Design for Manufacturing (DFM)

28 Manufacturer Sheet Layer A specified manufacturer sheet layer in your design allows manufacturer information to be included within your gerber files. Watch Video

44 Draftsman Updates Utilize new scaling, dimensioning, and callout functionality to better understand and streamline your documentation. Watch Video

Dk And How Datasheets Impact Your Design

Dk Values And How Datasheets Impact Your Design In this OnTrack episode we'll talk about Dielectric constant (Dk) and the difference between Design Dk & Process Dk. How datasheets can be confusing and can impact your design? Listen in for more. Read Article

Meshing Design with Assembly

Meshing Design with Electronics Assembly and Flux Cleaning PCBAs require flux cleaning during assembly, as well as other cleaning steps to remove other soils. Read this blog by expert Barbara Kanegsberg to learn more about cleaning processes. Read Article

The Art of Selecting Connectors

The Art of Selecting Connectors Connectors are the unsung stars of both a product and its hardware development. Any Apple user knows the romantic tale the company has spun from infatuation with the first magnetic power connector through the betrayal of the 3.5mm jack to today’s ‘it’s complicated’ status thanks to the baggage their dongles create in pursuit of beauty. Product developers have similar emotional experiences with their prototypes. An unreliable connector that has Read Article

Why PCB Prototyping in the U.S. is a Crucial Element For Success

Why PCB Prototyping in the U.S. is a Crucial Element For Success Within today’s global design and manufacturing environment, moving PCB manufacturing offshore is our industry’s de facto product development process. Many believe that PCB prototyping could and should be moved offshore to take advantage of the rising skill and capability levels of the offshore resources in Taiwan, China and Korea. This has led to a crisis in the U.S. PCB prototyping industry. U.S.-based companies find it difficult to stay in Read Article

Datasheet Reliability with Ben Jordan

Datasheet Reliability with Ben Jordan In this OnTrack episode Judy Warner and Ben Jordan discuss about Datasheet Reliability. Can you trust them? And what does “Gilded” mean? This & more about verifying app notes. Watch the full episode. Read Article

Standard PCB Thickness and Your Layer Stack

Standard PCB Thickness and Your Layer Stack I’ll confess that I love 1990’s sitcoms. If Jerry Seinfeld were a PCB designer, he would probably ask “what’s the deal with the 1.57 mm board thickness?” It’s a fair question after all, and it makes you wonder why some standard values (e.g., 50 Ohms impedance in RF systems) are used in PCB design and other areas of engineering. There are good reasons why these and other design values have become in standardized in PCB design, even if they aren't Read Article

21:37 Output Job Files for Rapid, Repeatable PCB Manufacturing Data Generation Watch Video

What to Look for in a Board Fabricator with Steve Williams

What to Look for in a Board Fabricator with Steve Williams Steve Williams, President of TRAC shares his tips on what to look for in terms of certifications to source the ideal, reliable board fabricator supplier who will get the job done. Watch full episode. Read Article

Flexible Circuit Stiffener Options

Flexible Circuit PCB Stiffener Options It is common for a flexible circuit stack-up to include a PCB stiffener, read about the different PCB stiffener options here. Read Article

Eliminate Mistakes in Your Schematics with Electronic Rule Checking

Eliminate Mistakes in Your Schematics with Electronic Rule Checking In times of rising design complexity and shortened timelines, it’s more and more for mistakes to sneak through in the schematic that can translate to the printed circuit board. Read on to find out how to easily identify and eliminate issues in your schematic with the Electronic Rule Checking your PCB in Altium Designer^®. Many designers and companies put all their efforts in having a proper PCB layout and, nowadays, checking in real time the Read Article

6-Layer Stackup EMC

Designing a 6-Layer PCB Stackup for Enhanced EMC 6-layer PCBs are an economical and popular stackup for a variety of applications with high net count and small size. Larger boards might work fine with a 4-layer stackup, where signal layers can be sacrificed to ensure isolation between each side of the board. With the right 6-layer stackup, you can suppress EMI between different layers and accommodate fine-pitch components with high net count. However, there are cases where it makes more sense Read Article

The IPC Warning About Microvia Reliability for High Performance Products

The IPC Warning About Microvia Reliability for High Performance Products Hopefully, by now, you have read the full Press Release from the IPC on March 6, 2019, about the warning of field and latent failures of high-profile HDI boards. IF not, the complete press release is available on I-Connect 007. [1] What you may have seen is the warning statement which the IPC will be including in the upcoming IPC-6012E, Qualification and Performance Specification for Rigid Printed Boards: “There have been many examples of post Read Article

From CAD to PCB: The Data You Give Me and What I Actually Do With It

From CAD to PCB: The Data You Give Me and What I Actually Do With It From CAD to PCB, 60% of jobs go on hold! Watch this episode and find out how to provide exactly what your manufacturer needs to prevent delays and what really happens when you send your data package. Read Article

Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFM/A) or Predictive Engineering

Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFM/A) or Predictive Engineering Advances in interconnection technologies have occurred in response to the evolution of component packages, electronic technology and increasing complex functions. The printed circuit, therefore, has become the most popular and cost-efficient way to physically execute an electronic circuit. Fabrication, assembly and test technologies have responded by making their technologies more complex. The increased complexity and capabilities have made Read Article

47 How To - Using File-Based Libraries in the New Components Panel Watch Video