Top 5 Money Saving Techniques for PCB Design “It can be done fast, it can be done cheaply, or it can be done well. Pick any two.” A lot of engineers use this maxim to explain why their project is behind schedule or over budget. And there is some degree of truth to it. If you want a high-quality design, it’s either going to take a lot of money or a lot of time to figure out how to do it for less. However, if you know a few money-saving techniques ahead of time, they can help you keep your Read Article Need to Keep Your PCB Project Under Budget? Use a PCB Design Tool that Helps You Do That When you design a printed circuit board, you tend to design it for ideal conditions. You figure out how things should work together and engineer a solution that works perfectly on paper. Unfortunately, when you go to manufacture that PCB and apply it for its intended use, you very rarely come across ideal conditions. What works on paper doesn’t always match up with reality. As a result, you often have to do what you can to salvage the design and Read Article A Comparison of Active Cooling Techniques for Electronic Equipment Cooling of electronic equipment is pretty important. I know this because part of my laptop’s motherboard melted once. I bought a new top-of-the-line computer back in 2010 to try out a new graphics-intensive video game. It came with an amazing graphics card, but an undersized thermal management system to hang. I should have known there was a problem when the keyboard got too hot to touch when I started playing games. Soon afterward, my computer Read Article How IBM’s 5 nm Transistors Will Enable Internet of Things Deep Learning and Other Technologies My great-grandmother was born at a time when normal people still used horses and carriages to get around. By the end of her life, she had seen jet airplanes, computers, and spacecraft. Technology in the last century accelerated rapidly, and this century promises more of the same. Moore’s Law has been one measure of the pace of advancement. While many experts have predicted its doom, Moore’s Law stands today. The most recent proof of electronic Read Article How to Setup and Interface with WS2812B LEDs for PCB Are you in the mood for a good laugh? Well, I have a story for you. I’m a design engineer with decades of experience, but a LED project recently almost brought me to my knees in despair. I used to think that LEDs were as simple as getting the light emitting diode connected to a limiting resistor and a power supply. Aren’t they? That’s exactly what went through my mind as I worked on an architecture model lighting project a couple of years ago. On Read Article 2018 Olympics: Intel Will Showcase Future PCB Technology in Electronics and Communication Editorial credit: lazyllama / Shutterstock.com I love watching the Olympics. It’s exciting to see the best athletes from each country test their skills against one another. The Olympics are also a forum for host countries to showcase everything that they’re capable of. In the 2018 Olympics countries aren’t the only ones who will be showing off. Intel recently announced a partnership with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that will let Read Article How to Perform In-House Pre-Compliance Testing for Radiated Emissions Sometimes you can feel like you’re putting out good vibes, but you’re really emitting something else. The same goes for wireless circuits. You go through the design and immunity testing, then send your board off to an EMC lab only to find out your board is radiating the electronic equivalent of garlic breath. Performing in-house hardware pre-compliance testing can help you avoid a costly rejection. You’ll have to spend some money on equipment Read Article Conducted Emissions Test Equipment and Noise Reduction Guidelines One of my classes in college was so difficult that the professor would give us the test questions a week in advance. Even knowing exactly what to study for the exam, lots of students still failed. Conducted emissions analysis for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) is similar. Devices need to be checked to see if they’re putting too much noise back into the grid through their power supply. Otherwise, the FCC will think you’re disrupting utility Read Article How FRAM Memory Simplifies Embedded System Data Logging I’ve always found it easier to make decisions when the options were clear-cut. Choosing between black and white, right or wrong, you could make your decision and never regret it. However, decisions that involve picking black, white, or one of many shades of gray really stress me out. I was happy abiding by my binary logic until Ferromagnetic Random Access Memory ( FRAM) came on the commercial market and I was forced to embrace one of the shades Read Article Massive MIMO Benefits for 5G Cellular Infrastructure Editorial credit: PureRadiancePhoto / Shutterstock.com Even though I ended up here in southern California, I was originally born in Texas. We have a saying that you probably have heard, “everything’s bigger in Texas.” That turned out to be true for me, as I’m the tallest member of my extended family. I’d like to think that the minds behind massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna arrays were also born in Texas. MIMO has been around Read Article The RS-485 Interface in a Wireless World RS-485 is still relevant, even if it does not use those big D-sub connectors. Read Article IoT Storage Technologies: Ultra Low Power CBRAM Do you remember using those old floppy disks back in the day? I remember my computer had two floppy disk drives. You’d put the disk with your program in one and a disk for the data in the other. Eventually, the incredible invention that is the hard drive came about and storage space exploded. Our memory capacity is still increasing, but now the size is becoming less of a factor. When it comes to the Internet of Things (IoT) energy usage is the Read Article Why Wearable Technology is the Future and How It Will Be Seamless and Convenient When I was younger I was a bit of a nerd, and I guess I still am. The most visible sign of my nerdiness was my fashion sense or lack of it. Tall socks, cargo shorts, and a brown Pacman hoodie that I wore in every season, except summer, made up my daily wardrobe. I was simply more interested in gizmos and gadgets than I was in looking good. I’m still more interested in fashionable electronic devices than clothes, but the line between the two is Read Article The IoT is Developing New Technologies for Aging in Place My grandmother has lived down the street from my parents for the past 7 years. She moved down there after it became apparent she had Alzheimer’s disease and my parents realized she couldn’t live alone anymore. However, technology has allowed her to live a semi-independent life. My mother uses nanny cams to make sure my grandma is safe and happy and goes down to the house whenever grandma needs help. This arrangement has kept my grandmother out of Read Article Pervasive Simulation Accelerates Innovations in High-Tech High-tech firms increasingly need to utilize pervasive engineering simulation and a consolidated engineering simulation platform in order to stay competitive in an ever-expanding market. By incorporating both of these components into the design process, Best-In-Class firms are able to more successfully fulfill their targets. Key findings include: High-tech companies are investing in a broad portfolio of engineering simulation tools. High-tech Read Article AltiumLive 2017: ANNUAL PCB DESIGN SUMMIT Rarely does a PCB design conference come along that is focused wholly on training content designed to make YOU a more knowledgeable and effective designer. That’s why Altium decided to create one--fully centered on designers...and presented by expert PCB designers. This Fall, AltiumLive 2017: Annual PCB Design Summit is coming to North America and Europe. We will host a 2-day PCB design conference like no other. You will hear from industry Read Article Impressive Next Gen PCB Designer Nicole Pacino Mike Creeden, Founder of San Diego PCB, with his daughter Nicole Pacino With the median age of today’s PCB being 48 years old, it’s always refreshing and encouraging to see a young sprout up amongst the design community ranks. One such young is Nicole Pacino of San Diego PCB. Nicole is the daughter of Mike Creeden, founder of San Diego PCB, who is also an IPC Master Trainer and IPC ’s Council executive board member. As you can imagine, Nicole was Read Article Pagination First page « First Previous page ‹‹ Page175 Current page176 Page177 Page178 Page179 Page180 Next page ›› Last page Last » Load More
