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.

1:18:28 [Live Webinar - Altium Designer 20.1] 6 Reasons to Switch Design Tools Come see how Altium Designer, the industry standard for PCB design, combined with Altium 365 delivers the world’s first connected Watch Video

Which Type of Capacitor Should You Use? Capacitors are used in far more applications than just bypassing noise, and there are many more types of capacitors than just ceramic and aluminium electrolytic. Read Article

A Guide to Challenging Projects Starting a project? Here's an expert advise from Mark Harris to get you through challenging design projects. Read this blog and see if this method will work for you. Read Article

36:28 Length Matching in High Speed Buses With ever increasing speeds in high speed data systems comes a couple of PCB layout challenges. High speed busses like Watch Video

The Increasingly Important Role Of Dielectric Loss Tangent In PCB Laminates Learn more about dielectric loss tangent, the role it plays in high-speed designs, and how it varies as a result of the glass to resin ratio and frequency. Read Article

Solder Bridge Jumper Best Practices in PCB Design A PCB variant is often simply thought of as a new layout created from an old design. However, if you’re creative with your routing and layout, you can use a solder bridge jumper to configure portions of a single PCB layout for multiple variants. This lets you quickly create variants of a PCB layout without rerouting traces or changing your schematics. If you plan to use jumpers in your PCB layout, there are some important guidelines to follow to Read Article

Robert Feranec and IoT Security The AltiumLive Virtual Summit is just around the corner! So in a unique episode of OnTrack, we share clips of Robert Feranec, motherboard designer and founder and CEO of Fedevel Academy, speaking on such topics as IoT device security in an increasingly connected world, the pitfalls of underestimating the complexity of your fellow stakeholder’s job, and the value of attending AltiumLive. This is a short and impactful episode you shouldn’t miss. Read Article

Getting Through Agile Prototyping in Agile Hardware Development If you’ve worked in software development, such as in web design or enterprise software design, you know how difficult it can be to get clients to understand the look and feel of a product from a static wireframe. We’ve had the same problem in recent projects, especially when the POC was not a technical person. The client ultimately had to take it on faith that we knew what we were doing and could deliver what we promised. There’s no substitute Read Article

Tips for Managing the Hardware Development Cycle Your PCB design team needs to stay productive. Here’s how you can control the hardware development cycle when working remotely. Read Article

Using Cellular for Internet of Things Devices and Design Cellular internet of things products are widely accessible and easy to design thanks to standard cellular modem modules and transceiver components. Read Article

Determining the Parasitic Inductance of a DC to DC Converter Unwanted parasitic inductance from capacitors and transformer leakage inductance in DC/DC converters cause power instability in digital systems. Here's how you can determine parasitic inductance in your power system. Read Article

Making Value Chain Management Work for Electronics Exploring and tracking projects as part of value chain management is possible with the right set of managed design data tools in the cloud. Read Article

An Introduction to Git for Hardware with Altium Designer Introduction A few years ago, I temporarily transitioned from working in a hip hyper-caffeinated startup environment to an engineering job in a more well-seasoned and experienced company. I then realised the binomial connection between technical culture and tools. How we think and how we work is shaped by the tools available to us, as our needs and customs influence the tools we choose. The new company where I worked wasn't accustomed to 3D Read Article

Analyzing Crosstalk on FIFO and DDR4 Parallel Bus Interfaces Do you need to spot crosstalk on a parallel bus? Use a field solver that integrates with your PCB design and layout tools. Read Article

I2C vs. SPI vs. UART: How to Layout These Common Buses If you’ve never worked with an MCU and programmable ICs, here are some guidelines on I2C vs. SPI vs. UART layout and routing. Read Article

PCB Conformal Coating Types: Which is Best for Your New Board? There are many PCB conformal coating types that can be used to protect your board from excess moisture and corrosion. Read Article

What is Transfer Impedance in a PDN? We often talk about impedance in a PDN, but we always refer to self impedance. Here’s what you need to know about transfer impedance in your PCB. Read Article