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As noted in several of my previous articles, at Speeding Edge we are big proponents of putting test structures into PCBs. The impetus for incorporating these structures covers a wide variety of topics—it’s a new design; you’re using new component technology; a new laminate or a new fabricator to name a few. There are many critical performance characteristics required of today’s electronic products. They operate at high frequencies, move enormous...

Determining the correct electrical design rules in your ECAD software is essential for effective electronics design. Correctly determined PCB design rules ensure a design can be manufactured with high yield and components can be assembled. Many electrical design rules come from PCB manufacturers and IPC standards, but electrical design rules go beyond manufacturing and assembly. PCBs also require electrical design that account for signals’...

During the system-level planning phase of any major hardware project, at least one Ethernet communication link is often included as a standard option, and it is this Ethernet interface on the circuit board that we are going to discuss in depth. In my Altium community, the question of how to implement Ethernet comes up every few months. It is often met with some generic answers as to impedance, but without anyone having a fantastic resource they...

Phases of the Game Coaches and players always stress that there are three phases to winning a football game; offence, defence, and special teams. If any of these phases are lacking, then -poof- there goes your Championship. Just as there are phases in the game of football, there are also phases in creating your job-keeping printed circuit board. Creating a successful board requires that all phases of a project be carefully planned out. These...

Introduction There are many tutorials on S-parameter analysis. The topics usually include how to identify port maps, what insertion loss and return loss looks like, and how the various S-parameters look in the time-domain. For beginners, this is quite valuable. Here, we will briefly explain those topics and add some additional analysis techniques to use when data mining S-parameters. Brief Overview of S-Parameters S-parameters are basically...

On May 16, 1994, the Signal Integrity List (SI-List) was founded, with just 30 members on its charter email list. Today, there are more than 4,000 members worldwide, and the list includes Signal Integrity gurus like Istvan Novak, Todd Hubbing, Steve Weir, and Scott McMorrow.  In this episode of the OnTrack Podcast, one of those world renown SI gurus, Scott McMorrow, CTO of Samtec Inc.’s Signal Integrity Group, connects with Judy Warner to...

Printed Electronics is emerging to become as common as 3D printing. With this fast-emerging technology, new possibilities have come into the manufacturing arena, allowing engineers and designers to develop products in markets never before realized. New substrates and inks are being developed to address various applications, from biomedical to aerospace and consumer electronics. With the emergence of many contract manufacturers possessing this...

Printed Electronics is emerging to become as common as 3D printing. With this fast-emerging technology, new possibilities have come into the manufacturing arena, allowing engineers and designers to develop products in markets never before realized. New substrates and inks are being developed to address various applications, from biomedical to aerospace and consumer electronics. With the emergence of many contract manufacturers possessing this...

Printed Electronics is emerging to become as common as 3D printing. With this fast-emerging technology, new possibilities have come into the manufacturing arena, allowing engineers and designers to develop products in markets never before realized. New substrates and inks are being developed to address various applications, from biomedical to aerospace and consumer electronics. With the emergence of many contract manufacturers possessing this...