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  • Altium Designer

    Complete Environment for Schematic + Layout

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    Entry Level, Professional PCB Design Tool

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    Community Based PCB Design Tool

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    Agile PCB Design For Teams

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    Connecting PCB Design to the Manufacturing Floor

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  • COMPONENT MANAGEMENT
  • Altium Concord Pro

    Complete Solution for Library Management

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    Extensive, Easy-to-Use Component Database

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    Natural and Effortless Power Distribution Network Analysis

  • See All Extensions
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    World-Renowned Technology for Embedded Systems Development

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    View & Share electronic designs in your browser

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    Altium Designer 20

    The most powerful, modern and easy-to-use PCB design tool for professional use

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    Annual PCB Design Summit

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    All Resources

    Explore the latest content from blog posts to social media and technical white papers gathered together for your convenience

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    Home

    Explore content from blog posts to technical white papers gathered together for your convenience. All written by Altium's community of PCB design experts.

    How to Use Altium Designer Most Efficiently One of the things I really love about Altium Designer® is how many shortcuts there are, and how customisable they are. A while ago in my database library’s chat channel, there was a really good discussion about shortcuts and how each of us customises his or her menus to be able to draw schematics and layout boards as quickly and efficiently as possible. Many of us use and love similar shortcuts, but there were enough interesting use cases that I Read Article
    Fabulous Folding Phones Microsoft doubles up with its dual screen Surface Duo (Image source: Microsoft) I like to think that I'm riding the crest of the technology wave, but every now and then something slips past my eagle eye and then leaps out to surprise me when I least expect it. Such was the case when I ran across the fact that Microsoft is planning on rolling out a fabulous folding smartphone called the Surface Duo in 2020. We will return to this in a moment, but Read Article
    Which IoT Protocols to Use for Industrial Environmental Monitoring? The progression of industry and manufacturing throughout the past 250 years A report from the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that IoT devices could have an annual economic impact of $3.9 trillion to $11.1 trillion across many different settings by 2025, including factories, cities, retail environments, and the human body. IoT devices can be used to gather and process information remotely, either for automation or analysis purposes. IoT Read Article
    Paralyzed Man Walks with Aid of Mind-Controlled Exoskeleton Paralyzed man walks with aid of mind-controlled exoskeleton Image source: A frame from BBC video In an earlier column we introduced a tiny (2.5 mm x 0.6 mm) device called Injectsense, which can monitor the pressure inside the eye. In the not-so-distant future, the goal is to use devices like these to provide organ-to-cloud data connections that will allow clinicians and physicians to monitor our health and determine the effectiveness of Read Article
    Great Spock! NeoSpectra-Based Tricorders are (Almost) Here! The lightweight handheld NeoSpectra-Scanner provides material analysis capabilityImage source: Si-Ware Systems I have a cousin who lives in Canada. We’ll call her Rachel (because that's her name). Rachel is extremely allergic to almost any form of shellfish. The slightest hint of a sniff of a mollusk, crustacean, or echinoderm will leave her gasping frantically for air and grasping feverishly for her EpiPen. Rachel's allergy is so severe that she Read Article
    Pad Stack Design And Fine Pitch Components, Part 1 What happens when you try to route two traces between pins on 1mm pitch BGAs? As noted in the previous article on pad stack design and fabrication, there are a number of factors that need to be taken into account when it’s time calculate the complete dimensioning of the finished hole size on a plated through-hole in a PCB. When it comes to fine pitch components, there are always questions regarding what happens when 1mm and smaller pitch Read Article
    Injectsense Real-Time Eye Pressure Monitoring A prototype of Injectsense's wireless silicon sensor module next to a grain of rice and a quarter (Image source: Injectsense) A little over a year ago, I noticed that things sometimes got a little blurry while I was looking at my computer screen. My cousin Graham in England has macular degeneration, which has left him almost totally without sight. I have to admit that the thought this might happen to me was lurking in the back of my mind, so I Read Article
