EIPC: A European Community of PCB Technology Professionals and Manufacturers In mid-June, I had the great pleasure of attending my first EIPC Conference in Leoben, Austria (pictured above). EIPC (European Institute for the PCB Community) is an organization that has been around for over 50 years and serves the European Electronics Industry and supply chain while maintaining activities that involve the global industry. In this article, I speak with Tarja Rapala, the technical director for EIPC to discuss the purpose Read Article Engineers Embrace Failure on the Way to Success I'm sure you have worked on a project where you have spent days or weeks trying to make a solution work and at the end wish you had changed directions. I'm a big fan of the 'Fail early, fail fast' concept from software engineering, but I took many years to apply it consistently to electronic design. Some professional environments discourage failure, and unfortunately, many educational settings only offer the option of right or wrong. Changing Read Article OnTrack Newsletter: PCB Design Zen, Component Management and Brain Food - June 2019 OnTrack Newsletter – July 2019 VOL. 3 No 3 To view this email as a web page, click here 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 Read Article 38:13 2019-07-04 - Easy PCB Drawings with Draftsman - EN - Webinar - APAC - ADSCvid Watch Video PCB Designer Certifications and Learning Programs In this OnTrack Podcast Episode learn about how CID certification can help you land a job as a PCB designer. Watch the full episode here. Read Article Continuous Integration: An Implementation Using Altium Designer In a previous article, Continuous Integration and Deployment in ECAD , we discussed the concept of Continuous Integration while testing within a build system (leveraging Git). In this article, we will take a deeper look at how to set this up and run these “tests” against one’s PCB design project. Continuous Integration Tests: Revisited In Software Engineering, the purpose of implementing Continuous Integration into a workflow is to prevent one’s Read Article The Evolution Of Simulation Technology and Crosstalk In Part 1 of this blog, I discussed the evolution of simulation as it applied to calculating impedance control. This article focuses on crosstalk which, along with impedance, is one of the more straightforward aspects associated with simulation. The following describes the various elements associated with crosstalk, the challenges associated with it and how to ensure that your PCB design meets crosstalk requirements. Crosstalk Solving for Read Article The Evolution Of Simulation Technology and Impedance When design engineers started using simulation toolsets, we originally cared only about impedance and terminations. Then when things got fast, we had to worry about loss in the path. Next, we had to address differential pairs (which are specialized transmission lines) and skew. Most recently, we have had to worry about the effect of vias at very high data rates. Note: Of all of these elements, skew is the only one which cannot be simulated. From Read Article Rigid Flex Cost Comparison Are you starting a design and contemplating whether to use a rigid-flex construction or to move forward with multiple rigid boards and wire/cable connections? Using a rigid-flex concept to replace the traditional approach of using cable assemblies to join two or more rigid boards has clear benefits: reduction in space and weight, more design freedom in packaging, reliability, and increased current carrying capabilities. But the rigid-flex Read Article Addressing The PDS Design Challenge In part 1 of this article , I described the various challenges and problems associated with maintaining the power integrity of a PCB as accomplished through the design of a fully functioning PDS for any given product implementation. This article will address those problems and challenges by outlining the elements that comprise a PDS, what the job of an engineer is in designing a PDS and the resources available for that design process. It should Read Article Why and How to Use an Aluminum PCB Substrate for Your Next Stackup Design Aluminum can be used for more than just soda cans I don’t drink soda so much anymore now that I’m in my thirties, but I know aluminum has plenty of uses outside of making coke cans. One use is in the core of your PCB as a material for thermal management. Aluminum has high thermal conductivity and can be used to carry heat away from active components on a PCB when other passive or active cooling measures cannot bring component temperatures to a Read Article Decoupling Capacitor Calculations: What Size Should You Use For Digital ICs? Are these decoupling capacitors sized properly? Something that comes up repeatedly in PCB design guidelines, including high-speed digital design "gurus", is the need to find the proper decoupling capacitor size. This is sometimes addressed without a full understanding of what these caps are supposed to do in a PDN or their role in ensuring power integrity. I've also seen many application notes that default to the decades-old guideline of placing Read Article Symmetric Stripline Inductance or Impedance Calculators and Formulas In a previous article , we looked at the inconsistencies that can arise when using different calculators to compute the impedance of surface and embedded microstrip traces. Many of the same issues mentioned in the previous article apply to stripline impedance calculators. Symmetric striplines are easier to address than asymmetric striplines, both numerically and analytically. Here, we’ll give a short comparison of the various impedance formulas Read Article Ethernet Layout Routing Guidelines and Standards: MAC, PHY, and RJ-45 Connectors Magnetics termination has little to do with actual magnets. Here are some important ethernet layout routing guidelines to ensure signal integrity. Read Article 37:36 2019-06-27 - Easy PCB Drawings with Draftsman - EN - Webinar - APAC - ADSCvid Watch Video 23:01 Output Job Files for Rapid, Repeatable PCB Manufacturing Data Generation Watch Video 49:24 New Product Overview: Altium Concord Pro Altium Concord Pro™ as a standalone product and brand name has been discontinued and the capabilities are now available as Watch Video Pagination First page « First Previous page ‹‹ Page97 Current page98 Page99 Page100 Page101 Page102 Next page ›› Last page Last » Load More