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Having clean and organized project files and logic is about much more than just aesthetics. A logically planned project is easy to navigate for not only the design team but for external stakeholders as well. Adopting a hierarchical design structure in Altium Designer can do just this. You’re able to modularize your schematics into small digestible pieces making them easy to read.  Watch the recording to learn how you can: Create a...

In this article, we will be looking at the popular CAN and LIN protocols together. This article is part of the series Serial Communication Protocols. We hope this resource will prove invaluable on the next occasion when you find yourself implementing a serial communication bus as part of your design. We aim to help you choose the best option for your circumstances. CAN Bus CAN stands for Controller Area Network and is a communication protocol...

That moment when you transition a board to manufacturing can be nerve-wracking, especially for new designs. In order to ensure your design can be produced reliably, you need to make sure you communicate a complete set of requirements to your fabricator and assembler. One of the important points that needs to be clearly specified before PCB manufacturing is impedance control targets. This helps prevent any confusion and helps you get through the...

Having clean and organized project files and logic is about much more than just aesthetics. A logically planned project is easy to navigate for not only the design team but for external stakeholders as well. Adopting a hierarchical design structure in Altium Designer can do just this. You’re able to modularize your schematics into small digestible pieces making them easy to read. Join our webinar to learn how you can: Create a hierarchical...

Many complex electronic systems are built as multi-board arrays of PCBs. There are some advantages to this type of system design, such as the modularity you'll see in platforms like Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Other common types of circuit boards, like flex and rigid-flex systems, are multi-board systems and require a common PCB layout and routing strategy. If you want to develop your own multi-circuit boards system, there are some basic steps you...

If you’ve ever looked at the BOM for a reference design or an open-source project, you may have seen a comment in some of the entries in your BOM. This comment is either “DNP” (do not populate) or “DNI” (do not include). These entries are used to tell your PCB assembler “the bare board was designed to mount these components, but please do not include these parts in the final PCB assembly.” If you think about it, every component placed in the PCB...

Speaking to a group of students about printed circuit board fabrication recently, I asked for a show of hands, asking how many had designed a rigid printed circuit board. Roughly 75% of the room raised their hands. The follow-on question asked for a show of hands for those who had designed a flexible circuit. The number of raised hands dropped dramatically. I suppose this shouldn't be surprising. While flex circuits are a growing segment of the...

The dean is in! In this episode, Eric Bogatin, the Dean of Signal Integrity Academy is here to talk about empowering PCB designers to become their own experts. Eric shares the inspiration behind his new book, PLUS you may have a say in what he will be writing next. Watch now or listen on the go, and make sure to drop a comment on our YouTube channel here, to vote on which topic Eric should tackle in his next book.   Listen to the Podcast: D...

If you’re designing a circuit board to be powered by anything except a bench-top regulated power supply, you’ll need to select a power regulator to place on your board. Just like any other component, your regulator has stated operating specs you’ll see in a product summary, and it has more detailed specs you’ll find in a datasheet. The fine details in your datasheets are easy to overlook, but they are the major factors that determine how your...