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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...

High speed buses, whether single-ended or differential, can experience any number of signal integrity problems. A primary problem created by propagating signals is crosstalk, where a signal superimposes itself on a nearby trace. For parallel nets, this is particularly problematic as it leads to data corruption in severe cases. While you could slow down the rise time of a signal, this may require lowering the data transfer rate and may be...

With ever-increasing speeds in high-speed data systems comes a couple of PCB layout challenges. High speed busses like DDR, VME, PCIe just to mention a few can all reach data transfer speeds that require strict timing with very tight tolerances, thereby leaving very little slack in the PCB layout. Join us in this webinar to learn why it's imperative to match track lengths in high speed data systems and differential signals. You’ll see how to...

With ever increasing speeds in high speed data systems comes a couple of PCB layout challenges. High speed busses like DDR, VME, PCIe just to mention a few can all reach data transfer speeds that require strict timing with very tight tolerances, thereby leaving very little slack in the PCB layout. Watch this on-demand webinar to learn why it's imperative to match track lengths in high speed data systems and differential signals. You’ll see how...

If you’re building a dev board for your project or using a common MCU, you’ll find many protocols for communicating other active components. Standards like USB and Ethernet are built into most controllers for working with computer peripherals. Still, protocols like I2C, SPI, UART, and others are used to interface with downstream MCUs or programmable ICs. The differences between SPI vs. I2C vs. UART buses are simple, and any designer working with...

When you’re engineering a new system, you try to account for all the electrical and environmental factors that could lead to early failure. High temperatures, excess humidity, exposure to corrosive substances, and high vibration stresses are sources of failure. A conformal coating is one way to protect your board from humidity, dust, or corrosive substances, reducing the chances of failure during operation. Here are some of the popular PCB...

We talk about signal integrity and power integrity a lot on this blog. Both are important concepts and are related to the impedance of different elements in a real board. Impedance defines how the current and voltage in a signal are related to each other, but this is the typical definition of self impedance that most designers are familiar with. In a complicated electronic or optical system, elements form a complex multi-port network due to...

Getting your PCB layout design done takes patience and precision. Complex footprint geometries, board shape, and dense component placement require accurate primitive positioning. Each stage of PCB design needs a different snapping configuration. Often your settings can be excellent fit for one stage and be unfavorable for another. For example, good snapping settings for your board outline can make routing almost impossible. Learn more about...

In 2015, Altium released Altium CircuitStudio® to best meet the needs of casual users, hobbyists, students, and PCB design aficionados on a budget. The program helped further Altium’s goal of advancing the electronic design industry, offering the community a straight-forward schematic capture and project management tool combined with a powerful PCB design engine that supports 3D PCB editing at an accessible price. A New Life for An Old...