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Recent Articles
How the Right Tools in Your PCB Toolkit Can Help Your Next Design
When my sons were young, it was a joy for me to introduce and show them how to use tools for repair or construction. They would ask questions about the different tools in my toolkit, and my pair of old Channellock pliers really seemed to catch their interest. To tell the truth, those Channellocks are my favorite too. I inherited them from my dad, and still use them. They’re the first tool in my kit that I look for when I need to solve a problem
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High-Speed Design Techniques: Trace Tuning for Routing Length Matching
The first time I heard someone talking about “tuning” their high speed design techniques, the memory of my middle school band came to mind. Back in those days, “tuning” meant taking kids who lacked experience and who used tired old instruments and trying to turn it all into something that blended together. As you would expect, our first attempts at being in tune were not very successful. After some work learning about signal integrity, the ground
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How Multi-Level BOMs Can Organize Your Next System Design
If only packing for vacation were as simple as it sounds: figure out what clothes you need, throw them in a suitcase, and you’re ready to go—wrong! Here’s the more realistic vacation planning scenario: pack your clothes, pack your children’s clothes, and then pack all the other personal necessities such as diapers, games, etc. Next you need to pack the food followed by whatever gear your particular vacation requires including tents, fishing
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How Component Placement can Make or Break Your PCB Machine Manufacturing Budget
With each new PCB design, there comes a time when you must make decisions based on more than performance alone. Physical space is easily overlooked in the world of equations, schematics, and oscilloscopes—we'll often focus on signal integrity over such mundanities as component volume. In the days of room-filling computers, we didn’t have to be deliberate with our space. However, cost, time and space requirements have obviously changed. There is
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Introduction to High Speed PCB Designing: Signal Paths
Have you ever planned an airline trip where there isn’t a direct flight to get you to your destination? I have, and as you probably already know, it isn’t a problem. I use the travel planner on my airline’s website and let it figure out every detail of the trip for me. All I have to do is plug in my origin and destination, and the planner determines my itinerary—with enough time to make my connections. It’s a piece of cake. Can you imagine how
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How Schematic Design Reuse Can Help Your Next PCB Schematic Layout
In the town where I live there is this lady who is a magician with a sewing machine. She is in charge of the wardrobes for the high school musicals and is a whiz at taking costumes from old shows, and reusing them for new productions. Sometimes she alters the older costumes, and sometimes she simply uses them the way they already are. In the show this year, the evil queen is wearing a flamboyant dress that is actually an altered version of a
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Using Obsolescence Management Tools and Software to Avoid Surprises with Obsolete Parts
Recently I helped with a plumbing problem at my mother-in-law’s house. A fixture had started to leak and water was going everywhere. As she thought about it for a while, mom realized that she had been living there for 25 years and had never replaced this fixture. The old part had now failed though, and needed to be replaced. However, trying to find a modern replacement part that would fit turned out to be an even bigger problem. It’s one of those
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Using Bill of Material Management to Prevent Problems with Moisture Sensitive Devices
Up here in the Pacific Northwest we are once again in the rainy season. My family doesn’t like it, my friends don’t like it, and even my dog doesn’t like it. The other night I had to pull the ladder out of the garage to unclog a gutter during a rainstorm. That was definitely not on my list of fun things to do, especially at 11:00 at night. We are used to the rain though. We know how to direct the water run-off so that it doesn’t pool up, we have
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The Best Tools for Multi-Board PCB Systems Design
They say that time flies when you’re having fun. Maybe that’s why I feel like time slows to a crawl when I’m constructing a multi-board PCB device. Designing even one board can be an agonizing task, what with trying to avoid EMI, ground everything properly, mitigate static discharge, and optimize your routing. Creating a system of PCBs that all fit together physically and electrically sometimes tests the limits of tedium. Lucky for us there are
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Advantages of Hierarchical Block Diagrams and Schematic Designs for PCB Schematic Layouts
Hierarchical schematic designs, or block design, can help you better organize PCB schematic layouts by reducing workload for identical blocks of circuitry and enabling design reuse.
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Printed Circuit Board Design and Fabrication Tips to Prevent Open Circuits During PCB Manufacturing
For a couple years, I lived in a town with a chocolate and candy factory. It was an amazing and terrible time, because you could go to the factory and buy “seconds,” or messed up candies, for about 75% off the normal price. Usually, the mistake was cosmetic, like the chocolate cracking over the caramel, and everything tasted totally fine. When a PCB manufacturer makes a mistake, sometimes it’s cosmetic, and the board will still function
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PCB CAD Design for Manufacturing Guidelines: How Trace Routing Can Affect Solder Joints
A couple of weeks ago I attended a concert that was a tribute to the big band leader Stan Kenton. I love big band jazz for many reasons, one of which is the configuration of musicians and instruments in the band. There are usually around 15 to 20 musicians on different instruments, and everyone plays a different part. If just one person makes a mistake, it can ruin the balance of the number that was so carefully arranged by the composer. The
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The Best Easily Available PCB CAD Design Software Training Resources
Congratulations! You’re about to start working on a new CAD system, and you are chomping at the bit to design something. Like a 10-year old waking up on the morning of their birthday, you can hardly wait to rip the wrapping off the box and get started. Once you’re seated in front of your new software though, you begin to worry. How do you open up a part to work on it, and is it even called a “part” in this system? How do you create a simple
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The Best Multilayer PCB Design Guidelines and Tips for Circuit Board Layout
Doing something new for the first time can be difficult. Baby birds probably don’t appreciate being pushed out of the nest and teenagers are nervous before their first real date. I, personally, was scared to death on my first date. However, I’m glad that I took that first step because that milestone was a great moment in my life. Designing your first multilayer PCB board may not be quite like a first date, but it's still a critical step for a PCB
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How Online BOM Management Helps Build Teamwork
Last week one of my co-workers, a brilliant guy named Phil, quit his job for a position in another company. Phil was amazing, and losing him was a tremendous blow to our department and the company. The tragic thing though is that Phil didn’t leave for a better job, he left because he felt that he no longer added any value. It is amazing at how many truly exemplary employees end up quitting because of workplace frustrations and feeling
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How to Work with Your PCB CAD Software Support Technicians
Have you ever been in a situation where you are trying to help someone, but they don’t understand what you are talking about? You want to help them through their difficulties, but the two of you seem to be from different worlds. If that scenario doesn’t sound familiar to you, then you’ve probably never raised teenagers. If it does ring a bell, then you may be a seasoned parent, or you may even be a customer support technician. I firmly believe
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The Top Reasons Why PCB Design Software with Auto Routing Can Save You Time
I’ve been designing printed circuit boards long enough that my family has sadly grown accustomed to me spending more time at work than at home. When deadlines are looming, everyone knows I’ll be working late nights at the office. Modern PCB design software with auto-routing tools can help you cut down your routing time, but not everyone is a fan of these features. I know all the arguments against using an auto-router because I’ve been using them
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