OnTrack Newsletter November 2017

Created: November 20, 2017
Updated: November 2, 2020

On Track Newsletter

On Track Newsletter

November 2017 VOL. 1 No 8

Welcome to the November edition of Altium’s On Track Newsletter. This month in Rock Stars and Superheroes we feature a who presented a talk at AltiumLive 2017: ANNUAL PCB DESIGN SUMMIT in San Diego. Not only is he a very talented , he is a leader and advocate for regional Altium^® User Groups and shares how to start and build your own.

In Space you’ll meet an impressive young man who decided to learn how computers fundamentally operate by designing and building his own computing micro architecture, BEEBA.

In this month’s On Track Video series, Chris Carlson returns for part 2 of his lessons on Thermal Management.

As always, we served up some great articles on board design in Brain Food.

We sincerely enjoyed seeing hundreds of you from our user community during AltiumLive 2017: ANNUAL PCB DESIGN SUMMIT in October. Please accept our heartfelt thanks for making these inaugural events such a success! We look forward to doing it again in October 2018 in San Diego and Munich.

As holidays approach around the world, everyone from Altium would like to wish you and yours a happy and healthy holiday season!

Happy Holidays!
Judy M. Warner

Director of Community Engagement

Spotlight

ROCK STARS AND SUPERHEROES

Highlighting Exceptional PCB Designers

Randy Clemmons is the lead PCB Designer at Ingenu, a successful IoT company in California. In his spare time he likes to share his expertise in Altium Designer^® through a variety of means, including a self-published blog. He recently presented a talk about variants at AltiumLive 2017: ANNUAL PCB DESIGN SUMMIT, during which he also shared some tips about how to start a local user group. Due to the palpable interest attendees showed regarding this subject, I decided to meet with Clemmons to learn more about his career and how he decided to start and lead a local user group.

Read Full Interview Here

Space

Frank Duggan: From Snap Circuits, to Micro Architecture, to Dreams of MIT

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the New York City Faire with the Altium CircuitMaker and CircuitStudio^® team. While there, I met a young named Frank Duggan who shared an inspiring story of how he built a computing micro architecture he calls BEEBA. He began this project as a sophomore and is now a senior at Union County Valley Technical High School in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. Besides his natural aptitude for technology, he is a talented musician. Enjoy this interview with Frank Duggan, who has hopes of ending up at MIT after graduation.

Read The Full Article Here

Featured Blog/Video

ON TRACK VIDEO SERIES

Thermal Management Part II

Chris Carlson returns to the whiteboard in part 2 of his teaching series on thermal management

Click Here to Watch

Brain Food

Tips, Tricks and Training

Altium Designer - PCB Design Software Altium 365 - PCB Design Platform Enterprise PCB Design Solutions FREE Trials

Related Resources

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What is Lenz's Law and How Does it Affect PCB Design? Lenz's law is one of the fundamental physical laws that describes the multitude of relationships between electricity and magnetism. Together with Ampere's law, Gauss law, Faraday's law, Coulomb's law, and the Lorentz force law, we have everything we need to understand the classical behavior of the electromagnetic field. Among these laws, Lenz's law and Faraday's law work together to describe how the magnetic field in your PCB is related to the Read Article

What is a balun

What is a Balun in RF PCB and Do You Need One? Are you wondering what a balun is? Find out more and see where one fits into your RF PCB layout. Read Article

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PCB Testing 101: Important Methods and Metrics PCB testing must occur during fabrication, assembly, and board bring-up. Here’s how you can plan to be successful during testing and inspection. Read Article

Continuous conduction mode

Continuous Conduction Mode in an SMPS: What is it and Why it Matters Learn more about continuous conduction mode and how to design to this condition in your power supply. The best design and simulation tools can help you verify continuous conduction mode is reached. Read Article

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What Is An Oscillator? Everything You Need to Know What is an oscillator? Mark Harris gives an in depth overview of the major categories of Oscillators. He explains the different types with their functions and drawbacks. Read more here. Read Article

Solder Bridge Jumper Best Practices in PCB Design

What Is a Solder Bridge? Best Practices in PCB Design A PCB variant is often simply thought of as a new layout created from an old design. However, if you’re creative with your routing and layout, you can use a solder bridge jumper to configure portions of a single PCB layout for multiple variants. This lets you quickly create variants of a PCB layout without rerouting traces or changing your schematics. If you plan to use jumpers in your PCB layout, there are some important guidelines to follow to Read Article

ESD protection and PCB design

What is ESD and How Does it Affect My PCB Design? We've compiled a complete guide to ESD protection for PCBs and your electronics. Implement these guidelines for enclosure-level ESD protection and to prevent ESD on important digital interfaces. Read Article

What is PCB Design?

What is a PCB and Intro to PCB Design Printed circuit board (PCB) design has grown into its own specialized field within the electronics industry. PCBs play an important role in that they provide electrical interconnections between electronic components, rigid support to hold components, and a compact package that can be integrated into an end product. They are the main component in an electronic device that is responsible for form and function, and they allow advanced semiconductors Read Article

1:19 What is Concurrent Engineering? Watch Video

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