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PCB Design

RF and Microwave PCB Design with John Bushie from ASC

RF and Microwave PCB Design with John Bushie from ASC This is an episode about RF and Microwave PCB Design as well as Design for Manufacturing or DFM and it will help you to understand material choices and where to get answers about high speed laminates. Read Article

BOM Planning for Different Levels of Production

BOM Planning: Different Levels of Production There is one really great thing about social media and that is catching up with old friends. I connected with a high school friend who did a lot in his life including some great achievements in the world of Taekwondo. He talks about the different tournaments that he attends, the people that he associates with, and how he has progressed through the different levels of this discipline. There appears to be a lot more to Taekwondo than I would have Read Article

10:05 Getting Started with Design for Manufacturing [DFM] Getting Started with Design for Manufacturing is an Episode of the OnTrack Whiteboard Series. Join David Marrakchi as he gives an Introduction into Design for Manufacturing. How can you save 40% of time per production cycle and lots of money spent on re-spins? Learn some easy tricks that will help you get your design right the first time - every time. View the complete DFM Guidebook by David Marrakchi here. See All OnTrack Newsletters here. Watch Video

Pin Swapping and Gate Swapping in Your PCB Layout to Clean Up Your Rat Nest

Pin Swapping and Gate Swapping in Your PCB Layout to Clean Up Your Logic Rat Nest I recently moved into a new apartment, and it was time to unpack all of my electronics. When I reached into the box to pull out my audio cords, power cords, and extension cords, everything was a tangled, helpless mess. If I had taken more time to pack them properly, they probably would not have become tangled. If you are routing traces between an FPGA and external logic ICs on your PCB, your design might look like my mess of cords on moving day Read Article

Circular Product Design and PCBs for a Healthier World

Circular Product Design and PCBs for a Healthier World The world of PCB design is a fast-moving and highly profitable sector. But with the rate of increase we are clearly seeing in the industry, it is apparent that if we are not careful, we may head into some stiff environmental issues that are too deep to repair. Thankfully the push we are seeing from environmental groups is equally correlated to the growth of the industry. The concept of a ‘circular economy’ is at the forefront of these qualms Read Article

Peeling Back the Layers: Electronic PCB Stackup

Peeling Back the Layers: Electronic PCB Stackup One of the first things you notice about the Grand Canyon when you visit is the incredible scenery. The canyon walls with their histories inscribed for all to see through the different colored layers of rocks and minerals are truly inspiring. I’m sure you could spend years and not even come close to discovering all the connections, materials, and creatures that live or have lived within those layered rock-faces. Because it’s hard for me to stop Read Article

Crystal Oscillators in Your PCB Layout Keep Frequencies Steady

Crystal Oscillators in Your PCB Layout Keep Frequencies Steady For most of human history, we relied on astronomical timekeeping to plan our lives. Now we have sophisticated clocks that help us manage daily life. As modern life becomes ever more frantic, we need to keep track of fractions of a second. Electronic pcb layout crystal oscillator guidelines are the secret sauce that makes this possible. The output clock signal from a Schmitt-trigger oscillator or a 555 timer is controlled using an RC time constant Read Article

How an Electrolytic Capacitor PDN Issue Almost Brought Down a Building

How an Electrolytic Capacitor PDN Issue Almost Brought Down a Building I recently came across an interesting story that involves the tale of a boiler system that failed to start under the close supervision of a TDK-Lambda rep, only to be solved by none other than the building maintenance technician. The story starts by the shutdown of an aging boiler in the dead of winter a British winter that required replacement of the seven-year-old radiators. After the repair and replacements took place, the boiler was switched Read Article

Voltage Regulators and How to Plan Your Power Budget with PDN Analysis

Voltage Regulators and How to Plan Your Power Budget with PDN Analysis and Examples With my first buck regulator design, I had been given a power budget for the circuit block and I had to take into consideration what it was supplying and what topology I’d use. I considered efficiency to remove heat from the enclosure and I wanted to avoid using a heat sink. I also wanted a robust engine, a regulator to keep on working when the CPU, memory, and other utility circuits were exercising their might. I decided on the buck regulator Read Article

Add Any Component to Your Design With Unified Component Libraries

Add Any Component to Your Design With Unified PCB Component Libraries When embarking on the PCB design journey, there are some initial hurdles you’ll need to overcome in order to get your design process running smoothly and without interruption. Sometimes the hurdle is as manageable as making sure you get your coffee in the morning. Sometimes the hurdle is as tall as not having the knowledge, comfort, or software you need to accomplish your design tasks. Oftentimes, when sketching out an initial PCB design, there Read Article

Enable Temperature and Humidity Analysis with a Humidity Sensor Circuit Design

Enable Temperature and Humidity Analysis with a Humidity Sensor Circuit Design Living in a country with temperature averages of 35°C all year long, I have excellent heat tolerance. It’s the humidity that gets me all hot and bothered. I come from a small and peaceful town at the base of a hill. It sounds nice but is arguably the most humid town in the whole country. I remember showering at least fives times per day, unable to stand the high concentration of water vapor in the air. When I wasn’t drowning out the heat, I was Read Article

Industrial Air Dryer Designs Demand a Keen Eye for Safety

Industrial Air Dryer Designs Demand a Keen Eye for Safety Early in my school days, I was lazy and forgetful. I would procrastinate on everything, including washing my school shoes. Pressed for time, I often dried my shoes under the radiator coil of an old-school refrigerator. Of course, that didn’t spare me from an earful of mom’s scolding. In one of my first industrial electronics designs, I did more than dry shoes. I designed an intelligent air dryer controller for a local milk powder processing plant Read Article

Student-Designed Solar Cars from Down Under

Sunswift: Student-Designed Solar Cars from Down Under Judy Warner: Please share how your team was started, how many cars you have built to date, and give us an overview of Violet. Kristian Bojidarov: Sunswift is a team of undergraduate students from the University of New South Wales who design, build and race the world’s most advanced solar-electric vehicles. With the knowledge gained since Sunswift’s founding in 1995, the team has recently completed the manufacture of our sixth vehicle, Violet Read Article

Getting a Handle on Flex Cost Drivers

Getting a Handle on Flex Cost Drivers Judy Warner: You've been in the board fabrication business for over 20 years. What factors do you see as contributing to the rise in flex and rigid-flex designs? Tara Dunn: I believe that space, weight and packaging are the primary factors driving designs to flex and rigid-flex technology. For customers that are already using flex and rigid-flex, I am seeing an increase in their percentage of new designs using flex and I am also noticing an Read Article

Important Considerations for Low Energy Bluetooth Design

Bluetooth Design Guidelines: Important Considerations for Low Energy Designs In my twenties, I could easily carry my laptop around the city without any sign of fatigue. These days, I tire out quickly and seek a nice massage after long periods of walking around with my laptop. That’s why I prefer to carry lighter working tablets instead of my bulky laptop. Technology has grown quite a bit since the classic Bluetooth. In electronics, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) does something similar for applications. It transmits short data Read Article

Part Placement Shortcuts in Altium Designer

Part Placement Shortcuts in Altium Designer I read once that circuit board design is 90% placement and 10% routing. I’m not sure that I believe that, but it is fair to say that component placement is a critical part of the overall board design. Yet some designers will rush this part of the job so that they can get on with routing the board, only to have to come back later and re-place portions of the board. I wonder if one of the problems is that designers get frustrated during the Altium Read Article

isolated vs non-isolated power supply design guide

Isolated vs Non-Isolated Power Supplies: The Right Choice Without Fail Learn the advantages and disadvantages of isolated vs non-isolated power supply design. Read Article