Concord Pro and Component Data Management

Altium Concord Pro simplifies component management and is your single source for component data, real-time sourcing information, component traceability within designs, collaboration with your mechanical design team and more - all within the Altium Designer unified environment. Browse our library of resources to learn more about designing PCBs and utilizing Altium Concord Pro

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PCB Design Reuse and Product Lifecycle Management in Altium Concord Pro

PCB Design Reuse and Product Lifecycle Management in Altium Concord Pro Reusing design data is a great way to hasten redesigns of existing hardware. Managing this design data, including version control and component data management, can be a real challenge. Production lead times are decreasing, component lifecycles are shorter, replacement parts are pushed to market sooner, and design data steadily grows as new designs become more complex. Reusing design data for a portion of an existing board or functional blocks Read Article

Data Management for Component Models in SPICE Simulations

Data Management for Component Models in SPICE Simulations Simulation software is becoming more powerful as time goes on, but the simplest solutions are sometimes still preferable for many applications. SPICE simulations have been around for decades, yet their applicability to a wide variety of circuits and applications is not lost on anyone. With SPICE simulation tools being so popular, it’s only natural that they appear in PCB design software platforms. Devices continue to become more powerful and more Read Article

Remotely Powering Devices, Wirelessly

Remotely Powering Devices, Wirelessly With electronic devices being available in smaller and smaller sizes and the prevalence of wi-fi networks, the rise of remote monitoring devices around the home and the workplace continues to grow. Smart heating solutions now place sensors in every room, monitoring everything from temperature to occupancy to provide a highly efficient zonal heating system. Intruder detection systems no longer require thousands of meters of wiring to be installed Read Article

symbolic division

Guidelines for Creating Useful Schematic Symbols The schematic symbols that you use to represent the components are at the heart of your schematic design. The quality of the symbol and how it is arranged can be one of the most critical factors influencing your schematic’s readability. A poor quality schematic symbol will lead to an unreadable schematic sheet that is difficult to understand. I created the largest open-source library for Altium Designer over five years ago, initially as a way to Read Article

Using a Thermal Camera for PCB Diagnostics

Using a Thermal Camera for PCB Diagnostics There has likely been a time when you’ve powered on a freshly built prototype for the first time, only to find you’ve hit the current limit on the lab power supply. Even as you increase the current limit to way beyond what you would expect your board to draw, the lab power supply is still limited. If it’s safe, you poke around the board with your finger, but you can’t feel any parts that are hot to the touch. Also, probing around with a Read Article

What does AMD’s purchase of Xilinx mean for the electronics world?

What does AMD’s purchase of Xilinx mean for the electronics world? Who is Xilinx? While AMD is focused on microprocessor production, Xilinx is a specialist producer of FPGA (field-programmable gate arrays), which are particularly useful for telecommunications applications, and the development of 5G across the world has opened up significant growth in this sector. The expected number of new 5G cellular base stations required over the next five to ten years will be in the millions. Xilinx has been one of the front Read Article

Create a Buck-Boost Power Supply

Create a Buck-Boost Power Supply In this series of articles, we’re looking at the design and implementation of the main types of power regulators and converters you might use in an electronics project. I gave a graduate engineer who I mentor a series of requirements to demonstrate each of these types and have recorded the results here so you can work through the same exercises and hopefully come up with the same results. The next switching regulator is the last in our switching Read Article

How to Design a Boost Voltage Regulator

How to Design a Boost Voltage Regulator In this series of articles, we’re looking at the design and implementation of the main types of power regulators and converters you might use in an electronics project. I gave a graduate engineer who I mentor a series of requirements to demonstrate each of these types and have recorded the results here so you can work through the same exercises and hopefully come up with the same results. For the next switching power supply project from my Read Article

Assembly: The Last Step In The PCB Product Development Process

Assembly: The Last Step In The PCB Product Development Process As pointed out in previous articles, design is the first step in the PCB product development process, so the board designer needs to understand how the downstream processes will impact his design processes/selections/decisions, and this understanding needs to encompass both technical and financial considerations. These deliberations are viewed and weighted as trade-offs. What might make sense from a technical standpoint may not always make sense Read Article

High-speed flex circuits

Addressing Differential Signaling In Flex Circuits As noted in many previous articles, due to high-speed and high data-rate designs, most modern products utilize differential signaling. If utilizing the right design protocols and design toolsets, handling differential signaling in standard, rigid PCBs is easily doable. But utilizing differential signaling in flex circuits creates another set of issues, questions, and design challenges. This article will address how differential signaling is Read Article

From RC to Atomic Clocks: All Clock Sources

From RC to Atomic Clocks: All Clock Sources In almost modern circuits, especially whenever digital circuitry is involved, you will find some kind of clock source. All clock sources present a series of tradeoffs regarding stability, reliability, size, power consumption and cost. Luckily for us, such tradeoffs are relatively simple and can be explained almost fully within this single article. We’ll discuss the pros and cons of each clock source, from the RC in a 555-powered oscillator, to a Read Article

Managing Component Obsolescence with a Unified Data Solution

Managing Component Obsolescence with a Unified Data Solution If components stayed competitive forever, your smartphone would run on vacuum tubes. Obsolescence is an essential part of electronics. It represents an advance in technology, although it is incremental. However, it can also create some pain points for PCB designers, especially when they don’t use the right component management tools. Overcoming problems that arise from poor obsolescence management and lack of supply chain visibility takes the Read Article

Huge Vu-meter with RGB LEDs Project

Huge Vu-meter with RGB LEDs Project A laboratory journal to guide you through the steps to develop a successful product that value-conscious customers are sure to love. Read Article

3D Printing PCBs

3D Printing PCBs and Generating Printing Models Altium Designer® offers a fully integrated environment for generating instructions for 3D printing PCBs. Use the MCAD/ECAD collaboration tools in Altium Designer for PCB design and integration with mechanical design tools. Read Article

Real-time PCB Component Traceability in Altium Concord Pro

Real-time PCB Component Traceability in Altium Concord Pro 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, performance requirements, and coordinating electrical and mechanical design teams, component sourcing carries its own requirements. Supply chain glitches can delay a prototyping or high volume manufacturing run by weeks or even months, and Read Article

Which Type of Capacitor Should You Use?

Which Type of Capacitor Should You Use? Capacitors are used in far more applications than just bypassing noise, and there are many more types of capacitors than just ceramic and aluminium electrolytic. Read Article

Perfect Boards Every Time (With Free Templates)

Perfect Boards Every Time (With Free Templates) Gone are the days of obsessing over the formatting of schematics. Draftsman®, embedded within Altium Designer®, could radically change your workflow for the better. Read Article