Easy, Powerful, Modern

The world’s most trusted PCB design system.

Learn More

PCB Design

Differential Microstrip Impedance Calculator

Differential Microstrip Impedance Calculator Learn more about using and interpreting results from a differential microstrip impedance calculator. Read Article

differential pair impedance calculator

Differential Pair Impedance: Using a Calculator to Design Your PCB Do you know what to look for in your differential pair impedance calculator? We've compiled the important information you need to know in this short guide. Read Article

PDN Impedance Simulation SPICE

PDN Impedance Simulation and Analysis in SPICE PDN simulations can be performed in SPICE if you know how to properly model parasitics and inductive effects in power integrity analysis. Read Article

Power plane resonances PCB

When Do PCB Power Plane Resonances Occur? Do you know when a power plane resonance occurs in the PDN on a circuit board? We’ll examine when this occurs and what causes it. Read Article

Getting Through PCB DFM

Getting Through a PCB DFM Check If you’re reading an Altium Blog, it’s probably safe to say that you’ve either designed or fabricated printed circuit boards. If you’re like me, sending a design to fab is a bittersweet experience. On the one hand, you’ll soon have your hands on the hardware you’ve been working hard to design. But on the other hand, you know the fabrication site is going to send a list of PCB DFM requests, and that’s never fun. In this article, we’ll discuss the Read Article

Pcb failure analysis

Overview of PCB/PCBA Reliability Testing and Failure Analysis PCB reliability testing and failure analysis go together. Here’s what you need to know and how to get started. Read Article

SAP (Semi-Additive Process) with Flexible Circuits

SAP (Semi-Additive Process) PCB Design with Flexible Circuits Now, with the adoption of Semi-Additive Process (SAP), PCBs with much finer lines and spaces are possible on flexible materials for space and weight improvements. Tara Dunn will show some ways on how this can be leveraged as an additional advantage for a SAP PCB design. Read Article

pcb via size

PCB Via Size and Pad Size Guidelines Do you know what PCB via size you should use in your PCB layout? We’ll look at a few simple ways to answer this question. Read Article

High-Reliability PCB Design with Juan Frias

High-Reliability PCB Design with Juan Frias Design WITH manufacturing, not just Design for manufacturing. Let’s hear a first-hand experience and success from today’s guest, Juan Frias. Watch or listen on the go and learn the critical components for an effective process to achieve high-reliability PCB design. Read Article

PCB design basics

PCB Design Basics for New Designers New designers should follow this guide to help them get started with a new project. Read Article

Selecting Materials for High Voltage PCB Design and Layout

Selecting Materials for High Voltage PCB Design and Layout Your high voltage PCB design will need a board material that’s specifically designed to tolerate high voltages, as well as potential for overvoltage and high temperature. Read Article

Capacitive load termination

How To: Impedance Matching and Terminating Capacitive Loads Impedance matching and capacitive load termination are examined in this article. Read Article

PCB Design Output Files

Overview of PCB Design Outputs and Manufacturing Files Make sure you know which PCB design output files your fabricator and assembler need to ensure they can build your PCBA. Read Article

9:29 What Is BOM Management? Improving Supply Chain Success It’s no secret that component shortages have become more frequent this year. In fact, countries around the world are losing billions in revenue due to supply issues. According to EPSNews, “In 2021, there’s such a severe shortage of semiconductors that the automotive industry is set to lose more than $100 billion in sales because it can’t get chips.” Having the right components on hand is more crucial than ever as availability, obsolescence Watch Video

Mastering Your PCB Design Tool as the Industry Evolves

Mastering Your PCB Design Tool as the Industry Evolves with Stephen Chavez This is a not-to-be-missed episode with a very respected electrical engineer, Stephen Chavez! Stephen encourages and motivates PCB designers like you to keep learning and succeed in the electronics industry. Read Article

custom arduino shield

How to Design a Custom Arduino Shield Board Custom Arduino shields are easy to design with the right PCB layout tools. If you’re a hobbyist or student, take a look at our guide on custom Arduino shields. Read Article

Meeting Standards: IPC 6012 Class 3 Via Sizes and Annular Rings

Meeting Standards: IPC 6012 Class 3 Via Sizes and Annular Rings Take a look at the above image of a PCB layout, specifically the vias and drill holes poking through the silkscreen. It's quite clear that some of these vias are off-center, meaning the drill hit that created these vias was not dead-center in the receiving land. This leaves behind an annular ring, something which might be considered a defect in certain IPC product classes. Under the IPC standards for rigid boards, we have several possible Read Article