First Prize Winner at Intel International Science and Engineering Fair My name is Piotr Lazarek, and I’m a second year student at the “Filomata” secondary school in Gliwice. Since 2017 I have been engaged in developing new technologies within the sector of precision agriculture, and for my most recent project I worked on the creation of an autonomous vehicle which uses a replaceable ion-selective electrode system in order to measure concentrations of different elements inside soil. This work generates useful data Read Article Automotive Software Engineering: The Race to Hire Embedded Software Engineers Embedded software engineers will take a new place of prominence in the automotive industry The current economic climate in the US is humming along and has been primarily driven by growth in the tech sector. Everything from consumer electronics, SaaS, and advanced manufacturing are helping drive growth. The electronics portion of the automotive industry is not typically seen as sitting at the cutting edge of new technology, until you look to the Read Article Chirped Automotive Radar Sensor Systems Design and Analysis Thanks to the German inventor Christian Huelsmeyer, radar has been around since 1904, the year he patented his telemobiloscope. This simple radar device could detect ships up to 3000 m away and operated at wavelengths from 40-50 cm with a separate receiver antenna. The device could only be used to determine the presence of a distant object, but later versions could be used to calculate range. Today’s semi-autonomous vehicles, and upcoming fully Read Article Damping and Reflection Transfer with a Series Termination Resistor Trace, source, and load impedance matching are important in boards that contain transmission lines. To reach these conditions, you may see some designs that use a series termination resistor on single-ended transmission lines. The reasoning for doing this is sometimes to slow down a signal, or sometimes to set the driver's output impedance, depending who you ask. As surprising as it might be, the placement of series resistors for termination are Read Article Joe Grand on Hacking, Badgelife and AltiumLive Meet the guy who started hacking at the age of seven. Watch or Listen today's Ontrack Episode and learn how he ended up becoming a part of hacker history. Read Article Rules Verification in Agile PCB Design and Development Agile development relies on a unique workflow that can benefit from PCB design rule verification I used to think that agile development is just a software development methodology with specific rules and processes. Agile hardware design processes seem to be rigid when viewed from the surface, but any agile design process is designed to allow a team to adapt to change throughout the product development cycle. In reality, the central ideas in agile Read Article BOM Management and PCB Design Data Synchronization Cloud-based tools for data management can keep your design and production data synchronized If you lead a design team, then your job is already difficult enough. Your design teams need to adhere to a development schedule and manage requirements changes as they create a new product. Collaboration is key in any environment with multiple players, and your design tools play an important role in creating a productive environment. Ensuring that all Read Article Embedded Optical Interconnects in PCBs for Ultra High Speed Design Most PCB designers—except those that work on optical transceivers—are probably not aware of the coming revolution in silicon photonic integrated circuits (PICs), electronic-photonic integrated circuits (EPICs), and greater proliferation of embedded optical systems outside of telecom. Applications outside of telecom (for example, military and aerospace systems) that require massive data transfer rates already make use of fiber optics for embedded Read Article Agile Product Lifecycle Management Methods in PCB Design Supercharge your productivity with agile product lifecycle management Any industry that relies heavily on new technologies must frequently reinvent itself and address product obsolescence. Every piece of technology has a finite lifecycle that ends due to obsolescence or malfunction. Electronics and the PCBs that support them are no different; components on PCBs eventually wear out and malfunction, or the product can no longer compete with a Read Article Landless Vias One persistent myth is that PCB vias MUST have annular rings. I thought this for many years until our Japanese partners introduced us to landless vias. We said, “You can’t do that, the vias have to have lands!” They replied, “Try it out and test it?” So, we created a test vehicle and tested thousands of vias with various diameters against numerous annular ring vias. Guess what? They were right!! As the annular ring got smaller, the failures Read Article Rick Hartley on EMI, Noise Reduction Interested to learn about reducing noise in your PCB design? Listen to this OnTrack Episode with Rick Hartley. He is sharing some important notes about EMI, noise reduction. Read Article What is an Engineering Bill of Materials in Agile PCB Design? If you’ve ever prepared a new device for manufacturing, then you’re probably familiar with the different types of bills of materials. Each document has its place in the design and production planning process. If you understand the role of each type of bill of materials, you can take advantage of the information it contains to improve your design process. If you’re an agile hardware development team, then you know that your design team will need Read Article Why Your BOM Excel Template is Going the Way of the Dinosaur It’s time to ditch your BOM Excel template The saying goes in software, “great coders use great code”. The same idea applies to Excel templates. I like to use Excel templates for a number of business tasks. I use invoice templates , finance calculators, and an accounting template. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel, so why not use a great template when someone makes it available for free? The usefulness of an Excel template depends on the data Read Article What is Printed Electronics Design? What is printed electronics design? The answer is simple: it is electronics design. You utilize circuit theories, mathematical calculations and computer-based simulations for doing electronics design. You design electrical functionality and performance for a product using printed electronics materials. The materials are the key point as the materials used for printed electronics have different electrical performance characteristics than those Read Article OnTrack Newsletter - July 2019 Vol 3. No. 3 OnTrack Newsletter July 2019 VOL. 3 No 3 AltiumLive 2019: The Hat Trick The third annual AltiumLive: Annual PCB Design conference is almost here again and will be located in San Diego and Frankfurt. Learn more about all that’s in store for this year’s event and how we plan to pull off a perfect hat trick! Read Article EIPC: A European Community of PCB Professionals In mid-June, I had the great pleasure of attending my first EIPC Conference in Read Article 5 Helpful Tips To Increase Schematic Productivity In Altium Designer Altium Designer has many shortcuts and features to increase your productivity during the schematic creation process. By understanding and utilizing the features described here, you’ll expedite the schematic creation process and hopefully have fun doing it. Here are 5 key productivity enhancers you should know for schematic capture. Disconnect and Move Symbol : CTR + Click & Move. Move a part without connected wires. By default when you move a Read Article Gerry Partida on Wrap Plating Learn about wrap plating and via filling and what the benefits, requirements and drawbacks of this technology are, and what you need to know about designing these and how this technology drives cost. Read Article Pagination First page « First Previous page ‹‹ Page91 Current page92 Page93 Page94 Page95 Page96 Next page ›› Last page Last » Load More