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PCB Design

Continuous Deployment: An Implementation Using Altium Designer

Continuous Deployment: An Implementation Using Altium Designer In Continuous Integration and Deployment in ECAD we discussed the concept of Continuous Deployment within a build system. In this article, we will take a deeper look at how to set up continuous delivery and deployment systems so your team and vendors can enjoy a continuous stream of updated ECAD packages for review. Continuous Deployment/Delivery: Revisited In Continuous Integration: An Implementation Using Altium Designer we went through the Read Article

Blind And Buried Vias—what Are They And How Are They Used?

Blind And Buried Vias—What Are They And How Are They Used? As noted in several of my previous articles as well as a large majority of other published documents, component lead pitches have become increasingly fine, and smaller form factor devices have come to dominate a large number of the products (cell phones) being developed today. The question of how to connect components to both sides of these crowded PCBs should be among the first factors taken into account by a product development team. Typically Read Article

Augmented Reality is Poised to Change the World

Augmented Reality is Poised to Change the World Imagine 50,000 fans streaming HD video on 5G phones (Image source: pixabay.com) One of the big topics on everyone's lips at the moment is the forthcoming deployment of 5G smartphones and infrastructure. As I wrote in my 5G Meets 50,000 Fans at Super Bowl 2025 column on EEJournal.com, I was idly watching some adverts on television when I saw one showing people streaming video from an American football match. This set me to wondering what the Read Article

Assuring Design Coherence in a PCB

Assuring Design Coherence in a PCB Introduction There is a saying “that it’s not how you start that is important, but rather how you finish.” Which is perfectly ok when you are talking about sports and you get off to a bad start need to recover in the second half. However, when it comes to PCB design, it’s not a very good practice. If things start badly, they usually don’t recover, and it continues down the same path—which ends up costing more money and lost design time. At one Read Article

Concord Pro and Component Creation

Concord Pro and Component Creation 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. Introduction First off, before I say anything, the more that I have been using Altium Concord Pro^™, the more I like it. In fact, I love it. Altium has surprised me many times with the quality of the tools they put out. A few examples: Draftsman^®, ACTIVEBOM^® or Read Article

Never Underestimate the Power of a Mock-Up

Never Underestimate the Power of a Mock-Up The ability to do a 3D mock-up within your design software, is an invaluable tool that no doubt has prevented countless re-designs and revision changes. This is particularly powerful in the world of flex and rigid flex. When the circuit is intended to be bent, folded, or formed it is very easy to make a mistake with pinouts and orientation. Before the power to model this within the design tool, paper-dolls and mylar cut outs were often used to Read Article

6:20 Controlled Impedance Routing - OnTrack Whiteboard Series Watch Video

The Newest Advances in EDA: Modular Electronics Design

The Newest Advances in EDA: Modular Electronics Design EDA has come a long way since the 1960’s. Image source: Autodesk Before the birth of EDA, circuit boards and integrated circuits were all designed by hand or some other manual process. The need for more advancement in electronics design made clear the need for automation, a transition which took roughly 10 years and began with drafting in the mid-1970s. The publication of “Introduction to VLSI Systems” by Carver Mead and Lynn Conway in 1980 paved Read Article

What is the Return Current Path in a PCB?

What is the Electrical Return Path in a PCB? One of the fundamental aspects of any circuit diagram is the return current path or electrical return path. In a circuit diagram and a schematic diagram, the path the current follows to return to the low potential side of a power source should be obvious, but it may not be so obvious in a PCB. To quote the great Eric Bogatin at his PCB West 2019 presentation, the distinction between a schematic diagram and a PCB layout lives in the white space of Read Article

Common SMT Process Defects to Avoid During Soldering

Common SMT Defects to Avoid During Soldering As more designs are using smaller components with surface-mount pads, Surface-mount Technology (SMT) soldering defects can mount and impact yields due to various design and manufacturing problems. These problems may have been minor and had a negligible effect on yields in the past, but they can cause rework costs to mount quickly and should be avoided. Here is a basic SMT defect list you can avoid during design and assembly. Bridging Between Pads Read Article

PCB Design For Test Structures And Tests Performed, Part 2

PCB Design For Test Structures And Tests Performed, Part 2 In Part 1 of my article I outlined the various test structures that can and should be incorporated into any given PCB design. Included in this was a description of how they are built, where they are located and how they are used to ensure PCB structural and performance integrity. As speeds have increased and designs have become much more complex, test structures have become a necessity rather than features that can be added indiscriminately. And Read Article

PCB Design For Test—Test Structures And Types Of Tests, Part 1

PCB Design For Test—Test Structures And Types Of Tests, Part 1 An important part of any high-speed design is making sure it can be tested successfully during manufacture and operation. Since these tests are performed significantly downstream from the PCB design process, they are not often properly and thoroughly accounted for as part of this process. This article will address two important aspects of the design for test process: creating test structures (aka test point connections) within the board, and Read Article

Communication from Design to Assembly

Communication from Design to Assembly In a perfect world, a box and enclosure are designed, and then printed circuit boards or flexible circuits are designed to fit within that box perfectly, meeting all the electrical and mechanical requirements of the project. Sadly, most of us don’t get to work in that perfect world and at times must deal with challenges to that original plan. Things don’t always work as expected. Sometimes that is because something obvious was missed., Often it’s Read Article

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Chirp Unlocks the Power of Sound

Data-Over-Sound Open Source: Chirp Unlocks the Power of Sound Chirp sends data seamlessly over soundwaves (Image source: chirp.io) According to the Wikipedia, a chirp is a signal in which the frequency increases (up-chirp) or decreases (down-chirp) with time. It’s also the name of a rather interesting company, whose website can be found at Chirp.io I don’t know about you, but – until recently -- if someone were to ask me how to transmit data from one device to another, my knee-jerk reaction would have been Read Article

Advancements in Electronic Component Management

Advancements in Electronic Component Management In this volatile business of ours, we can ill afford to rest on our laurels, even to pause in retrospect. Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future. - Walt Disney I stood at the large hospital window looking out at the early evening sky. I could see several stories below just a small section of the nearby freeway. As typical for the late hour, the traffic was at a standstill, with its Read Article

How to Use Altium Designer Most Efficiently

How to Use Altium Designer Most Efficiently One of the things I really love about Altium Designer^® is how many shortcuts there are, and how customisable they are. A while ago in my database library’s chat channel, there was a really good discussion about shortcuts and how each of us customises his or her menus to be able to draw schematics and layout boards as quickly and efficiently as possible. Many of us use and love similar shortcuts, but there were enough interesting use cases that I Read Article