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How do I Get Started with my Altium 365 Component Library? How Do I Get Started With My Altium 365 Component Library? In this article Ari Mahpour reviews how to put together a component library from scratch using Altium 365. Read Article
1:7:21 How To Import Libraries and Manage Components With Altium 365 Nothing causes more worries for a designer than the PCB components. Your mind probably starts racing whenever you send out a design for fabrication and assembly, and phone calls start coming in. What did I forget? Did I use all of the correct components? Did I make a mistake that's going to cost the company? Can we meet the deadline to get the design respinned? Why can't I get this right? The problems you can experience with components and Watch Video
TVS Diode PCB Design Guidelines for Using TVS Diode for Transient Protection A TVS diode can help with your PCB layout withstand an ESD event by diverting surges away from protected components. Read Article
SMD pad size Best Methods for Calculating SMD Pad Size in PCB Design Component creation requires accurate SMD pad sizes in your PCB footprints. See how to determine pad sizes for your SMD components. Read Article
Footprint Creation Made Easy Footprint Creation Made Easy Learn how to create footprint with ease using the IPC Compliant Footprint Wizard, built-in to Altium Designer. In this guide, you’ll learn how to quickly create an example SOIC-8 footprint, including automatic generation of an accurate 3D model. Read Article
The Positive Impact of Supply Chain Visibility on Design to Cost Cover Photo The Positive Impact of Supply Chain Visibility on Design to Cost With increased electronics supply chain visibility, you can develop better products faster and align perfectly with budget constraints early on. Here’s why. Read Article
Cascaded transfer functions monte carlo Monte Carlo Analysis With Transfer Functions in Cascaded Circuits Pro circuit designers don’t just work with components in parallel and series when they design circuits. One way to build circuits is with circuit networks, which will have input and output ports. What happens inside each network can be analyzed in the traditional way (SPICE, by hand, etc.), but what is important is that the network maps an input voltage/current pair to an output voltage and current pair. Mathematically, this is quantified with a Read Article
BGA land pattern and BGA footprint What's In Your BGA Land Pattern and Footprint BGA land patterns aren’t always contained in a datasheet. If you need to create one of these, how large do you make the pads, solder mask, and fanout style? Learn more in this article. Read Article
molded interconnect devices MIDs Make a Comeback as Vertical SMD Modules for Your PCB If you’ve ever wanted to mount components vertically, but without the expense of a flex section, use an MID in your PCB. Read Article
PCB Solder mask expansion What Is Solder Mask Expansion and Which Value Should You Use? The solder stop mask layer caps off the PCB and provides a protective film over copper on the surface layers. Solder mask needs to be pulled back from landing pads on the surface layer so that you have a surface where components can be mounted and soldered. This removal of the solder mask from a pad on the top layer should extend some distance around the edge of the pad, creating either NSMD or SMD pads for your components. How far back should Read Article
Capacitor Dielectrics Guide to Ceramic Capacitor Dielectrics and Other Types Capacitor electrical behavior is determined, in part, by the capacitor dielectric. Learn all about capacitor dielectrics in this article. Read Article
Ferrite Core Selection and Design Decisions Ferrite Core Selection and Design Decisions When designing a transformer or using a ferrite core inductor, you must use the correct design process, and there is no substitution for real-world final testing. Let’s look at the process. Read Article
PCB silkscreen PCB Silkscreen Guidelines PCB silkscreen helps ensure your board is easy to read and test, and it aids assembly by clearly indicating component locations. Read Article
The Wheel Keeps Turning: Advanced Bill of Materials for PCB Design The Wheel Keeps Turning: Advanced Bill of Materials for PCB Design At a young age, my grandfather was trained in the repair and construction of wooden wheels, which was a necessary skill on the rural farm where he was raised. When modern times finally found Eastern Missouri, that highly skilled confluence of woodworking and blacksmithing was totally replaced by modern technology, save for the occasional historical re-creation. The change had been inevitable, so my grandfather proactively added machining Read Article
DNP in BOM and PCB assembly Best Practices for DNI/DNP Components in Your PCB BOM You can use the DNI/DNP designation on components in your PCB BOM to create design variants as long as you’ve created your layout correctly. Read Article
PCB component creation What is PCB Component Creation? Learn more about PCB component creation and how you can easily create components with the best CAD features in Altium Designer. Read Article
Circuit Diagram Maker: Your Guide to Building with Altium Designer Online Circuit Block Diagram Maker: Your Guide to Building PCBs with Altium Designer Some PCB design software packages make you feel like you’ve been bamboozled. On one hand, you’re told that you’ll have access to tools that will let you move through the entire design process. Then all of a sudden, you can’t finish your design without purchasing critical features as add-ons. Only Altium Designer integrates all the best design tools in a single circuit diagram maker. You can get access to free versions that include critical design Read Article