running in under 25 minutes –...

Non-functional pads are sometimes framed as an all-or-nothing debate, and the debates about reliability and effects on signal integrity abound. Should you keep them on your vias, or should you remove them from all vias? Like any design decision there are tradeoffs to balance, and typically one aspect of a design will take precedence over all others. Because there is no generalized rule about the use of non-functional pads, designers should...

The Library Importer (formerly Library Migrator) now has a new visual interface that allows you to easily import your existing libraries to the workspace. We improved MCAD CoDesigner with the 3.0 version, which now includes support for multi-board assemblies and other enhancements. You can now place generic components as placeholders that can be easily replaced with real-world components later in the design process. We added the ability to select...

You would not want to miss this informative, knowledge-packed conversation with Dr. Kunal Shah. Dr, Kunal generously gives us all a crash course on surface finishes and understanding different types of materials that could affect signal integrity, reliability and electronic shelf life. He will also tackle in detail the pros and cons of various types of nickel-free finishes. Watch this podcast episode now or listen on the go. Make sure to check...

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