PCB West Sneak Preview: Altium Designer 17-ActiveRoute

Medical wearables need to be sleek, unencumbered, and compact; able to collect meaningful medical data with few (or no) wires attached to the patient. This creates demand for flexible PCB layouts. While you’re trying hard to push the limits of space, to use smart materials, and to minimize its footprint, it can be damn annoying when you fall out of a board outline (particularly when dealing with an irregular board shape). Read on to find out how

Designing a top-notch printed circuit board is your job. You understand what components need to be used, what materials are required, etc. On the other hand, your boss’s job is on the business side of things. They understand profits and losses and maintain productivity levels, etc. But they often don’t really understand the ins and outs of printed circuit board design. And since those technical aspects can have a significant impact on profits and

The Internet of Things is a new category of exciting gadgets and appliances transforming the consumer market. However, developing that smartwatch isn’t as easy as putting it on. PCB designers are encountering unique challenges when developing powerful hardware solutions for these products. These PCB’s have to pack performance into a small space while preserving reliability and product budget. Thankfully, recent improvements to an oft-overlooked

A source of PCB malfunctions during PCB manufacturing, especially in outdoor environments, comes from moisture on the boards. Fortunately, there are several options for protecting your boards when they are deployed. Read on to learn which is best for your application. I once had an outdoor sensor system with a custom PCB protective coating that would stop recording data for two hours at dawn every day. This was not because the board needed its