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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.

Unique Flex Termination Methods What are common termination methods used in flexible circuit applications? I think it is important to know that basically any connector you would select for rigid printed circuit boards can also be assembled to a flexible circuit. Traditional thru-hole and SMT connectors, high density circular connectors, D-Subminiature connectors, pin and socket connectors, leaded and unleaded, are all options to consider with flexible materials. That said, I am Read Article
The Value of Rapid Prototyping Open hardware boards provide a fast path forward during the prototyping phase. But then what? One of the most important aspects of prototyping is exploratory learning. Each stage explores the balance of tradeoffs between performance, power, cost, ease of manufacturing, and many other variables. The initial idea begins to morph, becoming better than it originally was. The downside of this incremental improvement is that each stage of prototyping Read Article
Newer PCB Materials If you are hearing about the newer, higher density HDI-PCBs used by Apple called SLP, and their processes like SAP, or uSAP or mSAP (Semi-Additive Processes) recently, these are the printed circuits that are getting down to 30 micron and 25 micron (1 mil) traces and spaces. HDI is now estimated to be over 250 million square meters produced per year-and still growing! But SAP is not NEW! We used it early in the 60’s and 70’s when we were making Read Article
46:06 Design and Library Migration to Altium Designer Watch Video
Learning Statistical Analysis I don’t have to tell anyone that times are tough! When they’re tough like this, you don’t like to waste what money you have earned—it came dearly! That’s when design choices come to mind. Any bad choices go to the bottom line; so what are some of the tools to help improve decision making? Statistical choices and probability come to mind. Design trade-offs have always been difficult to predict in printed circuits. Those uncontrolled factors can Read Article
15:18 Exploring Project Releaser in Altium Designer 19 Watch Video
Reading Impedance Profiles of High Speed Backplanes Impedance remains a confusing topic in the signal integrity community. By definition, impedance is the ratio of voltage to current. That doesn’t really paint a clear picture to anyone. Getting more specific, the term impedance can mean several things. Step response of broadband reflection coefficient in ohms Impulse response of broadband reflection coefficient in ohms Time domain Z-parameters Frequency domain Z-parameters Signal Integrity Read Article
Bob Martin Goes From Prototype to Production with an Arduino Board Listen to the Podcast: Today we speak with Bob Martin, a Senior Staff Engineer with Microchip. Bob is also known as ‘the Wizard of Make’, and today he’ll discuss his AltiumLive Keynote on October 11th in San Diego, where he’ll teach on how to go from prototype to production with Arduino Board, transitioning it into a production-ready board that you can manufacture. Download this episode (right click and save) Watch the video: Show Highlights: Bob Read Article
On Shaky Ground—the Arguments Against Copper Pours On Shaky Ground—the Arguments Against Copper Pours Recently on the SI-List, aka the SI Reflector, (see note at the end of this article) there’s been a spate of activity around the topic of copper ground pours and whether they are advantageous in a multilayer PCB implementation. There were arguments on both sides of the question. One person said a ground fill pour reduces EMI, another stated that it balances the copper and makes the board less Read Article
OnTrack Newsletter: Student Hackers, Crosstalk and Design Blogs - August 2019 OnTrack Newsletter August 2019 VOL. 3 No 4 Major League Hacking Fuels Students Passion for Engineering To bridge the gap between theoretical university-level electrical and computer science education and the kind of practical hands-on experience young engineers need and crave, Jonathan Gottfried co-founded Major League Hacking (MLH). In this interview Jonathan shares the inspiration behind MLH and talks about the impact of the hundreds of Read Article
Seven Design Guidelines to Break Bad Habits from Using Open-Source Designs Welcome back, today we speak with Dr. Eric Bogatin who is the Dean of Signal Integrity at Teledyne LeCroy. Eric has agreed, once again, to be a keynote speaker at AltiumLive, San Diego - October 9th to 11th and today he shares more with us about his keynote and the courses he teaches at Colorado University, Boulder, some books he’s writing, and the makers he serves. There’s no grass growing under this man’s feet. Listen to the Podcast: Download Read Article
Trip to the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel My name is Piotr Lazarek and I’m a second-grade student of the secondary school “Filomata” in Gliwice. My passion for physics, informatics and new technologies has resulted in an innovative project; an autonomous vehicle which measures concentration of different elements inside soil. I dedicated two years of my hard work to designing and creating a prototype of the device. I’ve already posted an article about my work, so if you’re interested in Read Article
How Do the Seamless Transfer and Use of PCB Design Data Improve Workflows? Introduction One of the more thrilling events in track and field is the 400 Meter relay race. Understand, I don’t run; rather I enjoy watching. However, the most critical part of every race is the transferring of the baton to the next runner. I was watching a race some time back where one team was way ahead of the others and was coming around the final turn for the last hand-off. But, THEY DROPPED THE BATON, and they ended up losing. How Read Article
PCB Design - It is a Team Sport Introduction A poem by John Donne is the source of a phrase we are all familiar with: “No man is an island.” Although he was speaking of how human beings do rather poorly when isolated from others and need to be part of a community to thrive, this principle is especially true when it comes to the PCB Design process. That no single person—or better said, roles—are involved in the PCB design. I would contend that for any PCB Design to be a success Read Article
What are some Common Issues with PCB Design Workflows? Introduction Many believe that the sole duty of the US Secret Service is the protection of the President of the United States. However, one of its other significant responsibilities is criminal investigations. This includes the investigation of the Counterfeiting of US currency. When training the new agents on how to identify a counterfeit bill, they do not train on all the possible ways that the bill could be wrong; instead, they teach on every Read Article
Solving Component Library Errors During PCB Layout Reuse With the right PCB design package, you can even reuse layouts for these old cell phones I recently bought a new computer after data on my old hard drive started to “magically” become corrupted. Once I broke into my new computer and transferred my data over, I became worried I wouldn’t be able to reuse my old data. When it comes to simpler things like text files or images, you’ll have no problems; you can immediately reopen and reuse these files Read Article
77 GHz Radar for Automotive PCBs: Routing and Signal Integrity Technology moves quickly these days, and automotive radar has transferred from primarily operating near 24 GHz to 77 GHz shortly after its introduction into new vehicles for object detection. Recent regulation changes have allowed the transition to 77 GHz, which provides a number of benefits. Shorter wavelengths facilitate wider bandwidths, and provide better resolution, smaller device form factors, and longer range. This band just happens to Read Article