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PCB Design

Preventing PCB Defects

Preventing PCB Defects One of the most important things you can do to make sure your PCB project goes off without a hitch is to be proactive from the moment of conception. As with many things, educating yourself on the technical aspects of the most common defects and how to prevent them will serve you well for your entire PCB designing career. Knowing what to look out for will be a major asset in ensuring that your board will be the dependable, quality product you had Read Article

The Best Layout Software for PCB Design Output Files Lets You Shop Carefree

The Best Layout Software for PCB Design Output Files Lets You Shop Carefree Have you ever returned from the grocery store only to find out that you neglected something important? I have done this more times than I can count. Not that I mind getting out of the house, I just don’t necessarily want my free time consumed with trips to the store. Besides, I have already given my family plenty of reasons to have fun at my expense. I don’t need to help them out with additional ammunition. Newsflash! This is why shopping lists Read Article

Taxes Aren't All You'll Pay Without PCB Manufacturing Process Reviews

Taxes Aren't All You'll Pay Without PCB Manufacturing Process Reviews Some people are afraid of spiders or snakes and I’m afraid of those too, but one of my worst fears is being audited. Now it’s time to start getting organized again and collect on all of my organization last year to make reviewing my notes and preparing for taxes easy. But, wait: my drawer full of notes and important receipts is also full of assorted shopping lists, grocery receipts, home repair goals, and that list I wrote in February for a Read Article

Expert Dirk Stans Bridging Gaps in PCB Manufacturing

Expert Dirk Stans Bridging Gaps in PCB Manufacturing Judy Warner: Dirk, please give us a brief overview of your career path and history in the electronics industry. Dirk Stans: As an electronics engineer, I started my career at DISC which became Barco Graphics just one year after I joined the company. From day one I was active in the sales of Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) systems for the PCB industry in Europe. It was there that I gained insight into the evolution of the European and global Read Article

Searching for Clarity: Signal Integrity Issues in PCB Design

Searching for Clarity of Signal by Addressing Integrity Issues in PCB Design The clarity of TV signal transmission these days is amazing. I can still remember the days when I had a set of rabbit ears perched atop my 19” RCA. It was a challenge to position them just right to get the clearest picture, not to mention having to adjust them for every channel. Sometimes it’d take all night just to find the channel I wanted, so I’d sit down for five minutes and then head to bed. And if the weather was bad, forget about it. While Read Article

Practical Setups for PCB Design and Other Tips for Success

Practical Setups for PCB Design and Other Tips for Success My father did not say a lot as he was a quiet man armed with a subtle wit, but he was very wise. He’s been gone for many years now, but I will always remember how he modeled for us a consistent perseverance in getting the job done and getting it done right. Every night, regular as clockwork, he would go through the house to make sure that all of the doors and windows were locked. This was his regular practice to make sure that his family was Read Article

Listen to the Baby: Use Circuit Board Visual Indicators for Serviceability

Listen to the Baby: Use PCB LED Indicators and More for Serviceability I’m a new dad and let me tell you: it is tough. I know everybody always tells you about the two sides of parenting, but I hadn’t really taken it to heart until now. That happy, sleeping, cuddly infant is around for about forty minutes after being fed, and then the crying begins. Sometimes, the problem is the milk temperature, sometimes a wet diaper, and sometimes because they feel like crying. In my years alive, I never anticipated being grateful Read Article

6:17 IPC Standards for Your PCB Design - OnTrack Watch Video

What’s Worse: Holes in Your Winter Gloves or Copper Layer Defects?

What’s Worse: Holes in Your Winter Gloves or Copper Layer Defects? Much of the United States is going through a remarkably cold period right now; as I write this there is only about 10% of the country experiencing temperatures above freezing. It was a true, white Christmas for many; however, not the white that most expect: instead of snow, they got ice. Living in areas where the temperature can vary by up to 40℉ in a day means dressing in layers. If you’re anything like me, you’re still mastering the art of Read Article

Altium Designer Evaluation Guide for OrCAD® Users

Altium Designer Evaluation Guide for OrCAD® Users Read Article

Avoid Loose Signals With Successful Coin Acceptor Programs

Avoid Loose Signals With Successful Vending Machine Coin Acceptor Programs It’s been cold as an ice cube in an igloo lately, and the only thing that’s keeping my hands warm in the morning is my coffee. You know it won’t be a good day, though, when you’re getting a hot latte from a vending machine and the vending machine eats your coins. I end up with frozen hands and a caffeine headache by 10 am, or I end up having to reroute my whole morning just to run to another cafe. I understand that vending machines fail sometimes Read Article

Backroads or Highway: Managing PCB Power Distribution with a PDN Analyzer

Backroads or Highway: Managing PCB Power Distribution with a PDN Analyzer Who hasn’t been caught daydreaming out the window, overlooking the lines of cars on the freeway at a standstill, wondering about easier or more effective ways of getting to your job on time? And even then, sometimes the alternate routes aren’t always the fastest—there could be road construction, or an event going on which makes you have to re-route even more. At that point, most tend to throw all hopes for getting to work on time out the window Read Article

No Icebergs Here, Captain! Board Rule Checking for Bill of Materials Management

No Icebergs Here, Captain! Board Rule Checking for Bill of Materials Management You know the story of RMS Titanic and how just before midnight on April 14th, 1912, it struck an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean and sank. What you may not know though is how one small item may have saved the ship from sinking. During the inquiry, one of the surviving crew members who was a lookout reported that they did not have a pair of binoculars to use in the crow’s nest. When asked if having the binoculars would have made a difference or not Read Article

Don’t Get Caught Sleeping: Resolve PCB Power Distribution Problems

Don’t Get Caught Sleeping: Resolve Symptoms of Bad PCB Power Distribution in Networks and Designs I’ve got a heating problem at the moment—after 30 years of service to the various owners of this house, my furnace is finally throwing in the towel and no longer providing heat. Unfortunately, this has come at a, let’s say, inopportune time with it hovering just under freezing lately, and with nights being even more frigid. We installed an ad hoc heating system comprised of the gas fireplace and several space heaters; however, this is not a long Read Article

Hide and Seek: Key Serial-Number Chips for PIC Microcontroller Code Protection

Hide and Seek: Key Serial-Number Chips for PIC Microcontroller Code Protection One of my favorite games, when I was young, was hide and seek. I would play with my friends and it was always fun to try and find a good hiding place. As an older brother, I played the same game with my younger brothers, but with a twist. Instead of hiding myself, I had to hide my stuff from them. If I picked good hiding places, my stuff was safe. However, if I was lackadaisical and chose poor hiding places they were sure to find my toys or Read Article

Completing a Pre-Layout Design Checklist Can Keep Your PCB Design from Crashing

Completing a Pre-Layout Design Checklist Can Keep Your PCB Design from Crashing Many years ago I got my private pilot’s license, and there is nothing that I love better than being behind the controls of a small plane. When the plane leaps off the runway and into the sky, the feeling is exhilarating. Then, after executing a perfectly smooth landing, there is a sense of triumphant success. In addition to the pure joy of flying, there are also many ideas and lessons that I have taken from my time in the air. One of these has Read Article

Don't Let Lithography Issues Cast a Shadow on Your PCB Manufacturing

Don't Let Lithography Issues Cast a Shadow on Your PCB Manufacturing Projectors can often be the most annoying piece of technology to work with. You could have a movie night you want to host with an old school projector and some nice, buttery popcorn but be unable to find a spot where the image projected isn’t crooked; you could be trying to give a highly-influential presentation to your peers and bosses, only to encounter that the projector has squished all of your images and graphs; you could be trying to teach Read Article