Easy, Powerful, Modern

The world’s most trusted PCB design system.

Learn More

PCB Design

DDR4 routing guidelines

PCB Routing Guidelines for DDR4 Memory Devices and Impedance Follow these DDR4 routing and PCB layout guidelines to ensure signal integrity and correct timing for high speed DDR buses. Read Article

The Role of Embedded Capacitors in PCB Design

Role of the Embedded PCB Capacitor in Circuit Board Design Mention capacitance, conductors, and dielectric capacitors in PCB to a 7th-grade science class, and you may see glazed-over expressions and hear bored sighs. I mean, hey, sometimes I get this with adults and coworkers I’m talking to so I can’t say I’m unsympathetic to the kids, but I have to promise them that circuits and circuit boards are, truly, fascinating. Let's help them answer the question: why are capacitors used in circuit boards? To Read Article

55:02 Learning a New CAD Tool with Bil Herd (Commodore 128 Principal Engineer) Watch Video

Avoid the First Pass Perils in PCB Prototyping Runs

Five First Pass Perils in PCB Prototyping Runs The first pass prototyping run for a new design is where its functionality really gets put to the test. The functionality of your PCB depends on the quality of the design you create in your CAD tools, but sometimes the prototype just doesn't function as intended. There are many possible reasons for this, which could be related to your design choices, the capabilities of your manufacturer, or both. Founders without hardware experience might Read Article

annular ring NFP

Annular Rings for PCB and Nonfunctional Pads: Should You Use ‘em or Lose ‘em? Annular rings placed as non-functional pads in a PCB can affect via strength and signal integrity. Learn when to remove or keep them in this article. Read Article

Design Planning with Differential Pair Routing Software and Directive Symbols

Design Planning with Differential Pair Routing Software and Directive Symbols If the components on your PCB are like the organs in your body, then your trace routing between components are like blood vessels. What looks like a complex tangle of copper connections is actually a meticulously designed system that uses well-understood design rules. Your PCB design software can help you maximize your productivity while routing and prevent errors using directive designations. Great PCB design software doesn’t just let you set Read Article

CAD Layout Software for Modern PCB Design and Modern PCB Designers

CAD Layout Software for Modern PCB Design and Modern PCB Designers Back in the day, PCB designers drew schematics by hand. Instead of guiding a mouse, technicians used red and blue pencils to carefully draw pads and traces on vellum parchment paper. Their tools included a triangle, a T-square, and templates. Forget a thorough design process involving CAD tools, full team collaboration, differentiated schematic diagrams and circuit board designs - one was lucky enough to have a steady hand. After completing a Read Article

Auto-Interactive Routing to Overcome Obstacles and Other Polygons

Auto-Interactive Routing to Overcome Obstacles and Other Polygons There’s no doubt about it, routing traces on a printed circuit board by hand can be a lot of fun. It’s an engaging challenge to make the routing as neat, tight, and correct as possible to give you the shortest routes with the best signal integrity. Once you are done you can take a lot of pride in knowing that your measured lines are perfect, you differential pairs are spot on, and everything looks great. The only problem is that level of manual Read Article

Dispel Confusion with Global Editing: Poor DxDesigner Usability Causes Confusion

Dispel Confusion with Global Editing: Poor DxDesigner Usability Causes Confusion The world has turned the corner from linear to organic. The need for global editing within versatile environments continues to grow. It used to be I could keep one file in my office drawer to collect bills for the month. When I got paid, it was a simple matter to list the bills, add them up, and write the checks. These days, bill paying goes much quicker on the computer. But I’ve had to adapt to different steps on each utility website and Read Article

Analog Meets Digital: How Converters Can Make or Break Signal Performance

Analog Meets Digital: How Converters Can Make or Break Signal Performance We are born into a world of purely analog signals. The sound of a stream running through a mountain meadow, the brown color of dirt, that screaming baby next to you; all of these ‘signals’ are of an analog nature. Yet, we grow up and seem to spend most of our time attempting to turn these signals into a reproducible ‘digital’ copy so we can perceive them through a digital device. Analog and digital signal performance is necessary to keep in mind Read Article

The Advantages of Using Project Templates for PCB Design

What Are the Advantages of Using Templates for PCB Design? The domestication of horses, inventing the wheel and developing the combustion engine are tremendous milestones that we laud for enabling us to get around more efficiently and explore new places. Although, this is true another creation that deserves at least as much credit for giving most of us the confidence to branch out from our familiar surroundings is the map. The knowledge that someone before us has traversed a path gives us confidence in Read Article

4:10 Morgan Solar - Altium Success Story Watch Video

Competitive Exoskeleton by Project March from the Delft Technical University Dream Team

Competitive Exoskeleton by Project March from the Delft Technical University Dream Team Judy Warner: Robbert, please tell us about your major at Delft Technical University and your role at Project March. Robbert de Lange: I’m studying civil engineering and my role on the Project March team is Acquisition and PR. Presently, I have taken off a full year of studies to focus full-time on Project March. Warner: What motivated you to take a full year off of your studies to invest in Project March? De Lange: Beyond all the academic Read Article

Mary Elizabeth McCulloch Developed Voz Box and Project Vive

Mary Elizabeth McCulloch Developed Voz Box and Project Vive Judy Warner: It’s so nice to talk with you, Mary Elizabeth! Please share your background, education and what inspired you to choose engineering as a vocation. Mary Elizabeth McCulloch: I was always good at science and math and I graduated from Penn State University with a biomedical degree in 2016. Both of my parents were very inspirational in my choice to pursue engineering. My Dad studied physics in college and is now an engineer who Read Article

Introduction to Multiboard PCB Design (Part 3): Signal Integrity & Power Integrity - OnTrack Watch Video

40:51 Chris Hunrath on Flex and Material Sets [OnTrack Podcast] Watch Video

Avoid Integrated and Netlist Data Flows Slowing Design Starts

Avoid Integrated and Netlist Data Flows Slowing Design Starts The chaos theory was used by Edward Lorenz early in the 1960s to model weather. Given multiple data points and nonlinear behavior, integrated circuit and synthesized netlist data starts because of nonlinear behavior. Just like the weather which is difficult to model and predict. It turns out nonlinear complexity produces beautiful, elegant pictures of real things. A tree is fractal; if you were to magnify its branch 1 million times, you’d see the Read Article