PCB Design Outputs & Documentation

Make sure your manufacturer understands your design intent with complete and accurate design outputs. Browse our library of resources on documenting your PCB design to ensure defect-free manufacturing with high yield. Topics covered include creating your bill of materials, generating manufacturing data, and file formats.

Generating Gerber Files Preparing Design Outputs Push to Manufacturing with Altium 365 Project Release

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

PCB fabrication notes

Decoding PCB Fabrication Notes Your PCB fabrication notes contain important information that ensures your board can be manufactured exactly as you intend. See what you should include and what these mean. Read Article

Build Your Next LED PCB Design in Altium's Unified Environment

Build Your Next LED PCB Design in Altium's Unified Environment LED driver boards can be challenging designs when running at high power and high voltage. Power systems for driving devices like LED panels need careful planning and layout for power supply sections, and the LED PCB itself needs to be laid out to ensure low-temperature operation. These objectives can be difficult to balance without the best set of PCB layout features and DC analysis tools. When you need to create a high-power LED PCB design Read Article

Design Your Small Circuit Board in Altium Designer

Design Your Small Circuit Board in Altium Designer Large circuit boards, small circuit boards, and anything in between might seem like they need separate sets of PCB layout features. In reality, your PCB design software shouldn’t delineate your PCB design based on size. Whether you need to design a large or small circuit board, a design application with high-quality CAD tools will help you get the job done quickly and prepare your board for production. Small circuit board designs are much easier Read Article

photodiode circuit

Designing and Simulating a Photodiode Circuit for Your PCB Your design tools should give you an easy way to create circuit diagrams, simulate electrical behavior, and start a new PCB layout. A photodiode circuit is important in many applications, ranging from simple ON/OFF light detection to receiving digital data in an optical fiber. These semiconductor devices are similar to a regular diode, but they can be difficult to simulate without the right component models and circuit design tools. With Altium Read Article

Use Supply Chain Tools in Altium Designer When You Need a PCB Cost Calculator

Use Supply Chain Tools in Altium Designer When You Need a PCB Cost Calculator Anytime you need to prepare a new design and plan a production run, it’s important to work up an estimate for design, PCB fabrication, assembly, shipping, components, and any other portions of a project. There is a lot that goes into any project and it needs to be planned out early in order to prevent cost overruns. Some designers looking for manufacturing services and component prices might be tempted to use an online calculator, but this is Read Article

Design and Simulate Any Low Pass Filter Circuit for Your PCB

Design and Simulate Any Low Pass Filter Circuit for Your PCB Many engineers will do some basic calculations by hand in order to understand their filter and amplifier circuits. However, for complex circuits that do not obey standard series and parallel rules, or that use nonlinear components like diodes and transistors, more sophisticated methods are needed. As such, designers need an easy-to-use but powerful simulation application to aid filter design and simulation. Some programs make simulations Read Article

PCB manufacturing impedance control

PCB Manufacturing and Impedance Control: How to Specify Your Requirements PCB manufacturing houses can easily accommodate impedance control requirements as long as you can specify requirements clearly. Here’s what to tell your fabricator. Read Article

Complete Guide to PCB Aging Test Methods

Complete Guide to PCB Aging Test Methods A finished PCBA that will be deployed in the field should pass several tests to ensure reliability and stable operation. Industry standards specify multiple testing methodologies, performance requirements, evaluation metrics, even test fixtures that must be used to assess electrical behavior, thermal cycling resistance, long-term thermal stability, ability to withstand thermal shock, and much more. With Altium Designer, you’ll have a complete Read Article

altium outjob files

Altium OutJob Files vs. Project Release: What's the Difference? Altium OutJob files provide an easy way to create, export, and organize your PCB fabrication files. Now when you need to share your data through the cloud, you have other options. Read Article

Gerber file formats

Your Guide to Gerber File Extensions in PCB Design Gerber files come with multiple extensions but in only two common file formats. You can learn more about Gerber file extensions in this article. Read Article

Taking a Modular PCB Design Approach in Altium Designer PCB design is rarely discussed in terms of designing functional blocks or as connecting modules with different functionality. Simple designs can usually be designed without considering how your PCB layout affects the operation and interaction between multiple functional blocks in your board. With more complex designs, you’ll need to consider more than just the high-level overview of your board when you are designing a complex system. Modular PCB Read Article

Sourcing Military PCB Components in a Unified Design Environment

Sourcing Military PCB Components in a Unified Design Environment Whether you are a procurement officer for the military, a prime contractor, or a defense subcontractor, you’ll face a number of obstacles when sourcing components for electronic defense systems. Given the component shortages and potential for counterfeiting in the components market, military PCB components cannot be procured from just any company. Any component for a military electronic system must meet rigorous quality standards and be traceable Read Article

Power Electronics for Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries in Altium Designer

Power Electronics for Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries in Altium Designer Power electronics encompasses a massive list of systems that make modern life possible. From automotive systems to power distribution systems, power electronics are responsible for controlling and managing the flow of power throughout an electrical system. With alternative energy systems bound to become more popular in the future, engineers and designers need the right PCB design software for power electronics systems. Design software for power Read Article

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

Connectors Benefit from Compatible ECAD/MCAD Tools

Modeling and Placing Connectors Within Altium Designer ALTIUM DESIGNER The most powerful, modern, and easy-to-use PCB design tool for professional use. I/O use connectors for PCB system integration In this guide to PCB connectors, we’ll take a look at connectors within electrical systems, how they benefit from ECAD/MCAD tools, and optimal design specifics like appropriate cable connectors or gold fingers gold plating. Connectors abound on printed circuit assemblies given integrated electrical Read Article

How to Keep Your 3D PCB Models Current with Data Management Tools

How to Keep Your 3D PCB Models Current with Data Management Tools Any component includes a significant amount of design data. This includes electrical models, 3D component models, and PCB supplier information. Your PCB design software should be allowed to take this data and integrate it with your MCAD tools. This allows you to create 3D body models from your PCB footprints and integrate them into a data library. Ensuring that this data stays up to date takes a data management platform that operates directly Read Article