PCB Design Resources and Information

Explore Altium's Resource hub to discover content from blog posts and design guides to technical white papers, all gathered together for your convenience and written by Altium's community of PCB design experts.

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Complete Guide to PCB Aging Test Methods for Electronics A finished PCBA that will be deployed in the field should pass several tests to ensure reliability and stable operation. Industry standards specify multiple testing methodologies, performance requirements, evaluation metrics, even test fixtures that must be used to assess electrical behavior, thermal cycling resistance, long-term thermal stability, ability to withstand thermal shock, and much more. With Altium Designer, you’ll have a complete Read Article

Important Design Standards for Power Supply PCBs

Power Electronics PCB: Design and Simulate Your Power Supply PCB With the Best ECAD Software A PCB for a power supply can be as difficult to design as high-speed networking equipment and complex embedded systems. These circuit board designs need to account for a range of behaviors and safety requirements, especially when dealing with high voltages and currents reaching the output of the power supply. In addition to safety standards involved in power supply PCBs, component selection is critical for ensuring the design can provide the Read Article

Importance of Signal Integrity for High-Speed Designs in Your ECAD Software Your PCB design software can help you create boards to ensure signal integrity in high speed designs. Learn more about how Altium can help you. Read Article

Get Ready for WiFi 7 under the 802.11be Standard Are you ready for WiFi 7 capabilities in your new product? Learn more about the newest iteration of WiFi and what to expect from the 802.11be standard. Read Article

Using SDRAM vs. DDR RAM in Your PCB Design SDRAM is a slower predecessor to DDR, but you might not need DDR for every application. Here’s how you can compare SDRAM vs DDR for your design. Read Article

PCB Testing 101: Important Methods and Metrics PCB testing must occur during fabrication, assembly, and board bring-up. Here’s how you can plan to be successful during testing and inspection. Read Article

What Goes Into Rugged Electronics Design? In this article, we’ll outline some of the common design decisions that go into rugged electronics, as well as some steps you can take to create rugged PCBAs. Read Article

Getting Started with Design Rules and Constraints Getting started with design rules can sometimes be a difficult task, but it doesn’t have to be. A proper structure Watch Video

How to Reduce Common-Mode Noise in Your Power Supply with Impedance Balancing You can use impedance balancing to reduce conducted common-mode noise in your power supply. Here’s how it works and some experimental results. Read Article

Using Altium 365 to Share Simulations in the Cloud Altium 365 allows you to share your cloud simulation models and data with your signal integrity team and test engineer. Read Article

Customize Your PCB Drill Sizes With Altium Designer Every PCB will need some holes, vias, slots, and other features that are defined in a PCB layout. These features need to be reflected in fabrication documents, and designers need tools to help them automate this process of creating documentation directly from their designs. It’s easy to keep track of your holes, vias, electrical behavior, and much more in Altium Designer, the industry’s top PCB design application for professional design engineers Read Article

Design Your Metal Core PCB in Altium Designer Most printed circuit boards use a thick FR4 core layer to provide structural stability and interior copper layers for a multilayer PCB. If problems like excessive heat and low thermal dissipation are required in your particular application, you might consider designing with a metal core PCB. You’ll see other advantages like greater structural integrity, as well as a natural EMI shield thanks to the internal metal core. These circuit boards Read Article

IPC Classes and Complying with IPC Standards for PCB Design Whether you work in electronics design, manufacturing, or even defense, the alphabet soup of standards organizations is extensive and may seem daunting. The IPC standards are among the most widely accepted and important standards for PCB design and manufacturing. IPC standards will influence how a designer creates their board and how they will prepare it for production in different industries. These standards are meant to ensure performance and Read Article

Electronic Component Shortages Report from IHS What are the coping strategies available for PCB Designers to face the challenging impact of component shortages in the industry? Watch and learn in this episode with expert Greg Wood of IHS. Read Article

New Dimensions of PCB Simulation and Modeling In this interview, they discuss why they developed this software and what solutions they can now offer design engineers. Read Article

How to Speed Up Your DFM Report View Process in the Cloud Make sure your design will be produced with high quality and yield with our DFM report guidelines. You’ll want to perform DFM analysis at multiple stages during the design process. Read Article

Antipad Diameter, Crosstalk, and IBM’s Results from IPC APEX EXPO 2021 Interlayer crosstalk begins with antipad diameters, and IBM’s results help us see how antipad diameter on back-drilled PTHs affect signal integrity. Read Article