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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.

Calculating Series Termination Resistance Values in Altium Designer You might need to determine the right series termination resistance value for this type of circuit With transmission lines, some things never seem to be simple. Determining the termination technique and the values of components in a termination network shouldn’t be a difficult task. Most PCB design programs force you to look online for calculators, or you’ll have to run the calculations by hand. Instead, your design software should make it easy Read Article
Standard Board Thickness and Your Layer Stack I’ll confess that I have a love for 1990’s sitcoms. If Jerry Seinfeld were a PCB designer, he would probably ask “what’s the deal with the 1.57 mm board thickness?” It’s a fair question after all, and it makes you wonder why many standard values (e.g., 50 Ohms impedance on high speed transmission lines) are used in PCB design and other areas of engineering. There are good reasons why these standard values have found their place in PCB design, and Read Article
The Essential Tools You Need for PCB Design Whether you’re building a house or building a PCB, you need the right tools in your toolbox. Every designer needs to have CAD tools for component placement, but even command line-based CAD software can be used for accurate component placement. With modern electronic devices becoming more complex at all levels, designers need tools that help expedite essential design tasks. Choosing the right set of PCB design tools requires weighing a number of Read Article
Some LVDS PCB Layout Guidelines for Ensuring Signal Integrity For me, arranging components on a PCB is like a fun puzzle. It’s something to do on a rainy day and can take the same type of trial and error approach. Working with a signaling standard like LVDS doesn’t have to be as difficult as a 1,000 piece puzzle if you know some basic design tips. As a signaling standard used in many LCD-TVs, computer peripherals, infotainment systems, and notebook/tablet computers, designers should take some time to learn Read Article
Routing Topologies in Your PCB and Computer Peripherals If you were to look inside a modern electronic product, you might wonder how everything inside is linked together. Conductors running between components play a central role, but how are components grouped together? How do different components link back to power and ground? The answer lies in the topology implemented during the design phase. If you remember those old SCSI hard drives in 1990’s computers, then you are already familiar with daisy Read Article
Weekly Digest: Projects and Teams We’re doing our best to provide the most in-depth information to help designers with productivity, project management and everything PCB design related. Get the latest information here from Industry Experts and catch up on everything published this week, all in one place. Let us know your burning questions or tag us in social media to share one of your projects! Octopart On The OnTrack Podcast with Judy Warner This week Chris Calvi came on the Read Article
It's a Converging, Electromechanical World Software is eating the world. It’s making its way into traditional, mechanical products, thus forcing companies to rethink their design process. Products that have traditionally been mechanical are becoming jam-packed with software. This expansion of smart, connected products means new demands for engineers, and branching out into new fields. There is a need for a broader set of design skills among engineering staff and a need for more efficient Read Article
21:37 Output Job Files for Rapid, Repeatable PCB Manufacturing Data Generation Watch Video
Sourcing Components with Christopher Calvi The Head of Octopart®, Chris Calvi is with us today to talk about sourcing components, which has never been more challenging than it is today. Chris will also share his vision of the future where finding parts will be easy, fast, and fully transparent. Listen to the Podcast: Download this episode (right click and save) Watch the video: Show Highlights: Chris attended Georgia Tech and after graduation he moved to LA, where he worked at Shopzilla Read Article
Weekly Digest: Optimize Your Documentation and Workflow Get the latest information from Industry Experts, Altium webinars, videos and more to help you maximize your productivity. We know it takes a lot to go from design to assembly and fabrication so we’re working on providing the most in-depth information to help designers with the most challenging questions. Let us know what questions keep you up at night or consider joining our expert team of writers. New Articles on the PCB Design Blog Check out Read Article
Selecting Alternative Materials for Multilayer PCB Substrates Sometimes, it pays to go against the grain. No matter what someone says, you shouldn’t be forced to settle for the most popular PCB substrate material on the market. If you need to build a device that is specialized for extreme environments, repeated thermal cycling, or high speed/RF devices, there are alternative materials for multilayer PCB substrates that may be a better choice. You Don’t Have to Settle For FR4 While FR4 is by far the most Read Article
30:44 Snapping Grids Guides Webinar Watch Video
What to Look for in a Board Fabricator with Steve Williams Do you know what to look for in a new Printed Circuit Board Supplier? Today’s guest, Steve Williams, is the President of TRAC, also known as The Right Approach Consulting. Today he will share his tips, based on his visits to thousands of shops around the world, on what to look for in terms of certifications and how to look beyond the marketing and window dressing to source the ideal, reliable board supplier who will get the job done. Listen to Read Article
Flexible Circuit Stiffener Options Why would I need a stiffener for my flexible circuit design? Fundamentally, the benefits of using a flexible circuit in a design are the ability to bend and fold the circuit and to allow the circuit to flex during use. These thin and flexible stack-ups solve a considerable number of packaging issues. But, being thin and flexible can also present a few challenges. It is common for a flexible circuit stack-up to include a stiffener, which is Read Article
Surfing 3D PCB CAD from Inside the Grey Tsunami APEX San Diego – Riding my long skateboard through the streets of the Gaslamp I must have been quite a sight in my suit and tie. Fresh off the IPC APEX show floor, I was carving turns through traffic, heading back to my hotel after spending several hours discussing the positive wave of 3D PCB CAD with some industry colleagues. Suddenly, I heard two guys laugh and shout at me from the crowded street corner: “Hey, you’re too old to be ridin’ a Read Article
Project Management Tools My first opportunity to use a project management technique was the Gantt Chart as part of my Engineering Senior Project while in college. At that time, it was all manual. Today, numerous software packages offer it along with other project visibility techniques (Figure 1): Gantt Chart Pert Chart Critical Path Analysis Affinity Diagrams Gap Analysis TimeLine Figure 1. Some of the visualization tools used for project management [1]. No matter what Read Article
Preparing Documentation for Output – Who needs What? It is a very common misconception for beginners (and even some experienced) board designers to just push the “buttons” or menu “commands” in the software for outputting fabrication & assembly data. However, there are set-ups that have to be done before you can use those buttons and commands. (Altium Designer® commands highlighted in RED below.) While there are many ways to develop documentation for a board, it is important to realize the need to Read Article