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How to Ensure PCB Impedance Control During Routing How to Ensure Impedance Control in PCB Routing Impedance control in PCB designs can refer to two different practices depending on who you're speaking with. PCB manufacturers provide impedance control as a service to customers who want to manufacture a high-speed digital system or an RF design. In contrast, PCB designers use the term to refer to intentional material selection and specification for their PCB stack-up, often without consideration of what materials a manufacturer might have Read Article
The RF PCB Design Process How to Design and Route Your RF Filter PCB Layout RF PCBs and mixed-signal systems are challenging for many designers. Careful attention must be paid to the PCB stackup design, process for designing transmission lines, placement of components, and floorplanning the PCB layout to ensure predictable return path. Many RF PCB layout designs will include printed elements, like an RF filter, antenna, isolation structures, and unique waveguide geometries. RF systems can make copious use of RF filters Read Article
Ensure Broadband Impedance Control and Signal Integrity What is the High-Speed Signal Frequency Range and Bandwidth? The high speed signal frequency range and bandwidth will affect signal integrity. Use the best design tools that can accommodate broadband signals in your PCB. Read Article
How to Design with Thermal Pad vs. Paste in Your Circuit Board PCB Heat Sinks: Thermal Pad vs. Paste in Your Circuit Board Design Using thermal pads vs paste is an important decision when deciding how to best attach a heat sink to a power-hungry component like a CPU. Each of these materials gives the important benefit of heat transfer and reduced temperature, but there are other points to be considered when using a heat sink with a thermal pad or thermal paste. Assembly houses also need to know which option a design will use, requiring that clear documentation be provided Read Article
Design Your Copper-Clad Board With the Best PCB Layout Software How to Make Copper-Clad Boards With the Best PCB Layout Software Some designers prefer to build their own prototypes in their home or company lab as it gives them a firsthand view of potential quality problems in their boards. While designers can go this route if they’re comfortable using etchants and cleaning solutions needed to remove copper from PCB laminates, they’ll need design tools to create their etching stencils. An at-home designer will need to procure PCB copper boards to use for etching and create Read Article
Designing Coplanar Waveguide with Ground in Your PCB How to Design Coplanar Waveguide with Ground in Your PCB RF designs that run at high frequency need high isolation from digital components, power subsystems, and external sources of noise that can degrade signal quality. One option in many RF designs is coplanar waveguide with ground as this can be used with controlled impedance routing on external layers. When you need to use coplanar waveguide with ground routing in your RF PCB designs, use the industry’s best set of routing features. Only Altium Read Article
Standards for PCB Thermal Shock and T Testing Standards for PCB Thermal Shock and Temperature Testing Electronic components generate heat while they operate, which will heat up the rest of your board. Heat will move to cooler areas of the board, but a board that reaches high temperature without quickly dissipating heat is prone to failure. Thermal shock testing aims to evaluate a design to ensure it can withstand thermal shock and comply with important application requirements. The best set of design tools, like the circuit board layout features Read Article
How Vibration and Electric Shock Affect Your PCB How Vibration and Electric Shock Affect Your PCB There are many mechanisms that can cause a PCB to fail, but some common failures can be traced back to vibration and electric shock. Vibration and electric shock are estimated to account for approximately 20% of PCB failures as they affect the most sensitive portions of a PCBA: the components. With the best set of PCB design tools, a designer can implement some basic design decisions that will help ensure reliability and prevent failure due to Read Article
Your Complete Guide to Circuit Board Thermal Analysis Your Complete Guide to PCB Thermal Analysis The physical properties of your PCB substrate and copper conductors are the main factors determining how a circuit board will heat up during operation. Circuit board thermal analysis techniques aim to predict when and where a board will heat up during operation, as well as how hot the board will get. This important part of the analysis is geared to ensure component-level and board-level reliability, and it can influence many design decisions Read Article
The Best Capacitor Circuit Simulator for PCB Design The Best Capacitor Circuit Simulator for PCB Design A capacitor is a fundamental element in integrated circuits and in PCB design, and it’s hard to think of a circuit that doesn’t contain at least one capacitor. A capacitor’s behavior and interaction with other components in a circuit generally needs to be simulated to ensure the design will operate as intended. Capacitors can provide filtering, blocking, and power stability behavior depending on their use in a circuit, and a capacitor circuit Read Article
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