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PCB Design

Best PCB Design Software

Altium Designer: The Best PCB Design Software Start working with the unified design environment in the best PCB design software. See what features you need in your design tools. Read Article

NVMe M.2 PCIe connector stubs

A Brief Study of Stubs on a PCIe Connector Stubs are an important topic in high-speed PCB design, and there is a longstanding guideline that stubs should always be removed from all vias on high-speed digital interconnects. While stubs are bad for high-speed lines, they do not always need to be removed. What is more important is to predict the loss profile and frequencies, and to floorplan appropriately to try and prevent such losses. In this article, I’ll look at some simulation results Read Article

Cascaded transfer functions monte carlo

Monte Carlo Analysis With Transfer Functions in Cascaded Circuits Pro circuit designers don’t just work with components in parallel and series when they design circuits. One way to build circuits is with circuit networks, which will have input and output ports. What happens inside each network can be analyzed in the traditional way (SPICE, by hand, etc.), but what is important is that the network maps an input voltage/current pair to an output voltage and current pair. Mathematically, this is quantified with a Read Article

More New Features in Altium Designer 22.5

More New Features in Altium Designer 22.5 June 24, 2022 ONTRACK BI-WEEKLY New This Month in Altium Designer The newest features available in Altium Designer 22.5 have been released and are available for download. To upgrade your AD22 to the newest version and take advantage of all available upgrades, navigate to the Updates page from the Extensions and Updates window. Here’s a few of the changes you’ll find in the newest version of Altium Designer: Filtered Text Search - Have you ever Read Article

PCB cleanup

PCB Layout Cleanup Before Manufacturing Don't forget to clean up the surface layers on your PCB before you send the design in for manufacturing. We've compiled a list of the points you can check before beginning production. Read Article

3-port S-parameters

How to Get 3-port S-parameters From a 2-port VNA Measurement S-parameters are fundamental quantities in signal integrity, and an ability to understand them from measurement or analysis is very important. If you have a 3-port network, like a power divider or circulator, it may appear that you must use a 3-port VNA to measure these S-parameters. It is always acceptable to measure between two ports, but you need to know what exactly it is you are measuring. As it turns out, you can use a 2-port VNA Read Article

DFM in your PCB layout

DFM in Your PCB Layout PCB design reviews should focus on DFM constraints to ensure a design will be manufacturable. Focus on these DFM requirements in your PCB layout. Read Article

DFM in PCB Material Selection

DFM in PCB Material Selection In part 2 of our crash course on DFM and PCB manufacturing, we explain how materials influence manufacturability and what you need to know when selecting materials. Read Article

PCB Manufacturing Process

A Day in the Life of the PCB Manufacturing Process Successful DFM requires knowing the standard PCB manufacturing process. Learn more in this overview and see what determines success. Read Article

FPGA PCB layout

How to Start an FPGA PCB Layout For Your Embedded System FPGAs are key elements that aid innovation in advanced embedded systems where ready-made SoCs may not be available. See why you should use an FPGA in your embedded system. Read Article

New Features and Upgrades in Altium Designer 22.5

New Features and Upgrades in Altium Designer 22.5 June 10, 2022 ONTRACK BI-WEEKLY New This Month in Altium Designer The newest features available in Altium Designer 22.5 have been released and are available for download. To upgrade your AD22 to the newest version and take advantage of all available upgrades, navigate to the Updates page from the Extensions and Updates window. Here are a few of the changes you’ll find in the newest version of Altium Designer: More Productive - Improvements in the Read Article

ground below inductor

Are PCB Ground Planes Placed Under Inductors in Switching Regulators? Should you place a ground cutout beneath the inductor in a switching regulator PCB layout? This is an important question surrounding EMI/EMC, and we’ll investigate in this article. Read Article

26:54 Advantages of Using a Version Control System for Your Next Project Watch our webinar: “Advantages of Using a Version Control System for Your Next Project”. Click here. Watch Video

Healthcare Is Facing a Digital Imperative. Is Your ECAD in Alignment?

Healthcare Is Facing a Digital Imperative. Is Your ECAD in Alignment? Digital transformation in the healthcare industry might be better labeled as a digital imperative. Recent events and key technological advancements are forcing an industry-wide evolution that is accelerating and bringing several healthcare trends to innovation. For those in the know, every aspect of the healthcare industry is quickly adapting to changes in consumer preferences and rapidly moving to incorporate recent digital innovations from Read Article

skew sources high speed PCB

Addressing Skew Sources in High Speed PCBs Sometimes, when we talk about skew, we aren't as specific as we should be. Most discussions of skew and jitter deal with the type of skew incurred during routing, namely due to length mismatches in differential pairs and fiber weave-induced skew. In fact, there are many different sources of skew that contribute to total jitter on an interconnect, and it's important to quantify these in serial and parallel buses that require precise timing control Read Article

Altium Helps De-Risk Your Bill of Materials

Altium Helps De-Risk Your Bill of Materials The new Supply Chain Resilience report from Spectra helps you identify at-risk parts in your BOM. Stay ahead of inventory challenges with Spectra. Read Article

Get your free EDDI report from Spectra, powered by Nexar

Get your free EDDI report from Spectra, powered by Nexar Spectra from Nexar brings you the Electronic Design to Delivery Index (EDDI), a free supply chain data report product. Gain the supply chain visibility you need with the EDDI from Spectra. Read Article