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Fundamental Approach to PCB Antenna Design

The Best PCB Antenna Design Software Eases Antenna Implementation Circuit Board antenna design can be a difficult task for any software; however, that shouldn’t be a problem for Altium Designer, which can serve as your go-to BLE antenna design software and much more. ALTIUM DESIGNER Ensuring that your antenna designs are placed without issue Consumer and industrial demand have prompted the demand for smaller wireless devices. The devices support wearable technologies, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) applications Read Article

PCBs vs. Multichip Modules, Chiplets, and Silicon Interconnect Fabric

PCBs vs. Multichip Modules, Chiplets, and Silicon Interconnect Fabric (2023 Update) An article in the September 2019 issue of IEEE Spectrum claimed that silicon interconnect fabric, a method for connecting chiplets on a multichip module or advanced package, would eliminate PCBs and bulky SoCs for many applications, specifically motherboards. It's now 2023, and no one seems to have ditched PCBs yet; the demand for PCBs remains as strong as ever and is still projected to grow at double-digit CAGR. This is despite the expected Read Article

Filter Transfer Function and Pole-Zero Analysis in Altium Designer

Filter Transfer Function and Pole-Zero Analysis in Altium Designer I remember spending hours on circuit analysis problems in my electronics classes, and I learned to analyze all sorts of filter/amplifier configurations by hand. The circuits were usually tractable with Ohm’s law and Kirchoff’s laws, as long as there was no feedback in the circuit. Circuits for advanced applications, such as wideband or multiband matching circuits for RF components, can quickly become difficult to analyze by hand. But as the Read Article

Understanding Your PCB Netlist

Understanding Your PCB Netlist File Understanding Your PCB Netlist File There are several different ways that PCB netlists are used at various stages of the electronics development process. Netlists may have different purposes and may have unique data formats, but they all provide a similar function; they list the connections of an electronic circuit. This is important for a variety of fundamental tasks in electronics and PCB layout design. Your PCB netlist file is used graphically Read Article

IPC Compliant Footprint Wizard

Use Altium Designer’s IPC® Compliant Footprint Wizard to Make Unified PCB Library Footprints Altium Designer’s IPC^® Compliant Footprint Wizard facilitates accurate PCB footprint generation for each component in Altium Designer. The footprint generation feature in Altium Designer overcomes some of the biggest productivity bottlenecks in other CAD systems, such as OrCAD/Allegro and PADS. Instead of manually creating every footprint from scratch, use the footprint generation tool in Altium Designer and our suite of automated library Read Article

Creating High Pin Count Schematic Symbols Quickly

Creating High Pin Count Schematic Symbols Quickly Making schematic symbols is quick and painless when you use regular expressions and leverage Altium Designer’s expansive toolkit. Read Article

Frequency Modulation Simulation in Altium Designer

Frequency Modulation Simulation in Altium Designer When working with analog signals, you need to ensure your device is operating linearly in order to prevent problems like harmonic distortion during operation. Nonlinear interactions in analog devices lead to distortion that corrupts a clean analog signal. It may not be obvious when an analog circuit clips just from looking at your schematic or datasheets. Instead of tracing through your signal chain manually, you can use simulation tools to get Read Article

Reduce Development Time for Electronics with Modular Design Tools

Reduce Development Time for Electronics with Modular Design Tools If you want to get to market quickly, you’ll need to reduce development time for your new product If you’re an entrepreneur and you have a great idea for a new product, it’s in your best interests to get through the development phase and bring your product to market quickly. The challenge is to quickly create a new system that provides the functionality your target market demands without sacrificing quality. With software development, it’s quite Read Article

Long Live EDA: Modular System-level Electronics Design Online

Long Live EDA: Modular System-level Circuit Engineering Online Modular instruments like this are much easier with online electronics design software If you’re familiar with the electronics design automation (EDA) industry, you’ll find plenty of similarities. These important software platforms have been the mainstay of electronics development since the 1980’s. Although there is plenty of differentiation between different products, as well as various levels of integration, these platforms have always seemed Read Article

