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Browse the latest resources and information from industry experts on PCB Design.

Altium 365 Getting Started User Guide - Available Now Hi Everyone, A month ago, I announced the release of the Altium Designer Getting Started User Guide. This week we are following up with the release of another helpful guide: Altium 365 Getting Started User Guide. The Altium 365 cloud platform offers the most connected experience for PCB design and realization with direct access from Altium Designer or any web browser. All active subscribers can access Altium 365 to unlock powerful functionality Read Article

Level Up Your Design Skills - Altium Designer Getting Started User Guide We are happy to announce the release of the new Altium Designer Getting Started User Guide. Whether you are new to Altium Designer or you want to brush up on some topics, the Altium Designer Getting Started User Guide will take you from a beginner to a master in PCB design. This is only the beginning! This guide will be updated with new information based on user feedback. Let’s first go over the contents of the guide. Read Article

Guía de diseño de circuitos impresos para principiantes de Altium Designer Nos complace anunciar el lanzamiento de la nueva Guía del usuario de inicio de Altium Designer. Ya sea que sea nuevo en Altium Designer o quiera repasar algunos temas, la Guía del usuario de inicio de Altium Designer lo llevará de principiante a maestro en diseño de PCB. Read Article

Le guide de démarrage du logiciel de dessin de circuit imprimé Altium Designer Nous sommes heureux d'annoncer la sortie du nouveau Guide de l'utilisateur de démarrage d'Altium Designer. Que vous soyez novice dans Altium Designer ou que vous souhaitiez approfondir certains sujets, le Guide de l'utilisateur de démarrage d'Altium Designer vous fera passer d'un débutant à un maître dans la conception de circuits imprimés. Ce n'est que le commencement! Ce guide sera mis à jour avec de nouvelles informations basées sur les commentaires des utilisateurs. Voyons d'abord le contenu du guide. Read Article

La nuova guida introduttiva per diventare esperti di PCB, grazie al software di progettazione Altium Designer We are happy to announce the release of the new Altium Designer Getting Started User Guide. Whether you are new to Altium Designer or you want to brush up on some topics, the Altium Designer Getting Started User Guide will take you from a beginner to a master in PCB design. This is only the beginning! This guide will be updated with new information based on user feedback. Let’s first go over the contents of the guide. Read Article

Przewodnik projektanta PCB po programie Altium Designer We are happy to announce the release of the new Altium Designer Getting Started User Guide. Whether you are new to Altium Designer or you want to brush up on some topics, the Altium Designer Getting Started User Guide will take you from a beginner to a master in PCB design. This is only the beginning! This guide will be updated with new information based on user feedback. Let’s first go over the contents of the guide. Read Article

Was Sie über Ferritperlen wissen müssen Wie ich bereits in einem früheren Blogbeitrag ausgeführt habe, wird das Design von Stromverteilungsnetzen seit Jahren dadurch erschwert, dass in der Branche diverse falsche Faustregeln und völlig aus der Luft gegriffene Designleitlinien kursieren. Diese Entwicklung hat bei vielen Designern für Verwirrung gesorgt, da sich nur schwer ersehen lässt, was wirklich funktioniert und was nicht. Besonders kontrovers diskutiert wird derzeit der Einsatz von Read Article

Everything You Need to Know About Ferrite Beads As noted in my previous blog regarding PDS design, the whole power supply conundrum is one that has been plagued over the years with a number of erroneous rules-of-thumb; “black magic” design rules and confusion as to what does or doesn’t work. One of the most controversial topic areas focuses on the use of ferrite beads as a means of controlling and containing EMI. There is conflicting information concerning the use of ferrite beads and it is Read Article

Todo lo que Necesitas Saber Sobre Núcleos de Ferrita Como se señaló en mi blog anterior sobre el diseño de PDS, todo el enigma de la fuente de alimentación es uno que ha estado plagado a lo largo de los años con una serie de reglas generales erróneas; reglas de diseño de "magia negra" y confusión sobre lo que funciona o no funciona. Una de las áreas temáticas más controvertidas se centra en el uso de núcleos de ferrita como un medio para controlar y contener EMI. Hay información contradictoria Read Article

Wszystko, co musisz wiedzieć o rdzeniach ferrytowych Wszystko, co warto wiedzieć o rdzeniu ferrytowym Jak już wspomniałam w moim poprzednim wpisie na blogu dotyczącym projektów typu PDS, kwestia ich zasilania przez lata była owiana szeregiem nieprawidłowych informacji. Wywołało to dużo zamieszania w kontekście samego projektowania, a spowodowane było głównie sprzecznymi informacjami na temat tego, co w projektowaniu można swobodnie robić, a czego już nie. Jednym z najbardziej kontrowersyjnych Read Article

Know the Bandwidth This article relates to both printed electronics and PCBs. I acquired my bandwidth design techniques working in PCB design, and later applied the same principles to my printed electronics design. In this article, I’ll explain my knowledge of bandwidth, and how I was able to apply it to both PCBs and printed electronics. Before going into details on bandwidth, I think it’s worth revisiting what we in electronics mean by the term “signal”. For me Read Article

Exploring Arduino is Now Expanded and Updated by Jeremy Blum The Altium OnTrack Podcast with Judy Warner welcomes one of the Hardware design community’s brightest stars, Jeremy Blum. Jeremy recently released a new version of his book that is a heavily expanded and updated edition. Exploring Arduino, has helped people around the world and now you can get a completely up-to-date version, which you can buy now. Jeremy is a two-time AltiumLive keynote speaker and has also been featured on this podcast twice Read Article

Creating High Pin Count Schematic Symbols Quickly My open-source Altium component library contains hundreds of schematic symbols, supplying over 100,000 components for use. People are often surprised when I tell them it only takes a few minutes to make a schematic symbol using Altium, even if the part has a high pin count. In this article, I want to show you how you can leverage some of the tools in Altium to create your own symbols quickly. Pre-requisites Before we get started, you’ll need a Read Article

Patrick Züger Talks About the Altium Designer 20 New and Exciting Features Patrick Züger from GPV Switzerland, a massive fabricator and assembly facility across Europe and China, delivered a great talk at AltiumLive in Europe. He shares his feedback and design process with and as an Altium Designer^® Beta User. We discuss his initial impressions of Altium Designer 20. Listen to the Podcast: Download this episode (right click and save) Watch the video: Show Highlights: As a CID+ Hardware/PCB designer in a global EMS Read Article

High Performance Sub 1GHz RF Project This week, I’m building a high-performance sub-1GHz transceiver that I want to use as a standalone Internet of Things node using the ARM Cortex M3 microcontroller. As with my other projects, this project is open source and published on GitHub for you to use as the basis of your own design, or to use as-is. The RF schematic and layout are production proven, as are the microcontroller schematic and all footprints on the board. However, do keep in Read Article

PDN Analyzer Quick Start on a Motor Driver PCB Previously, I posted about designing a simple DC brushed motor controller using a single IC. While it’s a relatively simple board, it will still be transferring a maximum of 4 amps of current if both motors are running at the driver’s full rated current per channel. For a board as simple as this, you could simply look at the trace length and width and use an online calculator (or a little math) to figure out current densities on the traces and Read Article

What is the Return Current Path in a PCB? Do you know how to determine the return current path in this PCB layout? One of the fundamental aspects of any circuit diagram is the return current path. In a circuit diagram and a schematic diagram, the path that electric current follows to return to the low potential side of a power source should be obvious, but it may not be so obvious in a PCB. To quote the great Eric Bogatin at his PCB West 2019 presentation, the distinction between a Read Article