PCB Components

Use PCB Routing Tools With an Integrated Trace Length Calculator

Use PCB Routing Tools With an Integrated Trace Length Matching Calculator If you’re a mechanical or electrical designer, you need CAD tools that provide accurate trace length and geometry calculations. Once you start working with high-speed or high-frequency circuits, propagation delay and skew become critical points to consider as you need to make sure your signals are properly timed throughout your nets. Altium Designer is the only PCB design package that includes an ultra-accurate trace length calculator for PCB Read Article

Schematic Drawing Software and PCB Layout Tools in Altium Designer

Free Schematic Drawing Software and PCB Layout Tools in Altium Designer Every circuit board starts with circuit diagrams and schematic sheets. Your schematic capture software takes your component and footprint data and creates an initial layout, which you then route to create a complete circuit board. If you’re just getting started with PCB design, you need a schematic diagram maker that helps you quickly move component data into a new layout. You shouldn’t need to use multiple programs to move from schematic drawing Read Article

Best Software for PCB Design and Manufacturability (DFM) Guidelines

Best Software for PCB Design and Manufacturability (DFM) Guidelines Getting your circuit board to manufacturing requires following certain manufacturability guidelines. Once you gain an understanding of DFM standards, you will be in a much better position to design your circuit boards to meet DFM expectations. As a PCB designer laying out a circuit board, you’ll find yourself having to manage these guidelines and standards to get your board through the manufacturing and assembly process. Altium Designer makes Read Article

Altium Rigid-flex Guidebook: Your Complete Design Guide

Flex and Rigid-Flex PCB Design Guidelines and Assembly in Altium Designer Many electronic devices don’t live on a single printed circuit board. Flex and rigid-flex PCBs are used to link multiple rigid PCBs together into a single unit. This allows printed circuit designers to customize their board to odd enclosures, design motion into new devices, and provides unique form factors that are not possible with rigid boards. Many other common devices are shrinking, and the PCBs that power them are following suit. If you’re Read Article

The Best Schematic Design Program for PCBs

The Best Schematic CAD Software for PCBs PCB design begins with a schematic, where you turn your design ideas into working circuits. When you use the right schematic design editor program to create your circuit boards, you can design and simulate your board in a single program. Once you use integrated schematic capture, you can start your circuit board layout and create real circuit boards. Altium Designer is widely considered the best schematic software in this regard and gives you all Read Article

How to Build a Circuit Board With Altium’s PCB Design Software

How Are Circuit Boards Made With Altium Designer Your printed circuit board (PCB) design might be designed to work correctly, but you also need to make sure it can actually be manufactured. Although a PCB manufacturer will fabricate and assemble your circuit boards for you, making sure your designs are manufacturable is about encoding DFM specifications in your design rules. With the rule-driven design features of Altium Designer, you can encode DFM specs into your PCB’s design rules; this Read Article

1:44 Look No Further than Altium Designer for the Best PCB Design Software When it’s time to buy new PCB design software, you only want to buy the best of the best, and you’ll probably look through a PCB design software list to find the tools you need. Open source software carries zero price tag, but it simply isn’t capable of tasks professionals need to perform every day. If you’re considering a new PCB design software package, consider this first. You need all the tools the industry demands, and there is no reason to Watch Video

Create Your PCB Design Workflow for Military Systems in Altium Designer

Military PCB Assembly and Workflow in Altium Designer No matter which industry or vertical you work in, you’ll need to follow important design, performance, and manufacturability standards. These requirements are more stringent when working with military-grade electronic systems. When you work with design software built on a rules-driven design engine, meeting these important standards becomes much easier. Altium Designer gives you the power to prepare a compliant PCB design and prepare manufacturer Read Article

The Best PCB Design Software Features a PCB Trace Impedance Calculator

The Best PCB Design Software Features a PCB Trace Width and Impedance Calculator PCB trace width, pad, and via features are some of the most important aspects of your circuit board's performance and need to be carefully designed. The right cross-sectional PCB trace area and distance to the nearest reference plane will ensure your PCB trace impedance is consistent throughout your board. It can also help suppress temperature rise if your board operates at a high current. Choosing the right trace dimensions involves balancing Read Article

The Best High Speed Design Tools in Altium Designer

The Best High Speed Design Software Tools in Altium Designer Building your next high-speed PCB takes the best design and analysis tools. Your high-speed design tools should make it easy to route connections, place components, and design your stackup in a way that ensures signal integrity and prevents unintended crosstalk. Your analysis tools should help you identify problem areas in your PCB, and your design tools should help you quickly implement redesigns in your PCB. With the high-speed PCB design Read Article

Real-time PCB Component Traceability in Altium Concord Pro

Altium Concord Pro: Real-time PCB Component Traceability for All Requirements Altium Concord Pro^™ as a standalone product and brand name has been discontinued and the capabilities are now available as part of our Altium enterprise solutions. Learn more here. PCB designers and project managers in highly regulated industries face a number of obstacles when managing the design process and preparing for manufacturing. Aside from paying attention to industry standards, and performance requirements, and coordinating electrical Read Article

A Guide to Challenging Projects

A Guide to Challenging Projects Starting a project? Here's an expert advise from Mark Harris to get you through challenging design projects. Read this blog and see if this method will work for you. Read Article

PCB Data Management and Your Design Process

PCB Data Management and Your Design Process Your organization will need to gather data from multiple sources to create new designs. In addition to schematic symbols and PCB footprints, designers need sourcing data for components to ensure they can eliminate supply chain risk. With a complete set of design and management tools, design teams can get to market on time and remain within budget while ensuring their designs are manufacturable at scale. Altium Designer offers all the tools you Read Article

Altium Designer is Your Complete PCB Toolkit

Altium Designer is Your Complete PCB Toolkit Designing a printed circuit board and its PCB assembly are intricate processes. If want to bring your next great electronic device to life, you’ll need to transform it from a circuit diagram into a schematic. Then you’ll need to turn your schematic into a layout and ensure it complies with DFM guidelines for your application. Different PCB tools in your design software can help with different tasks, but only one software package integrates all Read Article

More Functionality, Less Real Estate

Designing for Military and Aerospace Embedded Systems Applications Military and aerospace systems include a number of embedded systems that provide critical functionality. Your next military or aerospace system will require a number of complicated embedded systems to keep it functioning at top performance. Each of these embedded systems must provide specific functionality in rugged environments, and creating these systems takes powerful design software. Only Altium Designer gives you all the tools you need to Read Article

Lead-Free RoHS Compliance Should Be Something You and Your Design Software Can Track

Lead-Free RoHS Compliance Should Be Something You and Your Design Software Can Track Don’t let your circuit boards fail compliance testing - ensure that they are up-to-date and secure in the best ways you know how. ALTIUM DESIGNER Guaranteeing board compliances and security throughout any design. Different types of materials used in electronic and electrical products present dangers to human health and the environment. As those heavy metals and organic contaminants become part of E-waste, the possibility of chemicals leaching Read Article

Prevent Copper Wear and Short Circuits with Rules-Driven Design

Prevent Copper Wear and Short Circuits with Rules-Driven Design The phrase “PCB design” might seem to emphasize design, but it actually includes all aspects of printed circuit board manufacturing. Without the proper attention to design for manufacturability (DFM), a design might be sent back to a designer for corrections and further review by a CAM engineer. DFM is meant to ensure a board can be produced with high yield and is best implemented in rules-driven design software. When you need to follow important Read Article