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BOM Control: Setting up your PCB Documentation for Success

BOM Control: Setting up your PCB Documentation for Success Years ago I ventured into the world of remote control helicopters. Not the ready-to-fly-out-of-the-box drones that they sell today, but a gas-engine, Bell-Hiller mix, remote-controlled helicopter. What the salesman didn’t tell me though was about all the other items that I would need to purchase in order to complete it. I was going to have to purchase the engine, muffler, radio components, servos, starter, battery, as well as much more. As you Read Article

A Big Kick in PCB Interconnect Solutions: Multi-Board Best Practices

A Big Kick in PCB Interconnect Solutions: Multi-Board Best Practices I’ve always enjoyed thinking about circuits similar to tiny cities. Copper routing as the streets, components as building structures, vias, and the following electrons as the inhabitants running around. But imagine what PCB would be in the city from Inception where the flat ground starts turning on its head and extending overtop, or if Salvador Dali became a city-planner. In today’s world of densely packed components (HDI), advanced manufacturing Read Article

Where Do They All Go? PCB Layout Component Placement Guidelines

Where Do They All Go? PCB Layout Component Placement Guidelines When I first learned how to play “Hearts,” I was always worried about how to pass those three cards right off the bat. What if I helped who I was playing against? I got the hang of it eventually and with enough games under my belt. I could recognize card patterns to make the best choices, but until I got to that point it felt like I was throwing random cards across the tables. My PCB design wasn’t too far off from my card strategy there, in Read Article

Wet and Dry PCB Etching Solutions: Which Process is the Right Solution?

Wet and Dry PCB Etching Solutions: Which Process is the Right Solution? I have always been a very visually-oriented thinker. When I was much younger, I used to look up maps to video game levels online and put a sheet of tracing paper up against the screen to copy them down. The Zelda games specifically would always leave me with a notebook full of maps and, on the more challenging dungeons, color-coded warnings. If I sneezed once in my tracing process or the screen moved or I was called away mid-tracing, my map would Read Article

Properties of Semiconductors: Electrodeposition and PCB Devices

Properties of Semiconductors: Electrodeposition and PCB Devices I started working with gas sensors 10 years ago—my team had several ideas on how to improve the performance of our devices by integrating semiconductor nanomaterials into our PCB-based sensors. We were familiar with various electron, barrier heights, valence electrons, conduction band and the semiconductor interface. We were all masters of electrodeposition and masters of gas sensors in our own right, and we had the idea to integrate the two Read Article

Sooner or Later, Your PCB Design Layout Will Need Rework

Sooner or Later, Your PCB Design Layout Will Need Rework I woke up last Saturday morning eager to get started on my latest backyard project. First, a trip to the hardware store for supplies, and then spend the rest of the day working on the project. Or at least I thought that I had it all planned out until my wife reminded me that I had promised to help her with some other chores. The proverbial rug of my weekend project was yanked out from under me by the classic “honey-do” block. Since I had, in fact Read Article

Bill of Materials Management Strategies: Automation is Your Friend

Bill of Materials Management Strategies: Automation is Your Friend When I was a boy I really enjoyed reading the “Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators” mystery books. These books were a contemporary to “The Hardy Boys” mystery books and I filled a lot of my free time reading about “The Secret of Terror Castle”, “The Mystery of the Screaming Clock”, and many other frightful enigmas. A few years ago I ran across some of these books, and now I collect as many as I can find. Another avid fan I know said it Read Article

Step Up Your Game: Multi-Board Versus Multilayer Designs

Step Up Your Game: Multi-Board Versus Multilayer Designs I don’t remember much about playing football in high school. I’m not sure if that’s because of wanting to forget the endless grueling practices to prepare us for getting pummeled in the game, or actually getting pummeled in the game. Either way, I tend to vaguely associate high school football with lots of hard work and pain, punctuated by the occasional moments of glory. If there is one thing that I do remember very vividly, it was the coaches Read Article