Getting Started in Altium Designer: The Schematic

Getting Started in Altium Designer: The Schematic A schematic is a way to record an idea. Schematics are drawings or diagrams that are used to communicate electronic ideas to others. You may have never thought about it, but anyone who understands electronics can look at your schematic and understand your idea, no matter what language they speak! Schematics are a universal “language” for recording and sharing electronic ideas. Here’s the official definition from IPC-T-50 (Terms and Definitions) Read Article

Embedded Optical Interconnects in PCBs for Ultra High Speed Design

Embedded Optical Interconnects in PCBs for Ultra High Speed Design Most PCB designers—except those that work on optical transceivers—are probably not aware of the coming revolution in silicon photonic integrated circuits (PICs), electronic-photonic integrated circuits (EPICs), and greater proliferation of embedded optical systems outside of telecom. Applications outside of telecom (for example, military and aerospace systems) that require massive data transfer rates already make use of fiber optics for embedded Read Article

Ethernet Layout and Routing Standards: MAC, PHY, and RJ-45 Connectors

Ethernet Layout Routing Guidelines: MAC, PHY, and RJ-45 Connectors Magnetics termination has little to do with actual magnets. Here are some important ethernet layout routing guidelines (MII, RMII, RGMII, etc.) to ensure signal integrity. Read Article

PCIe Layout and Routing Guidelines

PCIe in PCB Design: Layout and Routing Guidelines Opening up a computer as a kid and staring at the complicated mess of card slots, chips, and other electronics on a motherboard always made me wonder how anyone could keep all the details about PCB layout straight. Learning more about PCB design for computer architecture and peripherals made me appreciate the dedication PCB designers have for building great electronic devices. Modern GPU, USB, audio, and networking cards can all run on the back Read Article

Identify Vendor Parts Early: Manage BoMs Proactively With Consolidated Part Sourcing

Identify Vendor Parts Early: Manage BoMs Proactively With Consolidated Part Sourcing Walking a tightrope requires intricate balance. Simply visualized as a walker and a rope in space. Simple moves into complexity when the walker’s senses are skewed to balance. Careful placement of each foot pulls from neurological pathways communicating intricate information simultaneously. Should information fail to arrive when the foot is moving may push the walker off the rope. Managing Bills of Material from early circuit concept through Read Article

Altium Vault Streamlines Product Development Process With Early Access to Component Sourcing and Costing

Altium Vault Streamlines Product Development Process With Early Access to Component Sourcing and Costing Instead of Placeholders The product development process for printed circuit assemblies is highly dependent on complete Bills of Material. Complete Bills of Material list the PCB along with all components soldered or adhered onto the board to make the assembly. Components are unavailable early in the product development cycle because EDA libraries are antiquated and lack current parts information when circuit designers are drawing schematics. To stay on the development’s Read Article

Stay Grounded: Digital, Analog, and Earth Ground in PCB Layout

All About Ground Reference and Chassis Ground in Electronics Design The concepts of grounding techniques, earthing, making PCB ground connections, and PCB chassis ground are all very convoluted in electronics, despite international standards that have tried to separate concepts and terminology. Grounding is important in every aspect of electronics design, electrical work, and of course, in PCB design. All circuits will need a reference connection, which is something that we call ground, but the exact reference is Read Article

An Introduction to Multi-board Design in Altium Designer

An Introduction to Multi-board Design in Altium Designer Brain games are a good way to stay sharp. One of my favorite ways to implement this is by doing daily puzzles. Although I love the crossword puzzles where you complete the words from a given clue, I think puzzles that require you to put the pieces together can be the most challenging, especially when it is a group activity. It reminds me of one of the more daunting problems for engineers and PCB designers, which is multi-board design. Not only Read Article