PCB Designers Motivated by Data Quality When you look at the many steps involved with a single PCB design, it is easy to get lost in those details. Figuring out our next steps is often overwhelming. When that happens to me, after taking a deep breath, I repeat a common phrase that has become my professional mantra. “Eat the Elephant.” The old riddle is, how do you eat the elephant? Answer: One bite at a time. It is a skill to take a massive project and break it down to its parts Read Article PCB Library Standardization: How to Build a Clean and Consistent PCB Data Library Judy Warner : Cherie, before we get started, please take a moment to define what a “library” is and what the full scope of that entails. Cherie Litson : Most of us would define a “library” as a consistent file of symbols and a consistent file of footprints (decals, land-patterns, etc.) connected with some form of a database. You don’t even need to have the database, just a good schematic symbol file and a footprint file and a method to link them Read Article Dk Values And How Datasheets Impact Your Design In this OnTrack episode we'll talk about Dielectric constant (Dk) and the difference between Design Dk & Process Dk. How datasheets can be confusing and can impact your design? Listen in for more. Read Article PCB Signals: Key Elements of High-Speed PCB Design Understanding the Challenge How Long is too Long? Matching the Impedances Where does the Return Energy Flow? Differential Pairs What about Vias? Crosstalk Dancing in Time The Board The Materials The Layers Possible Layer Stackups Understanding the Challenge The purpose of this article is to introduce the key elements of high-speed design and then discuss how each of those elements is tackled in Altium Designer. This article does not attempt to Read Article Intro to High-Speed Design TOPICS IN THIS SOLUTION Complicated PCB Design for High-Speed Applications High-Speed Constraints Are Used in Every Phase of the Design Process Analyzing the Design for Consistent Operation that Meets Specification You’re creating products that are made for the present day, which means moving past traditional PCB technology and design techniques. It takes more than innovation to perform these tasks well - how do you create high-speed interfaces Read Article What is PCB Data Management? Successful design and manufacture of any PCB requires managing data. Every PCB project includes a ton of data on the components, front-end schematics, the physical layout, and manufacturing files. There is other documentation that may be needed that is not captured in your PCB design software. This all has to be tracked and managed by the designer because working with incomplete or out-of-date data will result in a design that doesn't perform as Read Article PDS Design For Ultra-low Power Implementations When it comes to low power implementations, products are characterized as very rarely having high current options, being small in size, being optimized for power management and having the necessity for batteries to last as long as possible. There’s a broad spectrum of products that fall under these criteria including, but not limited to, smartphones, smartwatches, remote monitoring devices and medical devices to name a few. In terms of PDS design Read Article Power Play—Successfully Designing Power Delivery Systems Across the industry, the design element that continues to cause the most problems is the power delivery system (PDS). And, as a consulting firm, for the last several years the majority of problems that we have been called in to solve have always centered on PDS problems. As noted in my previous blog on guard traces and their ineffectiveness, every time we have been called upon to solve an EMI problem, we have always ended up fixing the PDS. This Read Article Meshing Design with Electronics Assembly and Flux Cleaning PCBAs require flux cleaning during assembly, as well as other cleaning steps to remove other soils. Read this blog by expert Barbara Kanegsberg to learn more about cleaning processes. Read Article The Art of Selecting Connectors Connectors are the unsung stars of both a product and its hardware development. Any Apple user knows the romantic tale the company has spun from infatuation with the first magnetic power connector through the betrayal of the 3.5mm jack to today’s ‘it’s complicated’ status thanks to the baggage their dongles create in pursuit of beauty. Product developers have similar emotional experiences with their prototypes. An unreliable connector that has Read Article Embedded Software Is Everywhere: Potential Implications The amount of smart, connected products is increasing faster than ever. It was only very recently that IoT technology jumped from our phones and computers to our refrigerators, our lighting systems, and our vacuum cleaners. It's starting to seem like nothing is excluded from this extensive digital overhaul. In 2016, the smart home market was worth about $24 billion. By 2022, it's expected to reach $53 billion. Smart homes and robots are no longer Read Article Weekly Digest: Documentation, Datasheets and Reliability In this article, we’re rounding up and collecting everything we’ve published this week for your weekend reading. Articles from PCB Design Experts For people who like to read there’s never a shortage of informative articles on the PCB Design Blog . Click to read new articles and while you’re there please leave a comment with questions or feedback. How to 'GIT' Collaborative with Altium - by Ari Mahpour PCIe BGA Fanouts and Escape Routing - by Zach Read Article DFSI: Stripline Differential Impedance Calculation Made Easy As a PCB designer, you may hear your signal integrity overlords dictate controlled impedance with a specific value and tolerance. As someone who has requested these things, I know designers have trouble with implementing this in their trace geometry. This article details what impedance is, how it is calculated, and a practical way for PCB designers to determine the proper geometry for their application. When designing high-speed serial circuits Read Article Why PCB Prototyping in the U.S. is a Crucial Element For Success Within today’s global design and manufacturing environment, moving PCB manufacturing offshore is our industry’s de facto product development process. Many believe that PCB prototyping could and should be moved offshore to take advantage of the rising skill and capability levels of the offshore resources in Taiwan, China and Korea. This has led to a crisis in the U.S. PCB prototyping industry. U.S.-based companies find it difficult to stay in Read Article How to "Git" Collaborative with Altium Designer Getting collaboration right with any ECAD tool can be rather challenging. For most of us we tend to stick with the “old school” methods: Work on your design Send a zip package via email to another Other works on the design and sends a zip package back to you for review You work on your design and send back to the other Repeat forever This method not only clutters up your inbox but it also forces you to work in a serial fashion. The solution to Read Article Datasheet Reliability with Ben Jordan In this OnTrack episode Judy Warner and Ben Jordan discuss about Datasheet Reliability. Can you trust them? And what does “Gilded” mean? This & more about verifying app notes. Watch the full episode. Read Article PCIe Card Guides: BGA Fanouts and Escape Routing With all the chips that appear on a PCI or PCIe card, laying out and routing these boards might seem extremely complicated. However, the standardized architecture of PCIe provides considerable flexibility for designers. One issue that is a bit complicated is PCIe BGA fanouts for components on these cards. The trick to implementing a fanout and escape routing strategy is ensuring that you comply with the PCIe layout and routing specifications Read Article Pagination First page « First Previous page ‹‹ Page98 Current page99 Page100 Page101 Page102 Page103 Next page ›› Last page Last » Load More