Practice Makes Perfect: How to Test Electronic Components during PCB Design

Practice Makes Perfect: How to Test Electronic Components during PCB Design When I was younger, well much younger, I had dreams of one day being a pro athlete. I wanted to be the guy who scored the winning touchdown, knocked in the winning run or hit the buzzer-beater. Although I never made to the professional level, I did have some success and I learned a lot. The most important thing was the results you achieved were strictly tied to your preparation. In other words, if I wanted to do well in the game I had to test Read Article

High Current PCB Design and its Real World Applications

High Current PCB Design and its Real World Applications With the rise of PCB applications stretching far and wide, designs are being created for applications that extend past simple signal integrity solutions. Advancements in material technology, PCB manufacturing capabilities, and the rising demand for PCB design is opening up the floor for many industries that otherwise have been dormant in the PCB world. Many limitations that were not present a handful of years ago are beginning to loosen. Of Read Article

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Designing with Breadboards

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Designing with Breadboards Breadcrumbs, breadboards, and breadwinners. One of which has electronic components. Two of which will provide you with a delicious and nutritious meal enough to feed a family. The first, will provide you with the foundational playground to which your printed circuit board board design will spawn from. I will save you time, effort, and many awkward encounters by telling you that if you go around trying to stick jumper leads into breadwinners Read Article

PCB Designers for SpaceX and Beyond: Yesterday’s Fiction, Tomorrow’s Reality

PCB Designers for SpaceX and Beyond: Yesterday’s Fiction, Tomorrow’s Reality I’ve wanted a career in engineering for as long as I can remember. There were people who could MacGyver something out of nothing and I wanted to be one of those people. I’m sure that watching science fiction on TV added a lot to that. I mean, who wouldn’t want to manipulate technology and control immense power like “Scotty” on Star Trek? I found out that I’m not alone in those dreams—apparently, Scotty was the inspiration for much interest in Read Article

How to Create a Bill of Materials That Meets Your Needs

How to Create a Bill of Materials That Meets Your Needs Sometimes when pressed to answer a question that I’m not prepared for like, “what do you want for your birthday”, I’ll respond flippantly; “small stacks of hundreds please!” I don’t even remember where I got this quote from, but I tend to use it a lot. It often kills the conversation and in the case of my wife, it earns me an immediate “annoyed wife glare” in response. Wouldn’t it be nice though if just for once someone actually honored my Read Article

Circuit Board Sizes and Shapes, How to Make a PCB

Circuit Board Sizes and Shapes, How to Make a PCB For many years my career took me to a lot of different locations as I traveled to conduct business. One of the wonderful things about travel is how it opens you up to new experiences and individuals. You only truly begin understanding how diverse our world is after witnessing the differences throughout various of it. I just wish I brought a dog with me on those trips, so I could name it “Toto,” because I sure wasn’t in Kansas anymore. Just as Read Article

The Best PCB Design Tools Help You Grow From Design Kindergarten

The Best PCB Design Tools Help You Grow From Design Kindergarten I used to work with middle-school aged kids, and one of the topics that I taught them was how to work together. I would separate them into four small groups and give each group a set of instructions on how to complete a section of a project. The intent was that after the four individual sections were completed, the kids would then come back together and use those sections to form one final project. The results though were usually pretty funny as Read Article

Remove the Chance of PCB Manufacturing Delays by Using a Final Deliverable Checklist

Remove the Chance of PCB Manufacturing Delays by Using a Final Deliverable Checklist Several years ago I had knee surgery. Something had happened to the membrane that provided protection in the joint, and my knee was making all kinds of noise that a healthy knee shouldn’t be making. Before going into the surgery the doctor said that I should take a marker and carefully notate which knee required the surgery. Considering the circumstances, I hope he wasn’t pulling my leg before cutting into it. Using a checklist is always a good Read Article

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