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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.

Differences Between Hardware Design for Hobbyists and Commercial Applications Even though I’ve been a Taekwondo practitioner for 20 years, I still get slightly nervous each time I step into a competition ring. No matter how many practice rounds I’ve sparred, the actual fight is an adrenaline-filled experience that cannot be replicated elsewhere. Imagine two people stepping into a ring and each stepper immediately trying to ascertain where the other’s weaknesses are. Similar to me when I’m prototyping a new board! The same Read Article
How to Optimize HDI Design in Electronics Neutron stars seem like the stuff of science fiction. Imagine stars as large as the sun exploding in a blinding supernova. Better yet, consider how the spectacular explosion peels the outer layers of the star away and leaves a small, continually collapsing dense core. Gravity pushes the dense matter together to the point of protons and electrons combining into neutrons. As the star’s gravity becomes 200 billion times stronger than the Earth’s Read Article
Termination Methods in High Speed and High Frequency PCBs To this day I still have a tall stack of printed articles I refer to when working on a new research or design project. Even though I know I can find all of this information online, I still refer to my trusty stack of articles regularly for design information. Keeping all the relevant system design rules and research results in one place saves me a huge amount of time. Whether you’re working with PCBs or any other electronic system, keeping track Read Article
Board Shape Management in 3D Modeling Software Rectangular PCBs are old school. Newer devices are more likely to use an odd-shaped PCB that closely conforms to its packaging, or a rigid-flex board that moves with the device. 3D visualization tools have become essential for PCB designers, especially when designing rigid-flex boards with unique shapes. Using CAD software, you’ll want to have a sketchup that ensures printing is easy to achieve. Managing board shapes for use in rigid and rigid Read Article
An Introduction to Multi-board Design in Altium Designer Brain games are a good way to stay sharp. One of my favorite ways to implement this is by doing daily puzzles. Although, I love the crossword puzzles where you complete the words from a given clue, I think puzzles that require you to put the pieces together can be the most challenging, especially when it is a group activity. It reminds me of one the more daunting problems for engineers and PCB designers, which is multi-board design. Not only are Read Article
Excel Versus BOM Software: When Your Data Management Tool Needs an Upgrade At our house, creating a grocery shopping list can become a multi-day event. Stage 1 of the extravaganza involves a careful but not well-planned review of all available grocery store ads. Stage 2 moves on to the analysis of those advertisements. One never knows where bargains may lurk. Then, Stage 3 takes us to the pantry for a study of our available resources while Stage 4 measures our budget against our needs. When we eventually stroll through Read Article
Communicating PCB Layer Stackup Needs to Manufacturers False or inadequate communication can wreck a project. Just recently, I overheard a husband and wife talking about buying blinds. Seems like a simple topic and a simple task. It probably is, if everyone listens, pays attention, and understands. While she was thinking about decorating her daughter’s bedroom, he was thinking about… hunting. Imagine his excitement as he purchased the limited edition Beak n’ Feather hay bale duck blind and how he Read Article
Ceramic vs. FR4 Multilayer PCBs: When to Use Either and How For most folks, hearing the word “ceramics” conjures images of a middle school or high school art class, where you proudly created a deformed coffee cup for your parents. Fast forward to your days as an engineer, and ceramics material play a critical role in electronic components. A ceramic material PCB design with capacitors can be a valuable circuit to know. Industries that require high speed/high frequency boards that can withstand harsh Read Article
Multi-Directional Communication for Easy Mechanical and Electrical Collaboration My neighbor and I were sitting on the patio one summer dreaming up a Christmas display that would span both our yards. Engineers, right? Ambitious project, for sure, but we had fun visualizing Santa and his reindeer flying across our two roofs. We’d use LED light strings to span the rooflines and we’d incorporate controllers to synchronize Christmas music. Several months later after summer had turned to Fall, in comes the neighbor with a CAD Read Article
18:44 Exploring Altium Designer's Project Releaser Webinar What is the Altium Project Releaser? The Project Releaser is a single-click automation of manufacturing output generation built on top Watch Video
Hybrid Construction Trends in the Marketplace Hybrid construction is a huge growth area with a lot of opportunity for PCB designers. Learn from Chris Hunrath, VP of Technology at Insulectro, as he provides several valuable insights about the latest in hybrid construction trends. Get facts from an expert in material properties and how to use and combine them in the PCB assembly process. Learn more about polyamide film and its properties, how to use the FR4 as glue, and many more ways to make Read Article
Overview of PCB Development Process I have a friend who forgets that the rest of us can’t read his mind. He often starts a conversation without any sort of introduction or context. There have been many times where after several minutes of dialog I have had to hold up my hands and simply ask; “what are you talking about?” Once he backs up and gives me an overview, then I am ready for the details. Although this had made for some amusing moments, it isn’t nearly so funny when it Read Article
PCB Trace Corrosion: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It When most people drop their cell phone in water, they hurriedly dry off the outside of the phone, remove the battery, and toss the phone in a bag of rice. The myth goes that the rice draws water out from the inside of the phone, thus saving your phone’s the precious electronic circuitry, your wallet’s money, and your own sanity. What people don’t realize is that simply drying out your phone is not a solution. Water ingress can cause the device to Read Article
How Non-functional Pads Affect Your PCB Design I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve been sucked into intractable debates on technological and scientific topics with friends, family, and on internet forums in the past. Many people stick to their opinions, and you will have to move mountains to change their minds. Even the PCB design industry is not immune to this problem, and there is still debate about a simple design issue that can have big implications. Non-functional pads are an issue in the Read Article
Laser-drilled Via-in-pad Technology in Your PCB If you’re my age, you probably grew up playing Super Mario Brothers. Whether it’s diving through those green copper pipes, or jumping up through the clouds, moving between worlds in Super Mario is like moving between layers in a multi-layer PCB. Your vias are that critical feature that allows signals to move between different layers. Okay, maybe you there’s less copper and plating involved in Super Mario world, but it’s the same idea. Via-in-pad Read Article
Design Reuse: Methodologies and Best Practices for Re-Applying Previous Boards It’s to reuse items related to our work. Chefs reuse recipes, seamstresses reuse patterns, and engineers reuse circuitry. The problem is that our design tools aren’t always on the same page with us when it comes to re-applying previous boards and circuitry. The benefits are obvious; reusing work will save time and money. Additionally, there’s the benefit of using circuitry that has already been through the debug process and is known to work. I Read Article
Leave Translation Magic in the Hands of Altium Import Wizard Having a wizard do your bidding is great when convoluted tasks need some hocus pocus. Removing tortuous steps to get a solution is the goal. A wizard moves pesky tasks to forgotten trials by doing the heavy lifting. Need your PCB files translated? Call the wizard. PCB design toolsets would benefit from well-placed wizards able to perform intricate tasks like file translation. File translation is needed when importing document containers Read Article