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

What is Propagation Delay and the Best PCB Design Tools to Work with It What is Propagation Delay and the Best PCB Design Tools to Work with It To resolve the question of what is propagation delay, you need the power of Altium Designer to handle this and other high-speed design issues. ALTIUM DESIGNER Working through propagation delay and other high-speed design interactions efficiently. When you design high-speed circuits you will be working with a number of parameters that will affect how you create the design. One of these parameters is propagation delay, and it can have a critical Read Article
The Best PCB Router Software for Your Complex Designs The Best PCB Router Software for Your Complex Designs Don’t let antiquated Printed Circuit Board routing tools slow down or even derail your design, use the best PCB router software to get the job done correctly and on time. ALTIUM DESIGNER® A unified PCB routing software and design package that integrates the best tools, automated documentation, and production planning features. The ASME is one organization that specifies design requirements on all types of mechanical products. Issues like safety Read Article
Use Rules-Driven To Meet Your Component Placement Guidelines Use Rules-Driven Design To Meet Your Component Placement Guidelines Modern PCBs require keeping track of a ton of design rules, and even more components. No one has time to keep track of every design rule under the sun. Other software companies make it difficult to force your design rules to apply to all of your tools, including your layout tool. Instead, unified design software can help you stick to your design rules and improve your productivity, ensuring that your finished PCB has the functionality you require Read Article
The Best Results Come from PCB Design Services Using Altium Designer The Best Results Come from PCB Design Services Using Altium Designer The power of Altium Designer combined with the professional services and resources recommended by Altium will give you your best design results. ALTIUM DESIGNER Software for PCB design services to make circuits come easy. You have an important design project ahead of you, but what you don’t have is the resources to get it done on time. Not only do you need help, but you also need a powerful PCB design system to get the job done as quickly and Read Article
Power Delivery System Design Power Delivery System Design This article is intended to define the new challenges and provide guidance in how to successfully engineer the Power Delivery System (PDS) so it meets the needs of new technologies. As integrated circuit technology allows for billions of transistors on a single IC, it has resulted in very powerful systems on a chip. This has made it possible to put the equivalent of supercomputers inside video games, cell phones, and a host of other products that Read Article
Making a PCB with a 3D Printer Still Requires Design Expertise Making a PCB with a 3D Printer Still Requires Design Expertise Designing PCBs for 3D printing can follow one of two routes: additive or subtractive manufacturing. Your PCB design software should be adaptable to either technique and should have the capability to generate the files required for your 3D printer to accurately lay etch or deposit your traces. Working in Altium Designer’s unified design environment integrates your design tools in a single interface. Altium Designer offers the only design package Read Article
Double Sided PCB Design in Altium Designer Double Sided PCB Design in Altium Designer Most newer Printed Circuit Boards are complex multilayer beasts that require unique design methods and difficult routing strategies. However, many pieces of hardware that form the cornerstone of modern electronic devices are still designed on two-layer boards. These boards still require a number of critical design tools that most platforms place in separate programs. If you’re looking for a design platform that makes double-sided PCB design easy Read Article
Arduino Shields Are Ready-Made Addons for Circuit Development Arduino Shields Are Ready-Made Addons for Circuit Development Arduino Shields are integrated circuit blocks available in off-the-shelf printed circuit board assemblies. ALTIUM DESIGNER The most powerful, modern, and easy-to-use PCB design tool for professional use. Arduino is a company that offers off-the-shelf printed circuit board assemblies containing small circuits for idea development. Each Arduino is designed with connections to interface with other circuit assemblies for the developer. Arduino Read Article
Antenna Impedance Matching in Altium Designer Antenna Impedance Matching in Altium Designer Impedance matching plays a critical role in high speed, high frequency, and wireless PCBs. Building a PCB with strong wireless communication capabilities requires impedance matching your antenna to its receiver/transceiver using one of many termination schemes, especially if you opt to print your own antenna on your PCB. When you use design software with the best signal simulation and analysis tools, you can easily identify the best termination Read Article
How to Determine PCB Layers and Design an Elegant Layer Stack that Maximizes Signal Integrity Intelligent placement of PCB layers nullifies RF energy and results in PCAs that pass EMC on their first pass. ALTIUM DESIGNERProfessional PCB design tool with proficient PCB layer stackup management. Use inner layers with adjacent ground planes for clocksWhen considering how to determine PCB layers stackup, the best practices is to prioritize signal integrity. Signal integrity occurs when RF current generation is avoided with careful Read Article
Designing to Meet Thermal Demands with Altium Designer Designing to Meet Thermal Demands with Altium Designer Thermal demands from high power or high-speed components can have a major effect on the functionality of your PCB. Your design software has a major role to play in helping you create durable designs that can withstand and mitigate problems from heat generated in your PCB. When your design software contains simulation and verification features in a single interface, you can quickly identify hotspots and add elements like thermal pads to dissipate Read Article
Stencil for PCB Made Easy with Proper Board Layout Software Stencil for PCB Made Easy with Proper Board Layout Software Fabrication, assembly, and manufacturing can all become a breeze so long as you’re using the proper PCB design software. Make sure that anything you use in those processes, like a stencil for PCB, is accounted for with your CAD tools. ALTIUM DESIGNER PCB design software is responsible for enabling your designs to be produced with ease. The purpose of PCB stencils is to quickly install solder paste onto circuit boards, and there are a lot of names Read Article
Advanced Routing and Verification of Ground and Power Supply PCB Layout Traces with Altium Designer Advanced Routing and Verification of Ground and Power Supply PCB Layout Traces with Altium Designer Probably, the most formidable task of circuit board design is routing traces. In addition to connecting components accurately you must also route through vias for multi-layer PCB design while ensuring that spacing and clearance specifications meet the tolerances of your PCB fabrication and assembly services. And successfully meeting these challenges requires that you incorporate good grounding and power supply PCB layout into your design. ALTIUM Read Article
Real-Time PCB Components List Management with Altium Designer Real-Time PCB Components List Management with Altium Designer Selecting components for your design can be summed up as making sure to have the right parts in the right place. With the real-time parts supplier data and information availability provided by Altium Designer’s Active BOM. Read Article
Precision PCB Design Software with a Differential Line Impedance Calculator Precision PCB Design Software with a Differential Line Impedance Calculator Altium Designer’s differential line impedance calculator will set up your impedance-controlled differential pair routing widths for you. ALTIUM DESIGNER For better impedance control, use PCB design software you can trust. One thing is for sure: When you are routing a high-speed PCB design you are going to be working with impedance-controlled routing and differential pairs. There have been trace routing tools available for a long time that help Read Article
Innovators Around the Globe Contribute to Coronavirus Intervention Innovators Around the Globe Contribute to Coronavirus Intervention Colin Keogh PhD, CEO & Founder at The Rapid Foundation, has been on the front lines of the effort to combat ventilator shortages ever since a Facebook group called Open Source COVID-19 Medical Supplies (OSCMS) first presented the problem. As cofounder of Open Source Ventilator (OSV) Ireland and a member of its core team, Colin offers his uniquely qualified perspective on open source innovation: its obstacles, its advantages, and its impact on Read Article
Electronic components and Altium DbLibs in the Cloud with Altium Designer 20.1 Altium DbLibs and Electronic Components in the Cloud with Altium Designer 20.1 Industry expert Davide Bortolami discusses what DbLibs are, how they work, what they can help you achieve, and how to integrate them with Altium 365. Spoiler alert: it’s disgustingly easy. Read Article