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PCB Design

Using Altium Designer Supported File Types

Using Altium In PCB Design: Supported File Types and Extensions Just as you design your home environment to enhance your quality of life you can customize your work environment to improve the quality of your work. Although a comfortable chair can provide a relaxing ambiance while designing PCBs, the most important feature for generating quality work is the comfort level you feel with your PCB software design tool. Altium Designer is designed to provide the greatest capability coupled with exceptional Read Article

25:16 Simberian’s 3D Field Solver in Altium Designer Watch Video

31:57 Signal Integrity Evangelist Eric Bogatin, our Expert Insider to DesignCon 2020 Watch Video

34:32 Chris Carlson's Time Saving Tips for PCB Design Watch Video

1:9:39 Ben and Judy 2019 Wrap-Up Watch Video

21:00 Patrick Züger Talks About the Altium Designer 20 New and Exciting Features Watch Video

40:04 TE Connectivity Paving the Way into 100 GBps Data Rates Watch Video

27:02 Max Seeley and Carl Schattke on AltiumLive 2019 Watch Video

Saving Time Routing in Altium Designer 20 Watch Video

Current Transformers: How To Project

PCB Current Transformers: How To Project If you need to measure the current from an AC source, a current transformer can be a low cost, accurate option. You can find current transformers designed specifically for anything between 50/60Hz power line applications and much higher frequencies that are more suitable for industrial/scientific machinery or process monitoring. Current transformers are non-contact and non-invasive, meaning that you do not need to run AC power through your Read Article

PCB Core vs. Prepreg Material: What Designers Need to Know

Differences Between Prepreg Material vs. PCB Core: What Designers Need to Know I sometimes get questions from designers that want to know more about the PCB material selection and manufacturing process. Although I’m not a manufacturer, it behooves designers to understand something about the materials they have available when working on a new project. One question I get is on the exact differences between PCB core vs. prepreg materials. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably, including by novice designers; I’ll admit I Read Article

Using an IPC-2221 Calculator for High Voltage Design

Using an IPC-2221 PCB Clearance Calculator for High Voltage Design PCB design and assembly standards aren’t there to constrain your productivity. Instead, they’re there to help create uniform expectations of product designs and performance across multiple industries. With standardization comes the tools for compliance, such as calculators for certain design aspects, processes for auditing and inspection, and much more. In high voltage PCB design, the important generic standard for PCB design is IPC-2221. Many Read Article

The Importance of Having A Modern PCB Manufacturing Data Format

The Importance of Having A Modern PCB Manufacturing Data Format I recently posted a BLOG on Altium about the latest eSmart Factory in New Hampshire. Using the latest in State-of-the-Art machinery and processes, it can produce near-perfect complex multilayers and HDI substrates with extremely fine geometries in only a few days, and without ever being helped or touched by human hands, all while and emitting nothing to harm the environment—zero effluents. Digitization for the Smart Factory This technology will Read Article

The eSmart Factory Comes to PCB Fabrication

The eSmart Factory Comes to PCB Fabrication We all talk about the Industrial Revolution. The world has gone through a number of “Industrial Revolutions” since the creation of steam power in England. In fact, we talk about three such revolutions since that first one. In the early 2010s, the German Government proposed a fourth industrial revolution they called INDUSTRU 4.0. Today we also call it “The Smart Factory”! But, to date, there hasn’t been too much reported progress in this program Read Article

Can You Hear Me Now?

Can You Hear Me Now? Depending on your background and personal experiences, two things may spring to mind when you hear the term “cocktail party problem.” The first is you thinking, “there are never enough cocktails to satisfy everyone’s requirements,” but maybe I’m projecting again. Alternatively, you may be considering how difficult it is for an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled voice-controlled assistant like Amazon’s Alexa to follow individual voices when a Read Article

Design for Additive Manufacturing with Your ECAD/MCAD 3D Printing Software Your next set of advanced PCBs will roll off your 3D printer with these Design for Additive Manufacturing guidelines 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. Industry 4.0 is surely on the horizon, and with the rate at which technology advances, many advanced products will be 3D printed in part or in full. The Read Article

PCB Leakage Current and Breakdown in High Voltage Design

PCB Leakage Current and Breakdown in High Voltage Design Ohm’s law: it’s a wonderful tool we have for analyzing all types of circuits. This simple relation applies to so many devices that it’s quite easy to explain many aspects of component behavior with this single equation. With high voltage PCBs, however, we have to use other tools in addition to Ohm’s law to understand some important aspects of circuit behavior. Bring in Paschen’s law and Kirchoff’s laws, and you have everything you need to Read Article