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PCB Design

Altium’s Parameter Table Editor Lets You Control Your Project Settings

Altium’s Parameter Table Editor Lets You Control Your Project Settings There’s a lot of data that goes into any PCB design project. The design files and project files all have their own parameters, and these can be customized to provide plenty of useful information for data management. ECAD software users need a simple way to keep their parameter sets organized within their project files, component libraries, and much more. Parameters can appear in all types of objects in your ECAD software, as well as in any type Read Article

Altium Designer Beats Any OEMSTrade Electronics Part Search

Altium Designer Beats Any OEMSTrade Electronics Part Search Finding and sourcing new components for your design should be an easy process. Parts specifications can get very detailed, and there are many component options and part browsers on the market (e.g. Ultra Librarian, SamacSys, DMS, etc.). How can designers narrow down to the components they need and source components from authorized distributors? Using an OEMSTrade electronics part search and other distributor websites only gives you a partial view Read Article

Build a Comprehensive Electronic Symbols Library in Altium Designer

Build an Electronic PCB Schematic Symbols Library in Altium Designer Electronic symbols are the basis for the CAD documents you’ll create before you prepare a circuit board layout. An electronic symbols library contains basic symbols and figures that are used in electrical drawings, and they need to be linked to the PCB footprints that will appear in your PCB layout. When you need to prepare and organize clear PCB layouts and electrical drawings, you need a reliable source of CAD symbols and PCB footprints, and it Read Article

Design and Simulate Any Low Pass Filter Circuit for Your PCB

Low Pass Filter Simulation for Your PCB Design Many engineers will do some basic calculations by hand in order to understand their filter and amplifier circuits. However, for complex circuits that do not obey standard series and parallel rules, or that use nonlinear components like diodes and transistors, more sophisticated methods are needed. As such, designers need an easy-to-use but powerful simulation application to aid filter design and simulation. Some programs make simulations Read Article

Managing Component Obsolescence with a Unified Data Solution

Managing Component Parts Obsolescence with a Unified Data Solution Altium Concord Pro^™ as a standalone product and brand name has been discontinued and the capabilities are now available as part of our Altium enterprise solutions. Learn more here. If components stayed competitive forever, your smartphone would run on vacuum tubes. Obsolescence is an essential part of electronics. It represents an advance in technology, although it is incremental. However, it can also create some pain points for PCB designers Read Article

Optical interconnects pcb

Optical Interconnects in PCB Design: Progress in 2020 and Beyond Optical interconnects are the key to achieving higher data rates and breaking through Moore’s Law. Here’s how they will affect PCB layouts. Read Article

Making the Most of Your Crystal Oscillator

Making the Most of Your Crystal Oscillator “Blindly” adopting what a crystal oscillator data sheet says usually results in adequate frequency stability. An oscillator requires the phase shift around the loop to be 360° and this total phase shift must be a precise and stable oscillation frequency. Read Article

Thunderbolt PCB design

Thunderbolt Design: Adaptable High Speed Serial Data in Your PCB A new product for high speed/resolution graphics and high data transfer is a candidate for Thunderbolt design. Here’s what you can do to successfully design your PCB for Thunderbolt 3 or 4. Read Article

Huge Vu-meter with RGB LEDs Project

Huge VU-meter with RGB LEDs Project A laboratory journal to guide you through the steps to develop a successful product that value-conscious customers are sure to love. Read Article

IEC 62368-1 to Replace 60950-1 and 60065 Safety Standards

IEC 62368-1 to Replace 60950-1 and 60065 Safety Standards Now that IEC 62368-1 now replaces IEC 60950-1 and 60065 in Europe and the US. Here’s what this means for IT and audio/video electronics designers. Read Article

Developing a PCB Testing Procedure For New Designs

Developing a PCB Testing Procedure For New Designs Before your new device comes off the fabrication line, it will need to go through a comprehensive PCB testing procedure. Here’s how to create a PCB testing procedure for new boards. Read Article

Electrical design rules

Customizing Performance-Based Electrical Design Rules in Altium Designer Electrical design rules go beyond manufacturing and assembly. PCBs also require electrical design rules that are based on a signals’ electrical behavior. Read Article

Gigabit Ethernet guidelines

Gigabit Ethernet 101: Basics to Implementation This guide is what you are looking for if you’re ready to add ethernet, especially gigabit ethernet, to your electronic circuit design and need to get up to speed. Read Article

Jumpstart Your Next Design

Jumpstart Your Next Design Your project is complete and you are ready to move onto the next project. But a lot of the same properties in the new project are already completed in the previous project. There must be a quick and simple way of bringing these properties over to your next projects. Read Article

How to do PCB Trace Length Matching vs. Frequency

How to do PCB Trace Length Matching vs. Frequency Keeping high speed signals properly timed and synchronized requires PCB trace length matching vs frequency. Here’s how length matching in PCB design works. Read Article

Using the iPad Pro for Electronic Design

Using the iPad Pro for PCB Electronic Design Altium 365 was updated with a smoother, more feature-full and more intuitive interface for the web design viewer. I want to use this occasion to share with you some of my favourite apps and websites for electronic design. Read Article

Light Pipes Explained

Light Pipes Explained What do you do if you need to protect your device from the elements, be that wet or dusty conditions, high humidity, or external EMI? Read Article