Design Libraries

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

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

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

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

Reference Designators

Altium Designer Helps You Track Reference Designators on Your PCB Make sure you use the correct reference designators in your PCB and in your drawings, schematic sheets, and circuit board layout. Read Article

Step Up Into Altium Designer from PCAD

Step Up Into Altium Designer from PCAD The original goal of PCAD, to give PCB designers the best tools possible, lives on today in Altium. Altium Designer is made for designers like you and will import your legacy PCAD designs so you can continue your work. ALTIUM DESIGNER CAD software that will continue through the years. Back in 1982, an innovative new PCB design software CAD tool called P-CAD was introduced to the world. This PCAD PCB design tool quickly outgrew its competition and Read Article

Altium Designer’s Free PCB Viewer Download Allows You to Explore Your BRD Files

Altium Designer’s Free PCB Viewer Download Allows You to Explore Your BRD Files Today, it almost seems that there are as many PCB design file formats as there are PCB manufacturers. Using a custom file format is advantageous when working with the originating company’s program. However, there are many times when you need the capability to view or use non-native files. This can be a challenge when working with most PCB software companies, but not Altium. Altium offers a free online BRD file viewer powered by the Altium 365 Read Article

Designing with Shock Management for Avionics PCBs

Designing with Shock Management for Avionics PCBs Of all the electronics application areas, there is one that needs to consider mechanical and thermal shocks during design: avionics. An avionics designed system that is put into production within a satellite, aircraft, or spacecraft can experience strong vibration and mechanical shock during flight, and these systems need to be designed with high reliability in mind. IPC standards, MIL-PRF standards, and other standards specify some design Read Article

Customize Your PCB Drill Sizes With Altium Designer

Customize Your PCB Drill Sizes With Altium Designer Every PCB will need some holes, vias, slots, and other features that are defined in a PCB layout. These features need to be reflected in fabrication documents, and designers need tools to help them automate this process of creating documentation directly from their designs. It’s easy to keep track of your holes, vias, electrical behavior, and much more in Altium Designer, the industry’s top PCB design application for professional design engineers Read Article

Design Your Metal Core PCB in Altium Designer

Design Your Metal Core PCB in Altium Designer Most printed circuit boards use a thick FR4 core layer to provide structural stability and interior copper layers for a multilayer PCB. If problems like excessive heat and low thermal dissipation are required in your particular application, you might consider designing with a metal core PCB. You’ll see other advantages like greater structural integrity, as well as a natural EMI shield thanks to the internal metal core. These circuit boards Read Article

Leveraging the Free Footprint Community to Design at Lightning Speed

Leveraging the Free Footprint Community to Design at Lightning Speed In this article, we reviewed a few different offerings of free footprint library resources for Altium Designer. We also briefly covered how to migrate those libraries to your Altium 365 Workspace. Read Article