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Growing ADAS Market Will Require Efficient Software and MPU Expertise

Growing ADAS Market Will Require Efficient Software and MPU Expertise ADAS will let us all kick back and relax. Transportation has a major effect on people and societies, and cars changed life around the world forever. We are now on the brink of another major transportation breakthrough, self-driving cars. While we are still years away from fully autonomous vehicles, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are becoming more in the automotive industry. The ADAS market is headed for major growth, and smart software Read Article

The Implications of Growing Automotive PCB Market Shares for PCB Designers

The Implications of Growing Automotive PCB Car Market Shares for PCB Designers Luxury used to mean heated seats, now it means a self-driving car with a 17” LED display in the dashboard. With automotive PCB gaining market share, the modern should start thinking about how their designs can enable essential and luxury features in connected cars. They should also get ready to learn cutting edge design techniques such as rigid-flex and HDI in order to meet automotive requirements. Do you remember the “dynamic duo” days they used Read Article

Hyperloop Shows How Crowdsourcing Integrates Community into PCB Design & Prototyping

Hyperloop Shows How Crowdsourcing Integrates Community into PCB Engineering Design & Prototyping Earlier this year, student design teams gathered to participate in Hyperloop’s largest design competition yet. Their goal? To create a prototype high-speed vehicle for next-generation transportation. Through this unique strategy, Hyperloop brings a compelling example of crowdsourcing at work. Crowdsourcing also stands to impact the PCB design space, providing new routes to project development and prototyping. Through combined efforts, cost Read Article

Why Power Delivery Network Analysis Is Essential For PCB Design

Essential PCB Design - Power Delivery Network Analysis What’s that burning smell? Hopefully not your prototype. Try Altium's PDN Analysis Tool to easily find and prevent issues with your power delivery network. I once foolishly decided I would try my hand at woodworking. I thought I would start with something easy, you know, like a rocking chair. With my limited knowledge of structures and statics, I successfully made a chair that broke into pieces as soon as I sat down. The YouTube tutorials I used Read Article

Impacts of Design Miniaturization and Complexity

Getting Started with Design Miniaturization: Impacts and Complexity Since they’ve been created, electronics have been getting smaller, faster, and more efficient. But when you try to cram more components, pins, and connections in a smaller sized board, you’re going to have some problems. These challenges include heat, BGA breakouts and size itself, meaning how are you going to fit your board in that small, oddly shaped enclosure. Here are a few quick stats: Board area has remained relatively constant, while the Read Article

Three Dumb Internet of Things Devices Using Smart PCB Designs

Three Dumb Internet of Things Devices Using Smart PCB Designs Sometimes the fork is not in the road. With the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT), I’m afraid that Skynet is just on the horizon. Myriads of everyday items are being imbued with the gift of “intelligence.” The only comfort I have is that many IoT “smart” devices are so useless that there’s no way they could take over the world. There are three devices in particular that put Skynet class PCBs into items that should have stayed dumb. These Read Article

The Best Static Analysis Tool For Developing Autonomous Vehicle Software

The Best Static Analysis Tool For Developing Autonomous Vehicle Software If only it were this easy. Designers often focus on benchmarking their compiler, only to have their programs slowed down by safety considerations later. Using a compiler that has integrated safety features, especially static analysis tools, can get your program into ISO 26262 compliance quickly. Using a safety tool with great static analysis can save you time in debugging, keep you from cutting features, and allow you to get the most out of your Read Article

Choosing the Best Communication Configuration for Your IoT Device Network

Choosing the Best Communication Configuration for Your IoT Device Network Not planning your IoT system communication adds cost and adventure to installing your products. It’s all set, you have perfected the design of the latest state-of-the-art IoT fork and you’re feeling unstoppable. Nothing could throw a wrench in your plans now...except maybe your fork's network connection. What’s the difference between a smart fork that can't connect and an ordinary fork? You paid a lot more for the smart one! That’s why it’s Read Article

3 Electronic Devices Whose Concepts Preceded PCB Design Capabilities

3 Electronic Devices Whose Concepts Preceded PCB Design Capabilities 3 Electronic Devices that predicted the future a little too early. Old school gadget love. Read Article

Flexible Future: The Industries That Are Forcing You To Learn Rigid Flex PCB Design

Flexible Future: The Industries That Are Forcing You To Learn Rigid Flex PCB Design Do you ever feel like time is a passing a little more quickly than it should? It seems like just yesterday I was growling in frustration as I learned how to use dial-up internet. Now I growl in frustration as I attempt to figure out how to set up my state-of-the-art broadband router. It seems like as soon as I master the current technology, it’s time for the next big thing and I have to start all over again. Well my PCB friends, it’s time for you Read Article

2:21 Design with Passion (German) Watch Video

PCB Design for Manufacturing: Prevent Via Defects by Talking to Your Manufacturer

PCB Design for Manufacturing: Prevent PCB Vias Defects by Talking to Your Manufacturer One of my ex-girlfriends always used to say, “communication is key for our relationship.” While I may be good at communicating how to reduce EMI on boards, I’m not so good at expressing my emotions. I guess that’s why she’s an ex-girlfriend. Sometimes your feelings toward your manufacturer may resemble your feelings towards any ex-girlfriends. Especially when they tell you that your boards have a 50% yield. At that point, you may feel like Read Article

1:21 CircuitStudio Introduction - Overview:CircuitStudiovid Watch Video

Choosing a Compiler for Automotive Applications

Choosing a Compiler for Automotive Applications Figure 1: The “car of the future” isn’t that far in the future! Compiler Capabilities for Automotive Applications Compiler capabilities are not equal across offerings in the automotive industry. Some compilers are built on Open Source compilers. At first glance, these look capable and inexpensive. However, those two words seldom go together in the same sentence, and certainly not here. While they are inexpensive, they have some major Read Article

Don't Write Your Own Libraries for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems Applications

Don't Write Your Own Libraries for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems Applications Have you ever tried renovating your house on your own? Replacing floors and windows, painting walls and cabinets. You know, all the things the experts should be doing. In my opinion, the only thing worse than doing your own renovations is writing your own libraries for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) applications. Our team once had to write our own libraries. It took up an enormous amount of time on the front end. Later, when we had Read Article

How Increasing Battery Size Guides the PCB Designs of Apple and GoPro

How Increasing Battery Size Guides the PCB Designs of Apple and GoPro Sometimes batteries get bigger...by adding more batteries As time goes on, power requirements for connected devices keep increasing. More power means larger batteries, which force PCB designers to use more efficient layouts. Apple’s iPhone 7 and GoPro’s Hero5 give us specific examples of how industry leaders are dealing with increasing iPhone battery sizes in their iPhone PCB layouts. Have you noticed how much more energy it takes to get around Read Article

How to Choose a Test Lab for FCC Certification of IoT Products

How to Choose a Test Lab for FCC Certification of IoT Products FCC certification testing is an important (and legally required) step for IoT systems and other products that transmit and receive data. Choosing the right lab makes a huge difference in the ease of your certification process. I’ve been an engineer in some very heavily regulated industries where products are tested out the wazoo to make sure they’re safe. Even so, getting FCC certification for an IoT product was still a significant endeavor Read Article