Design for Manufacturing (DFM)

Macrofab: Modern EMS Solutions in North America

Macrofab: Modern EMS Solutions in North America Macrofab offers a better electronics manufacturing experience for the customer. Chris Church, Founder and Chief Product Officer at MacroFab, Inc. tells us more in this OnTrack episode. Read Article

ASC Free Technical eBook and Webinar Series

ASC PCB Free Technical eBook and Webinar Series Learn any issues upfront before sending your board design to manufacturing. Anaya Vardya and John Bushie of American Standard Circuits join us in this episode. Read Article

IPC Classes and Complying with IPC Standards for PCB Design

IPC Classes and Complying with IPC Standards for PCB Design Whether you work in electronics design, manufacturing, or even defense, the alphabet soup of standards organizations is extensive and may seem daunting. The IPC standards are among the most widely accepted and important standards for PCB design and manufacturing. IPC standards will influence how a designer creates their board and how they will prepare it for production in different industries. These standards are meant to ensure performance and Read Article

DFM reports

How to Speed Up Your DFM Report View Process in the Cloud Make sure your design will be produced with high quality and yield with our DFM report guidelines. You’ll want to perform DFM analysis at multiple stages during the design process. Read Article

DFM analysis PCB design

Complete Guide to DFM Analysis Make sure your design will be produced with high quality and yield with our DFM analysis guidelines. You’ll want to perform DFM analysis at multiple stages during the design process. Read Article

IPC slash sheet

All About IPC-4101 and IPC-4103 Slash Sheets PCB laminate material requirements are outlined in slash sheets as specified in the IPC-4101 standard. Read our guide to learn about this standard and how materials are specified. Read Article

Mass Production Mindset

Mass Production and Manufacturing Mindset In true engineering spirit, let’s start by establishing the scope of this article. The intention isn’t to tell you exactly what to do if you need to mass-produce the device you’ve designed or show you what changes to make. This intention is to explore the mindset you need to adopt and the critical thinking you’ll need to do if you need to either design a device from scratch for the mass market or turn your one-off prototype into a format that Read Article

PCB tooling holes

All About PCB Tooling Holes: What They Are and Where They Go Learn all about PCB tooling holes and mounting hole styles in your design and how they are used in the PCB manufacturing process. Read Article

Automate Front End Engineering Processes with Kent Balius

Automate Front End Engineering Processes with Kent Balius This episode is all about smart engineering. Learn how an automated process can help increase your profits and revenues. Read Article

How to Navigate the Perils of PCB Design Review

How to Navigate the Perils of the PCB Design Review Process: An Overview Whether you’re a first-time designer or a hardened veteran, the integrity of your designs relies heavily on inspecting a product for design errors before production. What can be done to identify design flaws while staying productive? Before a new design is sent into production, it's critical to put the design through a PCB design review so that design errors can be identified before manufacturing. In many cases, a design will pass rules checks Read Article

Double-sided PCB soldering

Best Design Practices for Double-Sided PCB Reflow Soldering with SMD Parts Read our guidelines for designers who want to ensure successful double-sided PCB soldering. Read Article

Making the Most of Your Crystal Oscillator

Making the Most of Your Crystal Oscillator “Blindly” adopting what a crystal oscillator data sheet says usually results in adequate frequency stability. An oscillator requires the phase shift around the loop to be 360° and this total phase shift must be a precise and stable oscillation frequency. Read Article

When Should You Use a Flex Circuit?

When Should You Use Flexible Printed Circuit Cables? The two predominant reasons for using flex or rigid flex, are to solve a packaging issue or reduce the space and weight of the electronics package. These two are often interrelated and space, weight and packaging, (SWaP) will continue to be a driving force in PCB design. Read Article

How to Use Thermocouples in Your Next Project

How to Use Thermocouples in Your Next Project Thermocouples are the final sensor type in a series where we look at all the main types of temperature sensors you might use in an electronics project. In this series, we have looked at the various ways to implement different temperature sensors in your project. At the end of the series, we’ll be putting the sensors and implementations in a head to head competition using real-world conditions. Through this real-world testing, will gain a better Read Article

How Antipads Affect Signal Integrity in Your Multilayer PCB

How Antipads Affect Signal Integrity in Your Multilayer PCB Antipads in your PCB can create a signal integrity problem if not used properly. Here are some guidelines to help you get started. Read Article

How to Choose the Best PCB Manufacturer for Your Project

How to Choose the Best PCB Manufacturer for Your Project Here’s how you can find and qualify the best PCB manufacturer for your new product. Read Article

PCB manufacturing quality control

Managing PCB Manufacturing Quality Control in the Cloud You and your manufacturer can track quality problems and correct at the design level when you use cloud tools for PCB manufacturing quality control. Read Article