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Important Considerations in Your Embedded System's Master-Slave Communication Model Important Considerations in Your Embedded System's Master-Slave Communication Model It can take a few weeks or months to finish a working prototype of an embedded system. Sometimes I would spend days working on a single part of the project. However, when your boss is looking for updates every day, it can be particularly distracting and hinder your productivity. When I started my design company, I learned not to repeat these mistakes on my team. Like a human, embedded systems come in various shapes and sizes, and more importantly Read Article
High Speed PCB Design Considerations: Bypass Capacitor Place and Route Tips High Speed PCB Design Considerations: Bypass Capacitor Place and Route Tips Many years ago, the majority of the board designs that I was involved with were simple digital designs. Placing and routing bypass capacitors in those designs was very easy, and often the circuitry was slow enough that ceramic capacitors were not needed. Most of the time we considered bypass capacitor placement and routing as more of an afterthought than as a primary design consideration. I remember how some of the engineers even instructed me to Read Article
The Importance of Compliance Awareness in Circuit and PCB Design The Importance of Compliance Awareness in Circuit and PCB Design I had an English professor once who was a lot of fun, but man, his requirements for essay writing were brutal. Making a decent grade required a ton of work. I had to check and recheck my paper’s content to make sure that every detail he asked for was painstakingly covered. These tedious rituals, though annoying and painful, helped teach me how to be thorough with my research. This was something that came in handy when I began my career and had to Read Article
Bluetooth Low Energy and the Internet of Things Bluetooth Low Energy and the Internet of Things Did you ever “reinvent yourself” at some time in your life? I did, I went from the nerd in high school who wore cargo shorts and high socks to a less nerdy college student who had regular socks and shorts with the fashionable number of pockets. By the end of college, I had learned “social skills” and was finally ready to enter society as the best, or at least acceptable, version of me. People aren’t the only things that need reinvention, so do Read Article
Engineering a Layer Stack Up for High Speed Design Engineering a Layer Stack Up for High Speed Design Most of your board's simpler EMI/EMC problems, signal integrity problems, and power integrity problems can be solved or reduced with the right layer stackup. In high-speed PCB design and in RF PCB design, the layer stackup is the first place to start engineering the board to ensure it will operate within the intended operational parameters. But like any engineered component, a high-speed layer stackup must balance many functional goals, as well Read Article
Why PCB Design Auto-Interactive Routing is Not a PCB Autorouter Why PCB Design Auto-Interactive Routing is Not a PCB Autorouter Editorial credit: Santiparp Wattanaporn / Shutterstock.com A while back I was given the gift of a flight in an AT-6, a WWII era airplane used for training fighter pilots. There couldn’t have been a better gift for an aviation enthusiast, and I spent the next 5 months eagerly anticipating it. Finally, the day arrived and I couldn’t have been happier as we took off into the wild blue yonder. Then the pilot demonstrated an aileron roll, and my Top 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
High Speed PCB Layout Guidelines High Speed PCB Layout Guidelines: Placement Tips and Strategies In real estate, the buzzword is; “location, location, location”. Interestingly enough, the same can be said of high-speed PCB layout. Although all aspects of the high-speed PCB design process are important, component placement is especially important for ensuring easy routing, minimizing EMI, and possibly eliminating the need for some extra layers. Location placement methods that work without a problem in a standard PCB design may not satisfy the Read Article
How to Guarantee Signal Integrity in Your PCB Design for Serial Communication Protocols How to Guarantee Signal Integrity in Your PCB Design for Serial Communication Protocols During my school days, I was addicted to the popular FIFA PC games series. I could spend hours scoring against the best virtual soccer teams. I was so engrossed in playing the game that I become oblivious to my mom’s voice when she called me to run an errand. It goes without saying that I received a healthy dose of scolding from my mom and was slapped with a 3 months ban on PC gaming. This is a good example of external sources can cause us to Read Article
How to Plan Ahead to Meet PCB Disposal Requirements How to Plan Ahead to Meet PCB Disposal Requirements When I was a kid and learned to solder, I had a mentor that kept an old coffee can on his soldering bench labeled “Lead Waste - DO NOT THROW IN TRASH.” Wire snippings, solder bits, and the random metal detritus that accumulates on a soldering mat all went in there. Apparently, it got full every few years and he took it to a local electronics recycling place to make sure he wasn’t adding any lead or heavy metals to the environment. I was shocked Read Article
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