Engineering News

Read the latest news and information for pcb design enineers.

Python Dragging Students into STEAM

Python and CodeBots Dragging Students into STEAM CodeBot. Image source: Firia Labs I have a friend. It's true. I'm not joking. Settle down. Look -- I'm not going to continue until you cease squirming in your seat and stop giggling. That's better. Now, if you're quite finished, we'll continue. We'll call my friend David (because that's his name). David is one of the cleverest guys I know. He has a size-16 brain -- the type with the go-faster stripes painted down the side. He has expertise with Read Article

Design Isn’t Easy

Sandman Doppler: Design Isn’t Easy The Sandman Doppler Alexa-enabled alarm clock (Image source: Palo Alto Innovation) The fact that design isn’t easy may not strike experienced engineers as being hot news, but younger members of our profession may not have seen the memo. Even something that sounds simple, like an alarm clock, can pose unexpected challenges. I know whereof I speak, because I've been waiting to take delivery of my new alarm clock for more than two years as I pen Read Article

Say Hello to the First Space Tow Truck

Say Hello to the First Space Tow Truck Artist's impression of MEV-1 (silver) attached to communications satellite (copper) (Image source: Northrop Grumman) Things are moving quickly in space these days (no pun intended). I like to think that I keep my ear to the ground, but I was surprised to discover that Northrop Grumman's Mission Extension Vehicle-1 (MEV-1), whose mission is to essentially act as a space tow truck, successfully launched a week ago. Riding on top of a Russian Proton Read Article

Augmented Reality is Poised to Change the World

Augmented Reality is Poised to Change the World Imagine 50,000 fans streaming HD video on 5G phones (Image source: pixabay.com) One of the big topics on everyone's lips at the moment is the forthcoming deployment of 5G smartphones and infrastructure. As I wrote in my 5G Meets 50,000 Fans at Super Bowl 2025 column on EEJournal.com, I was idly watching some adverts on television when I saw one showing people streaming video from an American football match. This set me to wondering what the Read Article

Chirp Unlocks the Power of Sound

Data-Over-Sound Open Source: 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

PCB Dimensions: 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 Learn all about AltiumLive: PCB DESIGN SUMMIT, the premier tech conference for PCB designers, brought to you by Altium. Watch or Listen to this OnTrack special episode today! Read Article

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

Solar Cars of the Future Pioneered by Midnight Sun Solar Engineering and 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

AltiumLive Summit Starts Tomorrow in San Diego's Beautiful Mission Bay

AltiumLive Summit Starts Tomorrow in San Diego's Beautiful Mission Bay - PCB Design Conference Scroll down for a map or click on directions in Google Maps. AltiumLive 2017 Rarely does a PCB design conference come along that is focused wholly on training content designed to make YOU a more knowledgeable and effective . That’s why Altium decided to create one--fully centered on designers...and presented by expert PCB designers. AltiumLive 2017: Annual PCB Design Summit is coming to San Diego. Over the next two days, EDA industry Read Article

PCB Design Tools at Maker Faire Open Source Hardware Summit

PCB Design Tools at Maker Faire Open Source Hardware Summit In response to a grassroots swell of “makers”, Maker Media launched the first Maker Faire in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2006. By 2014 over 215,000 attendees flocked to their two flagship events in New York city and San Francisco. Over the years, these large events spawned Featured Maker Faires, Mini-Maker Faires and School Maker Faires all around the world. If you’ve not heard of or been to a Maker Faire, I think their website describes it Read Article