PCB Design Resources and Information | Altium

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

Tips for Updating Old PCB Designs with New Parts Follow our tips for updating old PCB designs with new parts. Altium Designer helps you stay productive and design successfully. Read Article

Build a DC-DC Buck Regulator - Student Project In this article, Mark Harris will go through the implementation of power supplies in a PCB Design project with a student. Curious how it turned out? Read now to learn more. Read Article

Tips for Getting Started In Compact PCB Design How do you tackle a high-density layout PCB design project? Mark Harris gives you a head start in acing your compact PCB design. Read and learn from the expert here. Read Article

PCB Cost Drivers and Designing to Cost Whenever I’m engaging with a client that wants to understand board design and manufacturing costs, they often get surprised when I tell them the major PCB cost drivers and start giving some ballpark estimates. For a startup hardware company, or even a major enterprise that does not normally engage in electronics manufacturing, the numbers can be surprising, especially for low-volume runs. There is this perception that electronics production is Read Article

An Altium Badge of Honor for Engineering Service Bureaus Engineering bureaus are essential to the electronics industry, ensuring high-quality contract work across a wide range of specialties. Altium has partnered with over 800 independent service bureaus over the years, elevating the quality of PCB design. Engineering service companies and contractors using Altium typically provide engineering design services specializing in everything from electrical and mechanical design to signal and power integrity Read Article

What Is Thieving In PCBs And Why Is It Done? In this Article, Expert Kella Knack describes thieving, to what sections of the board it is applied; at what point in the fabrication is it done, how it relates to plating operations; who is responsible for adding thieving to the outer layer artwork and its shortcomings and benefits. Read Article

Avoiding Noise when Interfacing with Remote Sensors In this blog post, expert Mark Harris tackles the best and cost effective approaches to avoid and reduce noise when Interfacing with Remote Sensors. Read now to learn more. Read Article

Keeping Your Circuits Dry What do you do if the fantastic new device you’ve designed needs to work in a humid, damp, or dripping wet environment? Expert Mark Harris answers how you can keep your circuits dry. Read now to learn more. Read Article

Why Power Rails Need to be Low Impedance Read to learn what constitutes a power rail, how it functions, and how fear can be a driving factor in making bad design decisions. Read Article

Improving Your Engineering CV Your CV could be costing you your dream job. Mark Harris give his expert advice on how you can make sure that your CV will not be ignored by a non-technical recruiter. Read Article

PDS Impedance: The Traditional Approach To PDS Design vs. Energy Flow Take a look at traditional PDS impedance versus the “energy flow” view of PDS design. We’ll debunk misleading information that could cause your designs to fail. Read Article

OnTrack Newsletter: New Altium Subscription Plans, Free Webinars, PCB Design Blogs - January 2021 OnTrack Newsletter January 2021 VOL. 4 No 5 New Altium Subscription Plans: Fit, Flow and Flexibility In this interview, Altium Chief of Staff and Head of Investor Relations, Kim Besharati discusses the new Multi-Level Subscription Plan that was rolled out earlier this month. By providing unprecedented flexibility, choice and a ground-breaking way for design engineers to collaborate with the entire supply chain, this new subscription plan is Read Article

All About ORANs: A PCB Designer's Guide to Open Radio Access Networks Open radio access networks, or ORANs, are a new paradigm in telecom architecture that will enable future 5G and 6G network architectures. Read Article

Best Design Practices for Double-Sided PCB Soldering with SMD Parts Read our guidelines for designers who want to ensure successful double-sided PCB soldering. Read Article

Decoupling Capacitor Optimization for Power Integrity Decoupling capacitor optimization is more than a buzzword, it’s all about selecting the right set of capacitors to keep power stable in your PDN. Read Article

New Altium Subscription Plans: Fit, Flow and Flexibility In this interview, Altium Chief of Staff and Head of Investor Relations, Kim Besharati discusses the new Multi-Level Subscription Plan that was rolled out earlier this month. By providing unprecedented flexibility, choice and a ground-breaking way for design engineers to collaborate with the entire supply chain, this new subscription plan is poised to fundamentally improve the way electronic products are realized around the world. Judy Warner Read Article

Temperature Sensor Project: Analog Temperature Sensor ICs Learn more about the fourth class of temperature sensors in a series of articles that are all about measuring temperature. Discover their advantages and disadvantages as well as common topologies for their implementation. Read Article