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At this point, I have written several articles and spoken at AltiumLive 2019 about adopting software design methodologies for electronics design. As you may have noticed by now, I put a lot of emphasis on using a unified system for both electronics and software design. Tightly coupling these two pieces in a design process is key because they have become so intertwined. Consider any type of embedded system that consists of electronics (i.e. PCBA)...

Capacitors are one of the main components in all electronic devices and are vital to their operation. In modern electronics, you will most commonly find ceramic capacitors decoupling power supplies for almost every integrated circuit (IC) on a circuit board or aluminum electrolytic capacitors as bulk capacitance for a voltage regulator. However, capacitors are used in far more applications than just bypassing noise, and there are many more types...

In my previous article, which suggested project ideas for engineering students to work on to expand their knowledge and experience of designing electronics, I suggested some tips for breaking down a project to be more manageable. In this article, we’re going to take that a step further and focus on how you can break down complex projects into smaller, more manageable sections. It is easy to get overwhelmed with a project that is more complex than...

As noted in previous articles, today’s high-speed PCB designs are characterized by two factors: moving lots of data and signal bandwidths spanning up to very high frequencies. As a result, several things influence these two factors. Among those at the top of the list of “if you don’t get this right, you’re dead in the water,” elements are low loss. There are a number of things that are done during the design process that influence loss, but the...

A PCB variant is often simply thought of as a new layout created from an old design. However, if you’re creative with your routing and layout, you can use a solder bridge jumper to configure portions of a single PCB layout for multiple variants. This lets you quickly create variants of a PCB layout without rerouting traces or changing your schematics. If you plan to use jumpers in your PCB layout, there are some important guidelines to follow to...

Your organization will need to gather data from multiple sources to create new designs. In addition to schematic symbols and PCB footprints, designers need sourcing data for components to ensure they can eliminate supply chain risk. With a complete set of design and management tools, design teams can get to market on time and remain within budget while ensuring their designs are manufacturable at scale. Altium Designer offers all the tools you...

Designing a printed circuit board and its PCB assembly are intricate processes. If want to bring your next great electronic device to life, you’ll need to transform it from a circuit diagram into a schematic. Then you’ll need to turn your schematic into a layout and ensure it complies with DFM guidelines for your application. Different PCB tools in your design software can help with different tasks, but only one software package integrates all...

In what some refer to as the “Olden Days” of the electronics industry, there wasn’t much need for PCB data management. Tasks like creating schematics, BOMs, drawings, and Gerber files were problematic. Today, the PCB design industry has seen major advancements in technology, driven by what can only be described as an insatiable hunger by consumers for faster, smaller, and sleeker products with all the latest technology and functions. Today’s PCB...

Military and aerospace systems include a number of embedded systems that provide critical functionality. Your next military or aerospace system will require a number of complicated embedded systems to keep it functioning at top performance. Each of these embedded systems must provide specific functionality in rugged environments, and creating these systems takes powerful design software. Only Altium Designer gives you all the tools you need to...