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    Complete Environment for Schematic + Layout

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    Entry Level, Professional PCB Design Tool

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    Community Based PCB Design Tool

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    Agile PCB Design For Teams

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    Connecting PCB Design to the Manufacturing Floor

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    Complete Solution for Library Management

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    Extensive, Easy-to-Use Component Database

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    Altium Designer 20

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

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    PCB Design

    PCB Design

    Read the latest information PCB Design from the industry's leading experts.
    PCB Via Noise Coupling in Multilayer PCBs Call me boring, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become tired of taking my dates to bars. Shouting over people just to get to know someone is not my idea of a great time. The funny thing is that as everyone else talks louder, I have to talk louder to compensate. This level of crosstalk creates a vicious feedback loop and does not make for a romantic evening. Vias are critical features in multilayer PCBs that are used to route connections between Read Article
    Crosstalk in Mixed-Signal PCB Traces and Ground Planes Digital and analog elements, if not properly arranged, mix about as well as oil and water. While many consumer electronics operate in the purely digital regime, there are many devices that could not function without mixing digital signal and analog signaling within a single PCB. Just like in purely digital or purely analog PCBs, crosstalk and EMI can occur in mixed signal PCBs. These potential signal integrity problems can create a major headache Read Article
    Component Symbol Information Management and Display Usability Building a library of PCB components requires compiling information on footprint, electrical specifications, simulation models, pin arrangements, and other specifications. The amount of information in any component library is massive and needs to be aggregated into a single module in your PCB design software. A PCB component library should be flexible enough to allow designers and engineers to define proprietary components and implement the Read Article
    PCB Production for Industry Manufacturing with Supplier Information Moving to PCB production is that breathtaking and nerve-wracking final step in bringing your next electronic device to life. Manufacturers require that a specific set of deliverables be provided by engineers and designers before they begin production. This includes your bill of materials, CAD/CAM drafts of your PCB, Gerber files, and component sourcing information. Probably the most important piece of information is the pricing and lead time Read Article
    Creating a Ground Plane for Your PCB Design It used to be that printed circuit boards seemed to have the same basic layer configuration, or at least that’s the way I tend to remember it. This meant that they were usually six layer multi-layer boards, with a ground plane and a VCC plane. The old CAD systems didn’t really have the ability to do much with power planes except to designate layers as a negative plane. The most you would see in them would be some “X’s” where there was supposed to Read Article
    Planning Your Next HDI Stackup with PCB Layer Management Not to toot my own horn, but I just became a homeowner. The moving process will start soon: everything needs to be packed in boxes and creatively arranged in a truck on moving day. I only hope that I can minimize my number of trips between my old apartment and new house without damaging anything. Packing all the family belongings in a truck evokes images of packing more features and components into the limited real estate available on a PCB. At Read Article
    Practical PCB Design Tips for an Unroutable Board I grew up in the era before PlayStation ever existed. Back then, generic consoles reigned alongside premium counterparts like Super Nintendo and Sega. I first discovered my stubborn streak while playing Super Mario, a game where a funny looking character starts shooting fireballs after getting power-ups from mushrooms. I lost count of how many times I repeated the entire game even though I was always ultimately defeated at the last level. As Read Article
    Controlling High Current LEDs with a TIP3055 Power Transistor One of the occupational hazards of being a hardware is a growing belly size that is proportional to age. That’s why I try to keep myself fit with a regular workout at the gym. Power bars are indispensable in helping me get through my workout routine by keeping my energy levels high during the entire session. In electronics, the power transistor is equivalent to the power bar. It handles high current components, such as hundreds of LEDs drawing Read Article
    Schematic Capture Design Integration Thrives With Unified Partners The digital world is an evolving place. Just yesterday file formats were abundant for text and graphics. Or was that today? Sending a file to a friend can turn into disaster if their device doesn’t recognize the extension. Clicks occur rapidly while trying differing file formats to see if they will save and send. It gets a little trying and soon the search turns to a more elegant app. Designing circuits, iterating parallel ideas, and releasing Read Article
    More than a Right-Click Menu Multi-Channel PCB Design When it comes to creating a schematic I want the tools to work for me and not the other way around. I want easy access to , I want to place and connect those , and I want to be able to do all of this without having to jump through a lot of hoops to get there. Sadly many PCB design CAD systems don’t seem to share my opinion. I’m looking for an easy right-click menu solution while most CAD systems appear to want me to memorize a of ancient texts Read Article
    Switching Units From MM to Mil and Other PCB Design Measurement Preferences There was a time when the unit of measurement that a PCB designer utilized was dependent on the side of the world they were currently residing in. Gradually, that began to change as the metric system became the standard unit of measurement. The problem, however, was that many older data sheets and designs still referenced imperial measurements. Designers had to arm themselves with a scratch pad, calculator, and a bottle of aspirin to constantly Read Article
    From Veteran PCB Designers to Next Gen Innovators - July 2018 OnTrack Newsletter July 2018 VOL. 2 No 4 Welcome to the July edition of the Altium OnTrack Newsletter! In Rock Stars and Superheroes, we talk with veteran PCB Designer Bill Brooks, who has been designing boards since 1969. In Next Gen Designers, we introduce you to the WARR Hyperloop team from the Technical University of Munich, who won the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition II in 2017, and broke the world record as well! In the OnTrack video Read Article
    PCB Material Selection: How Substrate Properties Impact PCB Performance From the early 15th century until the 17th century, artists used the Flemish masters’ method to create life-like paintings. This process begins with a pencil, charcoal, or ink pen drawing and continues with the imprimatura—or the first transparent, olive-tinged stain of color. Then, the method moves to the first umber underpainting, sanding, second umber underpainting, sanding, and a monochromatic underpainting. Each underpainting layer focuses Read Article
    PCB Design Guidelines for Using a TVS Diode for Transient Protection Although it was highly educational and undeniably inspiring to witness the early days of the Internet, I don’t miss the slow speeds or endless technical issues. In those days, it took ages to check sports stats or open a simple email, not to mention the risk of thunderstorms damaging the computer. On stormy days, it wasn’t unusual to unplug the power to the computer and disconnect the phone cable connecting the computer to the internal dial modem Read Article
    PCB Component Failure: How to Workaround a Tragedy Probably, the single thing that drew me to pursue a technical career was the existence of laws that stipulated if you follow the same procedure then you will get the same results. I have always taken comfort in having that security for my work. However, there is another law that at times supersedes all others. That, of course, is Murphy’s law, which states “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” At times it seems that Murphy’s law applies Read Article
    Escape the Pain of a Gerber Files Viewer and Invest in a 3D PCB Editor As the design of printed circuit boards grows more challenging with flex, rigid-flex, RF, and other technologies, it is becoming more important than ever to be able to see exactly what it is that you are designing. Then compounded by shorter design cycles and fewer prototype builds the need for full verification of the design before manufacturing has become a necessity. Thankfully PCB design tools have kept pace with different ways to view and Read Article
    Annotate Reference Designators With Custom Global Properties Having a system to find many similar items in a short amount of time can be helpful in staying organized. Everybody has a silverware drawer and most are organized with caddys that divide the flatware into forks, knives, and spoons. It becomes easy to grab a spoon when you’ve put some soup in the micro to assuage hunger. Reference designators are the unique identifiers on a PCB for each and every component or free pad on the design. Best design Read Article