Mobile menu
PCB Design
Easy, Powerful, Modern

The world’s most trusted PCB design system.

Learn More

PCB Design

Dedicated to Electronics? Join the SMTA Dedicated to Electronics? Join the SMTA If you work in the electronics industry, there’s a good chance that you’ve heard about the SMTA. Although SMTA stands for “Surface Mount Technology Association,” they prefer to go just by their abbreviation of SMTA as their scope and focus reaches far beyond SMT and manufacturing. “As the electronics industry evolves, we find ourselves addressing topics on emerging technologies and technological advancements. As technologies and manufacturing Read Article
Should I Make, Find, or Download My PCB Symbols and Footprints? Should I Make, Find, or Download My PCB Symbols and Footprints? Easily generate the most realistic, accurate, and data-rich 3D models in Altium Making footprints and schematic symbols has to be one of the most tedious stages of PCBA development. The hassle is not lost on anyone, and there are many different solutions that have been released over the past several years. This article will go through many of the options available today and some pros and cons of each. Component generation is a rich problem thanks Read Article
Printed Electronics a Technology of the Past and Future Printed Electronics a Technology of the Past and Future Printed electronics (PE) is a new, rapidly growing interconnect business. It has its origin in printed-flexible keyboards for appliances and for the expanding technologies in fancy magazines and literature. The irony of PE is that the technology was probably the first employed during WWII and all printed circuits owes it origin to PE. APPLICATIONS The most exciting thing about PE is all the new applications and markets that it will open. In Read Article
40:17 Advanced Layer Stack Manager in Altium Designer 19 Watch Video
Flexible Circuit Base Materials Flexible Circuit Base Materials Question: As someone new to designing with flex materials, what is important to understand about the base materials? For people new to calling out flex materials, it can be a little intimidating. Just like their rigid material counterparts, there are so many options to choose from, it can be mind-boggling. But, also just like their rigid material counterparts, once you learn the “basics”, most designs will fit within common parameters. Once those Read Article
Weekly Digest: Altium EDA tools at Embedded World Weekly Digest: Altium EDA tools at Embedded World Embedded World Conference 2019 was on everyone’s mind this week. With so many future-oriented technologies and solutions, the conference brought out the best new ideas. As a part of the community, we were eager to share our technology with embedded system developers and product managers looking for fresh perspective and future-friendly EDA tools. Watch our Embedded World highlights video to get a quick recap of the event and take a look at some Read Article
31:21 Embedded World 2019 - Altium Designer 19 Demo at the (with Tony Folan) Watch Video
28:28 Embedded World 2019 - Altium Designer 19 Demo (Deutsch) Watch Video
1:06 Embedded World 2019 with Altium PCB Design Software Watch Video
OnTrack Newsletter: Tech Predictions, Launching Rockets, and Snapping in a ECAD tool - February 2019 OnTrack Newsletter: Tech Predictions, Launching Rockets, and Snapping in a ECAD tool - February 2019 OnTRack Newsletter February 2019 VOL. 2 No 10 FIVE TECH PREDICTIONS FOR THE NEXT DECADE Duane Benson Predicts What’s to Come in the Next Ten Years This month in the OnTrack Newsletter, we bring you a special guest article from EMS Subject Matter Expert, Duane Benson of Screaming Circuits, in which he shares five technology predictions for the next decade. Benson covers his personal thoughts on what may come in artificial intelligence, highways Read Article
Interplane Capacitance and PCB Stackups Interplane Capacitance and PCB Stackups This article is intended to provide insights on interplane capacitance and guidance for the process of designing PCB stackups. It is useful to look at the evolution of technology as time has passed in order to see how the demands on the PCB stackup have changed. In the early days of PCB fabrication, logic circuits were so slow that the only concerns were how to make connections between logic or discrete parts and provide a path for the DC power Read Article
Printed Circuit Fabrication Introduction to Printed Circuit Fabrication for the PCB Designer Want to learn about printed circuit fabrication? Learn from expert Lee Ritchey in this article. Read Article
Weekly Digest: Articles, Podcast and Videos from Altium Weekly Digest: Articles, Podcast and Videos from Altium We’ve collected everything published this week to bring our readers resources to read, watch and listen to all in one place. On the Podcast we introduced a new format so we can invite engineer Ben Jordan on the show more often to take questions from the audience. We also have new articles on the blog and several new videos all about Altium 365. This OnTrack Podcast with Judy Warner This week on the OnTrack Podcast, Judy Warner and Ben Jordan Read Article
Channel Operating Margin Isn’t So Bad Channel Operating Margin Isn’t So Bad What is a COM anyway? Channel Operating Margin, or COM, isn’t well understood. Since it isn’t well understood, many people doubt it really means anything. After all, how can channel quality be represented by just one number in decibels? It turns out, COM is actually the latest evolutionary step in a long progression of channel validation techniques using eye patterns. This blog will trace the evolution of COM back to its roots and put meaning to Read Article
End-to-End Tracking of Your PCB Design End-to-End Tracking of Your PCB Design Have you ever run a board re-spin only to discover you’re not even sure what the changes were? I’m not talking about comparing GERBERs from Rev A to Rev B, rather I am referring to understanding the requirements that drove the changes, the reason behind the changes, and all the dialog that was happening around the changes. For most of us we capture these details via email, commit history in our version control system (e.g. Subversion, Perforce Read Article
Weekly Digest: Expert Articles and Altium Designer Youtube Videos Weekly Digest: Expert Articles and Altium Designer Youtube Videos We’ve collected everything published this week to bring our readers resources to read, watch and listen to all in one place. This week we have two new articles from thought leaders that we think you’ll like. Take a look and join the conversation on social media or in the comments section of the articles listed below. Articles on the PCB Design Blog For the avid reader, there’s never a shortage of informative articles on our PCB Design Blog. Check Read Article
Top 8 Flexible Circuit Advantages Top 8 Flexible Circuit Advantages Early in my career, someone told me that flex circuit applications are really only limited by our imagination. I pondered that for a while, and I couldn’t agree more. Most of these “aha” moments happen when we are passing around a bunch of different samples, and a particular shape or level of flexibility sparks a new idea. One of the favorite parts of my job is the magical moment when I am working with a designer or group of engineers trying to Read Article