PCB Design ⚯

Welcome to a world of inspiration and innovation in PCB design. We are grateful to our amazing community for helping us foster collaboration and growth in electronics development. We hope to share the knowledge and experience we've gained after decades of research and creating Altium Designer, the best PCB design software, and Altium 365, the agile electronics development platform.

Explore our resources to expand your skills in PCB development and stay up to date with the latest technologies and best practices. Our informative articles and practical resources are aimed at helping electronics engineers and developers bring more successful products to market faster than ever before. Dive in and get inspired!

Your Guide to LCR Meters

Your Guide to LCR Meters LCR meters measure inductance (L), capacitance (C), and resistance (R) – hence the name. LCR meters can be powerful tools for supporting the development of electronic circuits. However, to get the best from your meter, you must understand precisely how they work and the benefits they bring to the development process. In this article, we'll look at how LCR meters work, how to choose the best meter for your needs, and what benefits they can bring Read Article

Everything You Need to Know about Conformal Coating

Everything You Need to Know about Conformal Coating Explore the basics of conformal coating with Mark Harris. Conformal coating is a protective layer applied to electronic circuits to guard against environmental factors such as moisture and dust. Read Article

PCB critical length

Can We All Stop Quoting the Critical Length Rule? Let’s all agree to stop using the PCB critical length rule in high-speed PCB design. Read Article

Promoting the Electronics Industry to Younger Generation

Promoting the Electronics Industry to the Next Generation Charlene Gunther, the Senior Director of the IPC Education Foundation talks about IPC’s efforts to involve students in engaging activities that will introduce the electronic industry to them as early as high school. Read Article

Integrating an Electronics Enclosure Design with Altium Designer

Integrating an Electronics Enclosure Design with Altium Designer Industry expert Mark Harris shows you how easy it is to create a bespoke enclosure using SolidWorks with Altium’s MCAD CoDesigner. With step-by-step guidance and seamless integration between ECAD and MCAD workspaces, you'll be able to design and update your project's electronic and mechanical aspects in parallel, ensuring compatibility and right-first-time results. Bring an end to transferring design files between teams and start a hassle-free design process! Read Article

Creating Components in Altium 365 at Warp Speed

Creating Components in Altium 365 at Warp Speed In this article Ari Mahpour shows you how to create components in Altium 365 leveraging free resources in the cloud. Read Article

Solidworks PCB to Altium Designer

Solidworks PCB to Altium Designer Solidworks PCB to Altium Designer In this migration guide we are going to focus on importing SOLIDWORKS PCB designs to Altium Designer. If you need to migrate from another tool, please refer to their specific migration guide below or explore our Documentation page for tips on importing your designs. Migrating from Autodesk EAGLE to Altium Designer Migrating from Cadence OrCAD to Altium Designer Migrating from Siemens PADS to Altium Designer Read Article

Ultra HDI - More Frequently Asked Questions

Ultra HDI - More Frequently Asked Questions What is Ultra-HDI? There is a lot of conversation about “Ultra-HDI” especially with all of the anticipated work being done as part of the CHIPS Act. In my experience, Ultra-HDI means different things to different people depending on where their capabilities and expertise are. IPC has created a working group to address ultra-HDI and their position is that to be considered ultra-HDI, a design needs to include one or more of the following parameters Read Article

How to Design a Bias Tee for a Power Amplifier

How to Design a Bias Tee for a Power Amplifier Bias tees are used in some RF systems to separate AC and DC power along a particular line. Learn more about bias tee design in this article. Read Article

Security on CAN bus with Ken Tindell

Security on CAN bus with Ken Tindell A lot of interesting facts about cyber security and automobile hacking that you would not want to miss! Watch through the end and make sure to check the additional resources below. Read Article

RF Power Amplifier Module PCB Design

RF Power Amplifier Module PCB Design We’ll examine how to design a PCB with a power amplifier. This module generates its own source signal using a VCO. Read Article

What's New in Altium 365 - March 2023 The latest Altium 365 updates are here. Read now to learn more. Read Article

Achieving Diversified Electronics Supply Chain

Achieving Diversified Electronics Supply Chain In this episode, we continue the discussion on diversifying the electronic supply chain. Our guest Case Engelen the CEO of Titoma shares his insight about moving some of the manufacturing to other Southeast Asian countries and South America. Read Article

Optical PHY PCB Layout for Gigabit and Faster Ethernet

Optical PHY PCB Layout for 100 Gigabit and Faster Ethernet Need to layout a board to connect to an optical PHY transceiver? Here are some high speed design aspects you’ll need to consider. Read Article

The Biggest Technology Trends to Watch in 2023

The Biggest Technology Trends to Watch in 2023 February 24, 2023 ONTRACK BI-WEEKLY Some industry groups have been forecasting muddy waters for the PCB manufacturing industry in 2023, but that isn’t stopping development of new technology. 2022 saw record growth in production and NPI, and the first half of 2023 may see a pause. But the 2nd half of 2023 could see rebounds just in time to deliver new products focused on some of the most impactful technology trends. Leading Insights TPCA Sees Read Article

EMI EMC compliance PCB design

EMI and EMC Compliance 101 for PCB Designers Learn about the basics of EMI and EMC compliance requirements in PCB design and product design. Read Article

PCB Manufacturing Then and Now

A Lookback to the Evolution of the PCB Industry with Happy Holden Happy Holden, a legend in the PCB Industry and one of our favorite Altium Industry Expert contributors gives us a trip to his 53 years of experience in the industry. Read Article