Engineering News

Read the latest news and information for pcb design enineers.

Chirp Unlocks the Power of Sound

Chirp Unlocks the Power of Sound Chirp sends data seamlessly over soundwaves (Image source: chirp.io) According to the Wikipedia, a chirp is a signal in which the frequency increases (up-chirp) or decreases (down-chirp) with time. It’s also the name of a rather interesting company, whose website can be found at Chirp.io I don’t know about you, but – until recently -- if someone were to ask me how to transmit data from one device to another, my knee-jerk reaction would have been Read Article

Fabulous Folding Phones

Fabulous Folding Phones Microsoft doubles up with its dual screen Surface Duo (Image source: Microsoft) I like to think that I'm riding the crest of the technology wave, but every now and then something slips past my eagle eye and then leaps out to surprise me when I least expect it. Such was the case when I ran across the fact that Microsoft is planning on rolling out a fabulous folding smartphone called the Surface Duo in 2020. We will return to this in a moment, but Read Article

Paralyzed Man Walks with Aid of Mind-Controlled Exoskeleton

Paralyzed Man Walks with Aid of Mind-Controlled Exoskeleton Paralyzed man walks with aid of mind-controlled exoskeleton Image source: A frame from BBC video In an earlier column we introduced a tiny (2.5 mm x 0.6 mm) device called Injectsense, which can monitor the pressure inside the eye. In the not-so-distant future, the goal is to use devices like these to provide organ-to-cloud data connections that will allow clinicians and physicians to monitor our health and determine the effectiveness of Read Article

Great Spock! NeoSpectra-Based Tricorders are (Almost) Here!

Great Spock! NeoSpectra-Based Tricorders are (Almost) Here! The lightweight handheld NeoSpectra-Scanner provides material analysis capabilityImage source: Si-Ware Systems I have a cousin who lives in Canada. We’ll call her Rachel (because that's her name). Rachel is extremely allergic to almost any form of shellfish. The slightest hint of a sniff of a mollusk, crustacean, or echinoderm will leave her gasping frantically for air and grasping feverishly for her EpiPen. Rachel's allergy is so severe that she Read Article

Injectsense Real-Time Eye Pressure Monitoring

Injectsense Real-Time Eye Pressure Monitoring A prototype of Injectsense's wireless silicon sensor module next to a grain of rice and a quarter (Image source: Injectsense) A little over a year ago, I noticed that things sometimes got a little blurry while I was looking at my computer screen. My cousin Graham in England has macular degeneration, which has left him almost totally without sight. I have to admit that the thought this might happen to me was lurking in the back of my mind, so I Read Article

Nothing’s Perfect: Tolerance and the IPC

Nothing’s Perfect: Tolerance and the IPC Here's where we boldly confront a grim reality - nothing is perfect in the real world. We do our best to maintain accuracy in our circuit board designs, but the manufacturing process produces imperfections. Our CAD systems assume a drill is perfectly centered in a round pad. It never is. We declare specific trace widths, and when we measure them on an actual board they are always slightly thinner or thicker than expected. Multiple layers are Read Article

Weekly Digest: Preparing for IPC-6012E

Weekly Digest: Preparing for IPC-6012E This week HDI expert Happy Holden reported on an important issue related to the upcoming IPC-6012E, Qualification and Performance Specification for Rigid Printed Boards in his article, The IPC Warning About Microvia Reliability for High Performance Products. Learn more about this warning regarding field and latent failures of high-profile HDI boards and what you can do if you want to get involved or get more information. Access Happy’s article Read Article

Weekly Digest: Join the Fastest Growing Software in ECAD

Weekly Digest: Join the Fastest Growing Software in ECAD This week, we were so excited to see one of our own in I-Connect 007, Andy Johnson who was a big part of bringing the new Academic Program to fruition (check out the awesome video). It’s no surprise to us that so many talented young folks want to join the Altium team. We’re growing! And did you know that Altium Designer^® software is the most popular EDA tool on the market? That’s right, and there are plenty of reasons why. So consider joining the 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

Let Them Build Robots! All About AltiumLive

Let Them Build Robots! All About AltiumLive Meet Andy Shaughnessy, Managing Editor of iConnect007’s Design007 Magazine and learn all about AltiumLive 2018: Annual PCB Design Summit as he interviews Judy Warner in this special bonus episode of the OnTrack Podcast. Learn everything there is to know about AltiumLive from Judy and Andy and find out what Altium has planned for the PCB design community. Listen to the Podcast: Download this episode (right click and save) Watch the video: Show Read Article

32 Pad and Via Styles Sneak-Preview Watch Video

32 Routing Follow Mode Sneak-Preview Watch Video

57 Stackup Materials Library Sneak Preview Watch Video

34 Component Retrace Sneak-Preview Watch Video

52 Advanced Layer Stack Manager Watch Video

1:00 Stackup Impedance Profiles Manager Sneak-Preview Watch Video

Solar Cars of the Future Pioneered by Midnight Sun Solar Design Team

Solar Cars of the Future Pioneered by Midnight Sun Solar Design Team Since the 1988-1989 academic year the University of Waterloo’s Midnight Sun solar team, under the guidance of faculty advisor Professor Gordon Savage, has been building and competing in the American Solar Challenge (ASC) and the World Solar Challenge (WSC). Each of these competitions are held alternately every other year. Running the helm of the electrical systems team are Minghou Ji (Engineering Manager), Yifei Li (Hardware Engineer) and Taiping Read Article