PCB Design

Altium is paving the way for enhanced engineering by designing the next generation of tools unifying the PCB design industry. Whether you are a beginner learning what is a PCB, or looking to discover an easy to use drag and drop in browser PCB design software, how to get component data in real-time while designing a board, collaborative tools for systems engineers, interviews with industry pioneers, or the best PCB Design software, Altium has you covered! Read the latest PCB Design information from the industry's leading experts.

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MMw and RF Interaction

MMw and RF Interaction John will generously share with us today a glimpse of his recent keynote presentation at PCB West 2021. Watch now, and don't miss this rare opportunity to learn from expert John Coonrod. Read Article

copper pour and via stitching

Copper Pour and Via Stitching: Do You Need Them in a PCB Layout? When is it appropriate to use copper pour or via stitching in your PCB layout? Read our guide on copper pour and how it can be used properly with via stitching. Read Article

PCB Design and Review Checklist

PCB Design and Review Checklist It’s essential to check a board for issues before production or prototyping. Here’s an extensive checklist you can adapt or use directly for reviewing each board design. Read Article

1 oz copper weight

Do You Always Need 1 oz. Copper Thickness on Each Layer? 1 oz. copper thickness is often seen as a standard thickness value used in many designs. Here’s when you might need thicker copper on every layer. Read Article

Getting Started with ESP8266

Getting Started with ESP8266 A project overview on getting started with the ESP8266 device. Expert Ari Mahpour reviews the benefits of using a device such as the NodeMCU board from HiLetgo and how to get up and running with a few examples. Read Article

Getting Started with MQTT

Getting Started with MQTT Check this out. This is a new project overview demonstrating MQTT by expert Ari Mahpour. In this article, Ari answers the What and Why of MQTT, and gives guidelines to get your project started. Read Article

microstrip to ground clearance

Microstrip Ground Clearance Part 2: How Clearance Affects Losses In a previous article, I provided a discussion and some simulation results on the necessary clearance between impedance controlled traces and nearby grounded copper pour. What we found was that, once the spacing between the pour and the trace becomes too small, the trace becomes an impedance-controlled coplanar waveguide (with or without ground). We also saw that the 3W rule for the spacing between the trace and the grounded copper pour is a bit Read Article

Star ground PCB

What is PCB Star Grounding and Why Would Anyone Use It? PCB star grounding can encourage bad design practices that lead to radiated EMI emissions in your PCB layout. Read Article

Efficient Heat Dissipation with SMD Heat Sinks Keeps You From Dropping PCBs

Efficient Heat Dissipation with SMD Heat Sinks Keeps You From Dropping PCBs In electronics, there is the possibility that your PCB can get pretty hot due to power dissipation in certain components. Whenever a component reaches an extreme temperature that goes beyond a component's safe operating range, its lifetime will be greatly reduced or the component may fail immediately. The heat-producing component being defective means the entire PCBA will need to be scrapped. There are many things to consider when dealing with Read Article

Gibbs ringing

What Causes Gibbs Ringing in High-speed Channel Simulations? Gibbs ringing is both a measurement artifact and a calculation artifact that arises in band-limited channels. Make sure you understand how this arises due to transform and convolution operations. Read Article

Gibbs phenomenon

How the Gibbs Phenomenon Produces Measurement Artifacts The Gibbs phenomenon is a measurement artifact that can be mistaken for real signal integrity problems like ground bounce, ringing from reflections, or resonance on short lines. Read Article

State of PCB Design Education

State of PCB Design Education Zach Peterson shares his insights about the availability and accessibility of education related to PCB design for high school and university students. Watch or listen on the go now. Read Article

buck converter regulator STM32

Buck Converter Regulator vs LDO for DC, AC, and RF: Which is Best? For small, low-current loads, LDO is usually the best option. What about a buck converter? Learn more about choosing between a buck converter vs. LDO in this guide. Read Article

Which Types of Opto-Isolators Are Right For Your Signal?

Which Types of Opto-Isolators Are Right For Your Signal? An opto-isolator is an electronic device that can be used to pass information between a diode without passing an electrical current. Because there is no need ot directly pass voltage or current between the inputs and outputs in an opto-isolator, these components can be used to provide electrical isolation two regions in a PCB. Opto-isolators act as a protection mechanism, ensuring that harmful electrical currents cannot flow across the device. In Read Article

Methods to Protect your Circuit

Methods to Protect your Circuit Overvoltage, overcurrent, and heat are the three most likely events that can destroy our expensive silicon-based components or reduce our product’s life expectancy. The effects are often quite instant, but our product might survive several months of chronic overstress before giving up the ghost in some cases. Without adequate protection, our circuit can be vulnerable to damage, so what should we do? Or do we need to do anything? For instance, if Read Article

Low-Cost Verification for Digital and Analog Filters

Low-Cost Verification for Digital and Analog Filters In Low Cost Solutions for Automated Hardware in the Loop Testing, we reviewed the idea of using low-cost testing devices to validate our hardware designs. In this article I want to zoom in on a specific application that can have a high barrier to entry when it comes to verification: Digital Signal Processing (DSP), specifically signal filtering. Rather than belabor the topic of DSP I will define it simply as “digitizing signals that come into Read Article

PCB fabrication notes

Decoding PCB Fabrication Notes Your PCB fabrication notes contain important information that ensures your board can be manufactured exactly as you intend. See what you should include and what these mean. Read Article