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The most powerful, modern and easy-to-use PCB design tool for professional use

Altium Designer 20

The most powerful, modern and easy-to-use PCB design tool for professional use

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PCB Design

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Browsing Electronic Component Distributor Inventory with Integrated Libraries Even though I make a lot of lists just to keep track of all the different activities going on with my business, it gets tiring. When I need to buy office supplies, it helps to have all my options in one place so that I can figure out where I need to go to buy everything. Thankfully, when you’re sourcing for your PCB, there are solutions that show you all your distributor options. Browsing through distributor websites to source components for your Read Article

Integration of Schematic Capture, Layout, and Databases Improves Efficiency Do you like seeing old classic cars in movies and on TV? So do I. Would slipping behind the wheel of a vintage Model T Ford for a test drive be the highlight of your bucket list? Mine too. Would it be as simple and easy as they show on TV? Absolutely not. Of the three pedals on the floor of the Model T, the left controls first gear, neutral, and second gear depending on if you push it in all the way, half way or not at all. The middle pedal is Read Article

When to Prefer a Longer Trace Over an Additional Via Whenever I go to buy a new big-ticket appliance, I always weigh my options. Sometimes I let this paralyze me, and I end up making a spending decision that I later regret. But it doesn’t have to be this way when deciding how to route signals in your next PCB. When you have many components and interconnects to place on your PCB, you need to weigh your options. Dense routing is as much an art as it is science, and having as much information as Read Article

Addressing Skew Sources in High Speed PCBs Eye diagrams in electronics were something of a mystery when I was first learning about digital electronics. How can this simple diagram tell you so much about the performance of one device? It wasn’t until I started designing my own systems until I started to realize the significance of an eye diagram. Signal synchronization in high speed digital devices relies on accurate switching measurements from digital ICs. There are a number of factors Read Article

Identify Vendor Parts Early: Manage BoMs Proactively With Consolidated Part Sourcing Walking a tightrope requires intricate balance. Simply visualized as a walker and a rope in space. Simple moves into complexity when the walker’s senses are skewed to balance. Careful placement of each foot pulls from neurological pathways communicating intricate information simultaneously. Should information fail to arrive when the foot is moving may push the walker off the rope. Managing Bills of Material from early circuit concept through Read Article

What is Lenz Law and How Does it Affect PCB Design? Team meetings can be frustrating if you have a team member who is constantly opposing your ideas just for the sake of doing so. Dealing with opposing current is much like dealing with such an opponent. Simply following the norms and coming up with sound arguments isn’t enough; when dealing with opposition, in team settings as well as PCB design, you need to develop an alternative approach. What is Lenz Law? In case you need a refresher on your Read Article

What to do With Unused Pins on a Microcontroller I must admit that I’m not exactly the right person to turn to for cleaning tips. I dread the annual spring cleaning as there are always surprises in the storerooms to deal with. Occasionally, I stumble upon items that I barely even recognize but eventually decide to hold on to. While my indecisiveness with unused items results in some nagging from my wife and loss of additional space, failing to deal with unused pins on a microcontroller can have Read Article

Don't Undervalue Ease of User Interface You know how cooking can get complicated when you aren’t in your own kitchen? Since they aren’t “right where you left them”, you have to hunt for a pan or utensil that will work for what you are doing. It takes more time and possibly burning some eggs while you are looking for a spatula. And that’s just cooking something simple for breakfast; imagine trying to prepare a complicated meal. Situations like this are what help the restaurant business Read Article

Checklist for Systematically Testing PCB Prototypes During my teenage years, I spent fifteen whole minutes perfecting my hairstyle before walking out of the house. Looking back, I’m pretty sure the mirror was tired of my vanity. These days, I walk to work without putting a single drop of gel on my hair. My unkempt appearance sometimes amuses strangers but my close friends know that I’m just being myself. Although I no longer obsess over my physical appearance, my perfectionist attitude comes into Read Article

Impedance Management through PCB Stackup Design with Reference Planes My first PCB was far from a high-speed digital device. It was just an amplifier circuit on a single layer PCB, and controlling the impedance was not even an afterthought. Once I started working on electro-optics systems that required high sampling rates, controlling impedance was always a critical design issue. Controlled impedance on a circuit board is a PCB layout issue that I didn’t feel completely comfortable in handling as a PCB designer for Read Article

Homegrown PCB Professionals, BOM Management and Subject Matter Expertise - September 2018 OnTrack Newsletter September 2018 VOL. 2 No 6 ARE ENGINEERS AND PCB TECHNOLOGISTS HOMEGROWN? Highlighting Multi-Generational Technologists Over the past year, I’ve noticed a subtle trend in the designers and technologists we’ve interviewed for this newsletter. Have you noticed it? There have been a number of times people cited their parents as the ones who inspired them to pursue an electronics career. (Think...Rick Hartley, Nicole Creeden, Bill Read Article

Choosing Replacement Components With an Integrated Library Much as we would like, designing a new product or system is not without its hiccups. Designs, functionality, and component changes may be made at the last minute, forcing design modification or component replacement. Replacement circuit components or replacement can require thorough knowledge of your circuit boards. Repairing a circuit board is often more than finding a circuit breaking. Electrical equipment and service panel tinkering can go so Read Article

Connectors, Tooling Holes, and Fiducial Markers for Component Placement and Orientation When you’re a new systems designer, manufacturability of your designs is probably the last thing you think about. When I was younger and worked on a new electro-optics system, I was dismayed to learn that a system I designed needed a complete redesign. In its current state, the thing was unlikely to ever make it off the manufacturing line. PCBs should also be designed such that manufacturing is streamlined. Orientation, landing type, and holes Read Article

Why Constantly Updating Component Libraries are Boons If you’re my age or older, you might remember looking through the card catalog at your local . Lacking any digitized system, thumbing through a list of information on paper was the only way to find the book you were looking for. This might be fine for finding books in a , but it is a terrible system for locating the components you need for your PCB. Within the potential production environments, PCB layout is only one piece of an ever-expanding Read Article

HDI PCB Designs and the CAD Tools Behind Them Although it is said that the only guarantees in life are death and taxes, I would submit that the third guarantee in life is that electronic devices will continue to get smaller and smaller. I’m pretty sure that no one wants their cell phone to grow back to the size of a brick again, so to continue this path of ever decreasing sized electronics means that circuit boards need to shrink in size as well. The best way to do this is to use high Read Article

Don’t Let Your Unrouted Nets be Traces to Nowhere Have you ever seen one of those movies where a train is barreling down the track and starts to cross a bridge only to realize further down the line that the tracks run out and the bridge goes nowhere? That is a scary situation and only an alert train driver, formerly known as a train engineer, can prevent a catastrophe. Although, not as catastrophic, having unrouted nets on your board can wreak havoc to your PCB’s operation. Unrouted nets are Read Article

1:1:30 Understanding Rules And Constraints This webinar will discuss how Altium Designer supports your design process with hierarchical rules and constraints. Knowing how to define Watch Video