PCB Design

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The PCB Routing that Benefits the Most from Interactive PCB Auto Routing Years ago I helped to re-roof a house, and the first task was to remove the old shingles. Pulling up shingles one at a time, I was very proud of my efforts until a professional roofer came over to me shaking his head. Using a scoop shovel like a snowplow, he removed a couple a hundred shingles in less time than it took me to pull up five by hand. I learned up on the roof that day to always look for better ways to get the job done. When routing a Read Article

Environmental Considerations for High Voltage PCB Board Design Several years ago, I had a date take me hiking. Beforehand, he gave me a long list of what to wear and bring for the hike. I had been camping and hiking in the mountains since childhood, and this guy was a southern boy, so I found it a little vexing to have him telling me what to do on my home turf. Fortunately, I had been raised to take environmental hazards seriously and tried hard to appreciate someone else who also had neurotic and Read Article

How to Implement Supervised Inputs in Your PCB Circuit Design Have you ever worked late on a design project and forgot to eat? I was literally starving when I finished off one of my regular design projects. I decided to go for a quick meal at a local eatery. I placed my order and hoped the service would be fast. However, after 45 minutes and no food, I was told that the kitchen has missed my order. I learned my lesson that you can’t expect that your order is being followed just because you placed it. The Read Article

Why an Auto-Interactive Router Routes Cleaner Traces than an Auto Router When I was a boy, my room was always a mess. Since I thought I knew where everything was, there was no reason to clean it. Finally, after a lot of pressure from my parents and my peers, I capitulated and cleaned up the room. The difference was amazing. It was so much easier to get around now that I had a clear path. The same can be said about PCB trace routing from an auto router. Auto routers are known for producing disorganized routes that are Read Article

RF Interference Prevention and RF PCB Design in the Internet of Things Have you ever been to a party where there was so much noise you could barely hear yourself think? I’m a dedicated introvert, but sometimes my friends lure me out to such gatherings with promises that it will be “very relaxed.” They never are, and I don’t seem to learn. It’s times like those that I wish it was socially acceptable to wear noise-canceling headphones to such events. In the world of electronics, the burgeoning Internet of Things (IoT) Read Article

Important Considerations in Your Embedded System's Master-Slave Communication Model It can take a few weeks or months to finish a working prototype of an embedded system. Sometimes I would spend days working on a single part of the project. However, when your boss is looking for updates every day, it can be particularly distracting and hinder your productivity. When I started my design company, I learned not to repeat these mistakes on my team. Like a human, embedded systems, like modbus slave and modbus master, come in various Read Article

High Speed PCB Design Considerations: Bypass Capacitor Place and Route Tips Many years ago, the majority of the board designs that I was involved with were simple digital designs. Placing and routing bypass capacitors in those designs was very easy, and often the circuitry was slow enough that ceramic capacitors were not needed. Most of the time we considered bypass capacitor placement and routing as more of an afterthought than as a primary design consideration. I remember how some of the engineers even instructed me to Read Article

The Importance of Compliance Awareness in Circuit and PCB Design I had an English professor once who was a lot of fun, but man, his requirements for essay writing were brutal. Making a decent grade required a ton of work. I had to check and recheck my paper’s content to make sure that every detail he asked for was painstakingly covered. These tedious rituals, though annoying and painful, helped teach me how to be thorough with my research. This was something that came in handy when I began my career and had to Read Article

Bluetooth Low Energy and the Internet of Things Did you ever “reinvent yourself” at some time in your life? I did, I went from the nerd in high school who wore cargo shorts and high socks to a less nerdy college student who had regular socks and shorts with the fashionable number of pockets. By the end of college, I had learned “social skills” and was finally ready to enter society as the best, or at least acceptable, version of me. People aren’t the only things that need reinvention, so do Read Article

Engineering a Layer Stack Up for High Speed Design Layer stack up is one of the most fundamental parts of component design. The order of arrangement and stack up is very important in ensuring that the design comes out as expected for a number of technical and electronic reasons. Among these reasons are the EMC, reduction of impedance incompatibility and other factors. That being said, we will discuss a few features that should be taken into consideration when a layer stack up is being developed Read Article

Why PCB Design Auto-Interactive Routing is Not a PCB Autorouter Editorial credit: Santiparp Wattanaporn / Shutterstock.com A while back I was given the gift of a flight in an AT-6, a WWII era airplane used for training fighter pilots. There couldn’t have been a better gift for an aviation enthusiast, and I spent the next 5 months eagerly anticipating it. Finally, the day arrived and I couldn’t have been happier as we took off into the wild blue yonder. Then the pilot demonstrated an aileron roll, and my Top Read Article

AltiumLive Summit Starts Tomorrow in San Diego's Beautiful Mission Bay Scroll down for a map or click on directions in Google Maps. AltiumLive 2017 Rarely does a PCB design conference come along that is focused wholly on training content designed to make YOU a more knowledgeable and effective . That’s why Altium decided to create one--fully centered on designers...and presented by expert PCB designers. AltiumLive 2017: Annual PCB Design Summit is coming to San Diego. Over the next two days, EDA industry Read Article

High Speed PCB Layout Guidelines: Placement Tips and Strategies In real-estate, the buzz word is; “location, location, location”. Interestingly enough, the same can be said of high speed PCB design placement. Although all aspects of the high speed PCB design process are important, the placement is especially so. Placement methods that work without a problem in a standard PCB design may not satisfy the critical signal flow requirements of a high speed design. For the design to work, it really is all about Read Article

How to Guarantee Signal Integrity in Your PCB Design for Serial Communication Protocols During my school days, I was addicted to the popular FIFA PC games series. I could spend hours scoring against the best virtual soccer teams. I was so engrossed in playing the game that I become oblivious to my mom’s voice when she called me to run an errand. It goes without saying that I received a healthy dose of scolding from my mom and was slapped with a 3 months ban on PC gaming. This is a good example of external sources can cause us to Read Article

How to Plan Ahead to Meet PCB Disposal Requirements When I was a kid and learned to solder, I had a mentor that kept an old coffee can on his soldering bench labeled “Lead Waste - DO NOT THROW IN TRASH.” Wire snippings, solder bits, and the random metal detritus that accumulates on a soldering mat all went in there. Apparently, it got full every few years and he took it to a local electronics recycling place to make sure he wasn’t adding any lead or heavy metals to the environment. I was shocked Read Article

Designing a PCB for High voltage: PCB Layers My sister used to decorate cakes as a 4-H project, while I showed chickens and built a computer. She had to create at least six “show quality” cakes a year, plus all the versions that didn’t come out perfect. It turns out you can actually get tired of eating cake, so eventually you just get styrofoam forms and decorate those. It gives you a chance to practice the design before you actually put it on a real cake. Getting the design right might Read Article

Why You Should Incorporate Digital Input Sampling in Your Embedded System I particularly enjoy shopping in the supermarket on the weekend. In the grocery section, there are samples of various food products that range from tuna spread to white coffee. While I enjoy hopping from one sample stations to another, my 5 years old son shamelessly always asks for a second helping. In electronics, sampling carries a different meaning than leisurely eating a variety of snacks. In an embedded system, digital input signals play an Read Article