    Concord Pro and the Library S.M.A.R.T. Rule Part-2 Introduction In the first part of this blog, we saw how you could use Concord Pro® to set up and support the S.M.A.R.T. Rule of Data Management, specifically the Singularity and the Management of your data. Now, we will continue to look at the additional pillars with a bit of a twist to it. Keep in mind that just like a pillar in a building, these are principles that support what is above it (which we will be looking at later).Since pulling out Read Article
    Shaper Engineer Jeremy Blum on Arduino and Building Consumer Products Listen to the Podcast: Download this episode (right click and save) Watch the video: Jeremy Blum is the Director of Engineering at Shaper, a start-up company that built the world's first handheld CNC technology for woodworking. Jeremy talks about his keynote speech at the AltiumLive PCB Design Summit on October 21 - 23 in Frankfurt, Germany. His talk is about product development and lifecycle management from a holistic approach to engineering and Read Article
    Concord Pro and the Library S.M.A.R.T. Rule Part-1 Introduction The saying goes that “The lead dog always has the best view.” When it comes to the race of the ECAD Software companies, for many years, Altium has led the pack. They got to that prized position for several reasons.The main reason, I believe, is that they provide a vast collection of tools for the PCB Designer. When you look more in-depth at precisely what the various ECAD Software companies offer, their basic features are the same Read Article
    Entrepreneur’s Guide to Modular Product Design Costs Your entrepreneurial journey may feel like this... There is no greater adrenaline rush than being an entrepreneur. Building your product and crowdfunding it on Kickstarter can be a rollercoaster ride that brings joy, happiness, and some sense of achievement, especially if you get fully funded. When launching a hardware product, you’ll progress through several stages of production, beginning with printed circuit board (PCB) design, testing and Read Article
    OnTrack Newsletter: Music & Electronics, MCU Selection, Brain Food - October 2019 OnTrack Newsletter October 2019 VOL. 3 No 5 PianoArc: A Circular Piano Fit for Princes and Mega Stars Earlier this year I met a fascinating designer at the San Diego Altium® Users Group. Dave Starkey told me about a circular piano he and his partners had designed and built called the Pianoarc. In this interview, learn more about Starkey’s background and how he came to co-create this unique instrument that now graces a Middle Eastern Palace and is Read Article
    Naming Convention and PCB Data Management Introduction There is a poem by John Godfrey Saxe that was from a Hindu fable about the six blind men of Indostan who went to see the Elephant. The first went up and felt the side of the Elephant and concluded that he was touching a wall. The second went up and felt a tusk, exclaimed: “This is not a wall at all; it is a spear.” The third blind man, feeling the huge trunk, decided that it was a snake. The fourth man felt the elephant’s leg and Read Article
    Pad Stack Design And Fabrication—Part 2, Thermal Ties As noted in part one of this article, there are a variety of aspects regarding manufacturability and reliability that come into play as part of the pad stack design process. When it comes to soldering through-hole components into the plated through-holes in a PCB when the pin connects to a plane, you have to thermally isolate those holes from the planes to ensure successful soldering of those components. This is accomplished via a feature called Read Article
    Getting Connected: Altium’s User Community Forums The Altium design environment is a complex and sophisticated set of software tools. Not surprisingly, becoming proficient with these tools will take some time, and you’ll need to practice every step of the design process from beginning to end. So what happens if you get stuck along the way? The online documentation includes a “Getting Started” tutorial and a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list, and Altium also has a customer support system to Read Article
    Pad Stack Design And The Fabrication Process—part 1 “Pad Stack” is a term used by PCB layout personnel and PCB fabricators to refer to all of the features associated with a hole in a PCB. The hole can be plated or unplated, through-hole or blind or buried. Components of the pad stack include the drilled hole size, the finished hole size, the size of pads plotted on the inner and outer layers, the clearances in planes through which the holes drilled in the PCB pass, and the clearances in the solder Read Article
    Design Report Card One of my earlier BLOGs talked about PWB Cost Drivers. What is required for the PWB Value Delivery Chain is a method of predicting the cost of fabrication for the PCB substrate, as well as the cost of assembly and assembly testing. With these tools and the wiring density metrics, tradeoffs can be performed early in the product's life. Many call this Design for Manufacturing and Assembly, I call it the DFM Report Cards because that’s what its Read Article