Design Libraries

Designing 5G Devices

Designing 5G PCB Devices The next stage in the evolution of mobile telephony is here with the roll-out of 5G. The designer looking to incorporate functionality to handle 5G signals into their circuits will face some challenging issues. So, what’s so special about 5G? The main change in the jump from 4G to 5G is the frequency band at which signals are transmitted. For 4G, this band covered 0.7 GHz up to 2.5 GHz. For 5G, this new band is an order of magnitude larger, with Read Article

Estimating and Understanding Thermal Conductivity of PCBs

Estimating and Understanding Thermal Conductivity of PCBs Your circuit board substrate and copper conductors are the primary factors that determine how heat will move around the board. Your components will generate heat during operation, illustrating the importance of estimating thermal conductivity of a PCB. The thermal properties of your circuit board substrate are one factor that determine temperature rise in your components (particularly junction temperature) and heat flux away from critical Read Article

A Review of PCB Thermal Resistance Management with Thermal Vias Design of PCBs and thermal management are intimately linked as thermal problems are known to significantly reduce the useful lifetime of a circuit board and components. Heat that is generated in a circuit board by active and passive components tends to be confined near the components, leading to a high-temperature increase due to the low thermal conductivity of most circuit board substrates. Frequent cycling of a circuit board and components Read Article

PCB Thermal Resistance: Theory and Management

PCB Thermal Resistance: Theory and Management The thermal conductivity of your PCB material stackup and arrangement of copper conductors are important factors that determine the thermal performance of your circuit board. You will likely need to include strategically placed thermal vias, a heat sink on each active component and power electronics, and active cooling measures near any other heat source on your circuit board. Copper in printed circuits has high thermal conductivity, while FR4 Read Article

Thermal Conductivity and Thermal Management for Printed Circuit Boards

Thermal Conductivity and Thermal Management for Printed Circuit Boards The physical properties of your PCB substrates and copper conductors are the primary factors that determine how it will perform under pressure. Thermal properties, rigidity, dispersion, relative permittivity, and more will affect signal integrity, thermal management, and mechanical performance of your circuit board. When it comes to thermal conductivity, choosing the right substrate can help you combat temperature rise in your board with Read Article

How to Design with Thermal Pad vs. Paste in Your Circuit Board

PCB Heat Sinks: Thermal Pad vs. Paste in Your Circuit Board Design Using thermal pads vs paste is an important decision when deciding how to best attach a heat sink to a power-hungry component like a CPU. Each of these materials gives the important benefit of heat transfer and reduced temperature, but there are other points to be considered when using a heat sink with a thermal pad or thermal paste. Assembly houses also need to know which option a design will use, requiring that clear documentation be provided Read Article

How to Design an AC to DC Converter Circuit in Altium Designer

How to Design an AC to DC Converter Circuit in Altium Designer An AC-to-DC converter circuit does exactly as its name implies: it takes a harmonic AC input and converts it to a DC output. These circuits are simply from a high level and when operating at low power on a breadboard, but a real AC to DC converter circuit is more complex than just a transformer and rectifier circuit. Finding the right components for these circuits and running accurate power simulations takes the right PCB design software that Read Article

PCB Footprint Creation and Reuse with Altium 365

PCB Footprint Creation and Reuse with Altium 365 Many components come in standardized packages, but not all component manufacturers provide CAD models and schematic symbols in their PCB libraries. These CAD models show the location of pins, silkscreen information, centroids, and pads as they should appear in your PCB layout. PCB component creation can get repetitive when you need to apply an existing PCB footprint to a new component. With the component creation tools in Altium Designer and the Read Article

Managing Symbol and PCB Footprint Libraries with Altium 365

Managing Symbol and PCB Footprint Libraries with Altium 365 When you need to collaborate on printed circuit design projects, you have a few options for sharing data. Your projects need to contain schematic symbols and PCB footprints in order to be opened on another computer, and the old ways of sharing this data are inefficient. If you have access to a cloud application that integrates with your PCB design tools, sharing data becomes easy, and you won’t be prone to neglecting shared data. Altium 365 Read Article

Using Product Lifecycle Management Software for PCB Design

Using Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Components Software for PCB Design Any product, including circuit boards and electronic components, will become obsolete and must be replaced with completely new versions. If a product is ever manufactured and taken to market, the product and its components will inevitably have a finite life cycle. Products are eventually upgraded to new versions and capabilities or components are added, or they become obsolete and are replaced with completely new circuit designs and technology 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 PCB Military Grade Electronic Components in a Unified Design Environment Whether you are a procurement officer for the military, a prime contractor, or defense suppliers of electronic components, 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 grade electronic components system must meet Read Article

PCB Library and Supply Chain Integration in Altium Concord Pro

PCB Library and Supply Chain Integration in Altium Concord Pro 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. Anyone planning to manufacture a new circuit board has plenty of challenges to overcome. From component shortages to outdated design data, project managers and designers face obstacles to timely production that arise from stale component data and supply chain Read Article

PCB Design Reuse and Product Lifecycle Management in Altium Concord Pro

PCB Design Reuse and Product Lifecycle Management in Altium Concord Pro 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. 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 Read Article

Connectors Benefit from Compatible ECAD/MCAD Tools

Modeling and Placing PCB 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

Sourcing Microelectronics for Military Systems

Defense Industry Microcomponents and Microelectronics Defense contractors, military procurement officers, and contract manufacturers face a number of obstacles when designing and manufacturing PCBs for use in defense systems. Defense microelectronics and manufactured PCBs cannot be procured from just any company, and these components must meet rigorous standards that ensure quality and reliability. These components must also be traceable back to a compliant component manufacturer. Only Altium 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 design data management software, electrical models, 3D PCB model components, 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 Read Article