Electromagnetic interference (EMI)

Troubleshooting EMC Immunity Issues

Troubleshooting EMC Immunity: How to Identify and Resolve EMC Problems Most PCB Designers wear many hats, and one of them is to solve EMC problems. How can you acquire this skill that is not offered in the university? Watch now or listen on the go! Read Article

ground below inductor

Should Ground Be Placed Below Inductors in Switching Regulators? Should you place a ground cutout beneath the inductor in a switching regulator PCB layout? This is an important question surrounding EMI/EMC, and we’ll investigate in this article. Read Article

6-Layer PCB Design

6-Layer PCB Stackup Design Guidelines 6-layer PCB design guidelines are easy to follow when you use the right design software. Read Article

Switching regulator layout

Switching Regulator Layout: One or Two Layers? Don’t be afraid to route your switching regulator layout on two layers, but be careful of these noise problems if you do! Read Article

Addressing EMI Issues Early in the PCB Design Stage

Addressing EMI Issues Early in the PCB Design Stage EMI design rule checker and plane resonance analyzer are now available through EMIStream extension in Altium Designer®. Watch this podcast episode with Yoshi Fukuwa, CEO of TechDream. Read Article

Characterizing & Troubleshooting Wireless and IoT Self-Generated EMI - AltiumLive 2022 It is fairly common to find multiple onboard sources of energy causing EMI on today's portable, mobile, and IoT devices Watch Video

Electrical Stress Test

Overview of Electrical Stress Test Methods for PCBAs Electrical stress test requirements should be considered as you begin to make a transition to high volume production. Read Article

Common Mode Choke Selection

Common Mode Choke Selection Noise on power supply lines can be a major headache. We'll examine how to select a common-mode choke to help eliminate common-mode noise. Read Article

Phalanx, not Failure: PCB Shielding to Protect Your Design

Phalanx, not Failure: PCB Shielding to Protect Your Design During 7 B.C., Greek soldiers—or hoplites--carried a large, concave, circular pcb shield called the hoplon. Made from bronze and wood, the hoplon or Argive shield protected hoplites from chin to knee and—when overlapped—became the basis for the Greek phalanx. At the beginning of the 20th century, Ethiopians used their shields when fighting against an invading Italian army. The constant banging on the shields by the Ethiopians mingled with war Read Article

ESD Protection Circuit Design

Beginner’s Guide to ESD Protection Circuit Design for PCBs Circuit protection from transient voltages and currents can be applied with ESD protection circuit designs. Learn more about these circuits in our guide for new engineers. Read Article

Ferrites

How to Use Ferrite Beads, Chips, Cores, and Plates Are you using ferrite beads correctly in your PCB layout? Learn more about all the different uses for ferrites in your PCB. Read Article

ESD Grounding Requirements in Your Next PCB

ESD Grounding Requirements in Your Next PCB Any PCB that will be deployed in an environment surrounded by high voltage equipment or power sources is at risk of electrostatic discharge (ESD). Static electricity can also discharge directly into a board and ruin sensitive electronic components if a board is handled without a wrist strap. This induces a transient voltage in the PCB, which can cause damage to sensitive components. In extreme cases, such as lightning strikes or major power Read Article

Designing Your PCB for Transient Voltage Suppression

Designing Your PCB for Transient Voltage Suppression PCBs in aircraft, near high voltage equipment, and with a weak grounding strategy are at serious risk of damage due to electrostatic discharge (ESD). When ESD occurs, a huge spike of current propagates through your board, causing damage to components and thermally sensitive components. There are a number of ways to protect your board from ESD. In addition to implementing the right grounding strategy, choosing the right components for suppressing Read Article

What Types of EMI Filters are Best for Passing EMC Testing?

What Types of EMI Filters are Best for Passing EMC Testing? When you need to pass EMC testing and your new product is being crippled by a mysterious source of EMI, you’ll probably start considering a complete product redesign. Your stackup, layout/routing, and component placement are good places to start, but there might be more you can do to suppress specific sources of EMI. There are many different types of EMI filters that you can place in your design, and the right filter can help suppress EMI in a Read Article

Should You Use Your PCB Power Plane as a Return Path?

Should You Use Your PCB Power Plane as a Return Path? Power planes (sometimes called a power layer) and ground planes are important for more than just distribution of supplying power. When defining reference planes, both with impedance controlled routing and in managing return paths, your stackup might force return currents to pass into a PCB power plane before being coupled back to a ground layer. Even though you define a GND reference layer as a the basis for your impedance-controlled trace width Read Article

High Speed Design

EMI in Your High Speed Design: Understand the Signal Rise Time Learn more about your high speed design and how to deal with switching speed, rise time, and EMI in your high speed PCB layout. Read Article

isolated vs non-isolated power supply design guide

Isolated vs Non-Isolated Power Supplies: The Right Choice Without Fail Learn the advantages and disadvantages of isolated vs non-isolated power supply design. Read Article