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PCB Design

For Your DC Power Application, Which Switching Power Supply Topology is Right?

For Your DC Power Application, Which Switching Power Supply Topology is Right? We often have our old-timer pioneers to thank for laying down the groundwork for our continued success and future growth. These old-school designers had nothing more than theory and confidence to drive their designs, or more specifically, to drive their failures. But as stated by a multitude of wise individuals, each failure is nothing more than a discovery of how not to do something. However, with the discoveries of failures also come Read Article

PCB Chassis Might Keep Your PCB Design From Exhausting Itself

PCB Chassis Might Keep Your PCB Design From Exhausting Itself The world of racing is something that both fascinates and eludes me. On one hand, it’s thrilling to watch cars that have been fine-tuned to the most minute weight and aerodynamic requirements go flying down a road or around a track. On the other hand, from my experience, the majority of thrill from the sport largely comes from the accumulation of narratives and knowledge beforehand. I don’t care so much about actually watching the cars run smooth Read Article

Even Simple Schematic Diagram Drawing Software is Better than Pencil and Paper

Even Simple Schematic Drawing Programs are Better than Pencil and Paper My mother used to clean all of her dishes in the sink with soap and water, and then put them in the dishwasher to finish the job. Perhaps when she was young those older dishwashers weren’t as good at cleaning dishes as they were later on. Years later when I was married and was cleaning up the kitchen, my wife looked at me as if I had lost my mind. “Why are you doing the same job twice,” she asked? It was the way that I had always done it, of Read Article

Left Hand Robotics Autonomous Snowbot

Left Hand Robotics Autonomous Snowbot Judy Warner: Shane, so nice to meet you. Before we get started, I just had to ask what the story is behind your unique name? Shane Zinner: In this area, there was an American Indian Chief Niwot or Left Hand (-ed) (c. 1825–1864) who was a tribal leader of the Southern Arapaho people and played an important part in the history of Colorado. Many 'Left Hand' things, such as Left Hand Canyon, Left Hand Brewery, and the town of Niwot, Colorado were Read Article

James MacKinnon’s Career Path to NASA

James MacKinnon’s Career Path to NASA Judy Warner: James, please share a little bit about your academic background and how you learned to design PCBs. James MacKinnon: In my junior and senior year at the University of Florida I had some classes where we were required to do some fairly simple PCB design. Basically, if you don't pass those classes, then you don't graduate. And since it's an EE-type class, they want you to create a PCB. They were simple circuits for junior design Read Article

How Blind, Buried and Through-Hole Vias Can Impact Your PCB Design

How Blind, Buried and Through-Hole Vias Can Impact Your PCB Design Growing up, I was obsessed with all things Super Mario, but honestly, who wasn’t. Specifically, I was a sucker for the Super Nintendo, old school version. Bounding from platform to platform, tossing pixelated turtle shells, saving princesses… what a life. One of the best, albeit strangest, of the game, no doubt, was jetting in and out of those little green tubes that were seemingly all over the place. Who made them? Why were they even there Read Article

Annular Rings and Multilayer PCB Design: Stay Within Your Tolerances

Annular Rings and Multilayer PCB Design: Stay Within Your Tolerances One of my high school teachers had a pretty successful business for when he wasn’t teaching: he harvested maple syrup. I learned that a bit more goes into the process than simply taking the maple syrup from the tree after tapping a hole into it. You’ve got to let it rest and let some of it evaporate so you can distill the maple syrup into the tasty, flavorful product that will then go onto all of your pancakes. While there’s a whole process Read Article

Altium Designer Evaluation Guide for OrCAD® Users

Altium Designer Evaluation Guide for OrCAD® Users Read Article

Managing a 7-Segment LED Display Array With Minimal Pins

Managing a 7-Segment LED Display Array With Minimal Pins In my early 20s, I prided myself on my ability to multitask. On a moment’s notice, I could switch between multiple projects and wear the hats of the procurement officer, engineer, technician, marketing manager, and support specialist while simultaneously running my electronics startup. I thought it was a blessing to be able to multitask. A decade later, I realize that multitasking results in lower work quality while killing my brain in the Read Article

SPI vs. I2C

SPI vs. I2C: How to Choose the Best Protocol for Your Memory Chips Which protocol is best for accessing memory chips? The differences between SPI vs. I2C for this application will be examined in this article. Read Article

Ground bounce in your PCB and ground bounce in signal integrity

Ground Bounce Reduction Techniques to Minimize Signal Integrity Issues Unlike my dad who thrived on the basketball team during his school days, I could barely bounce the ball during tryouts. Needless to say, I quit sports before I even started. While my dreams of becoming an NBA pro were dashed, I later discovered my passion for martial arts. I never really got into handling a basketball well, but in martial arts at least I could bounce off the balls of my feet to meet my opponent. Not being able to bounce the Read Article

Best PCB Routing Practices after Auto Routing Goes the Distance

Best PCB Routing Practices after Auto Routing Goes the Distance PCB auto-routing and routing techniques that will help you to finish your PCB layout once the auto-routing is completed. Read Article

Optimize PCB Designs Before Product Development With Clear Client Requirements

Optimize PCB Designs Before Product Development With Clear Client Requirements I swear I clearly heard my son asking for a McFish in his Happy Meal. But when he insisted that he asked for nuggets, I had no choice but to buy another set, although I strongly suspected he was just after the toys. This may not exactly be what you’d call “good parenting” but it is a great example of how misunderstandings can occur when you don’t get requirements jotted down on paper. While the cost of not paying attention to my son simply cost Read Article

Raise the Volume: How To Design A Signal Amplification Device

Raise the Volume: How To Design A Signal Amplification Device When you’re used waking up to your baby’s loud cries in the middle of the night, you can sleep through any alarm clock. After a few months of babysitting, you stop hearing any alarm that isn’t amplified by a loudspeaker. Even in electronics, signals sometimes need to be amplified before being processed by microcontrollers. For example, audio signals and inputs from certain microsensors might require amplification before they can be processed by Read Article

How to Test For a Short Circuit on a PCB

How to Test For a Short Circuit on a PCB Wondering how to find ground on a circuit board? Looking for a circuit board tester? Clear and simple steps on how to test for a short circuit on a Printed Circuit Board. Read Article

PCB Design Limitations Beyond Borders: Extending Past Edge Clearance

PCB Design Limitations Beyond Borders: Extending Past Edge Clearance Have you ever stood, two feet planted, on the edge of a cliff? No, not a very steep slope that would slightly injure you if you fell, I’m talking about the 90-degree style, 2,000 feet straight down cliffs you see pictures of in National Geographic. Certainly a terrifying experience, no matter how seasoned you are at cliff standing. The thoughts that race through your mind are non-stop and extremely primal. Will my feet slip if I get too close Read Article

A Big Kick in PCB Interconnect Solutions: Multi-Board Best Practices

A Big Kick in PCB Interconnect Solutions: Multi-Board Best Practices I’ve always enjoyed thinking about circuits similar to tiny cities. Copper routing as the streets, components as building structures, vias, and the following electrons as the inhabitants running around. But imagine what PCB would be in the city from Inception where the flat ground starts turning on its head and extending overtop, or if Salvador Dali became a city planner. In today’s world of densely packed components (HDI), advanced manufacturing Read Article