PCB Routing

Routing in your PCB makes copper connections between components, and best routing practices will help ensure signal integrity, low crosstalk, and low EMI. Browse our library of resources to learn more about routing in your PCB and how the best PCB layout software helps you obey routing rules and signaling standards.

PCB Routing in Altium Designer Design Rules for PCB Routing Efficient PCB Routing Tools (Webinar)

Build Your Next LED PCB Design in Altium's Unified Environment

Build Your Next LED PCB Design in Altium's Unified Environment LED driver boards can be challenging designs when running at high power and high voltage. Power systems for driving devices like LED panels need careful planning and layout for power supply sections, and the LED PCB itself needs to be laid out to ensure low-temperature operation. These objectives can be difficult to balance without the best set of PCB layout features and DC analysis tools. When you need to create a high-power LED PCB design Read Article

Transition from Hobby PCB Maker to Professional Designer with Altium

Transition from Hobby PCB Maker to Professional Designer with Altium Most new designers start off with freeware when they need to create their first PCB designs, but free PCB design software lacks many features required to create real circuit boards. Hobby PCB designers and makers need a range of tools to create high-quality circuit boards and eventually create real devices. Instead of using free PCB layout software and other programs to help get designs into production, hobby PCB makers need professional design Read Article

4-layer circuit board stackup

Two Alternative 4 Layer PCB Stackups With 50 Ohms Impedance Need a 4-layer PCB stackup that can support high speed components on both sides of the board? Consider these alternatives to the typical 4-layer stackup. Read Article

Design Your Small Circuit Board in Altium Designer

Design Your Small Circuit Board in Altium Designer Large circuit boards, small circuit boards, and anything in between might seem like they need separate sets of PCB layout features. In reality, your PCB design software shouldn’t delineate your PCB design based on size. Whether you need to design a large or small circuit board, a design application with high-quality CAD tools will help you get the job done quickly and prepare your board for production. Small circuit board designs are much easier Read Article

microstrip to ground clearance

Microstrip Ground Clearance Part 2: How Clearance Affects Losses In a previous article, I provided a discussion and some simulation results on the necessary clearance between impedance controlled traces and nearby grounded copper pour. What we found was that, once the spacing between the pour and the trace becomes too small, the trace becomes an impedance-controlled coplanar waveguide (with or without ground). We also saw that the 3W rule for the spacing between the trace and the grounded copper pour is a bit Read Article

Differential Pairs and Differential Signals

What Are Differential Pairs and Differential Signals? Differential pairs and differential signals are the mainstay of high speed digital communication and data transfer. Read Article

PCB routing

How to Route a PCB Learn about Routing a PCB and how to design traces to proper routing in any device. You can access the best PCB routing features in Altium Designer. Read Article

Gibbs phenomenon

How the Gibbs Phenomenon Produces Measurement Artifacts The Gibbs phenomenon is a measurement artifact that can be mistaken for real signal integrity problems like ground bounce, ringing from reflections, or resonance on short lines. Read Article

Circuit Replication with Multi-Channel Design

How to Simplify Your Circuit Replication with Multi-Channel Design Circuit replication, especially in flat designs, presents several unique challenges that occur when you copy PCB layout designs. You can't simply copy and paste footprints around your PCB layout and expect all of your design data to remain synchronized without errors. What about reverse engineering? Similarly, when you need to reuse circuit blocks in a schematic, taking the copy and paste approach simply takes too long and can make your Read Article

Antipad diameter IPC APEX 2021

Antipad Diameter, Crosstalk, and IBM’s Results from IPC APEX EXPO 2021 Interlayer crosstalk begins with antipad diameters, and IBM’s results help us see how antipad diameter on back-drilled PTHs affect signal integrity. Read Article

Serial Communications Protocols Part Six - I2C

Serial Communications Protocols Part Six - I2C In this next installment in our series on serial communications protocols, we’re looking at the popular I2C protocol. This follows on from the preceding articles where we are looking at some of the different types of Serial Communication Protocols available. These provide a practical solution to the transfer of data between devices over reasonably short distances. Typical applications include the capture of large amounts of data from data Read Article

Serial Communications Protocols - RS-485

Serial Communications Protocols - Part Four: RS-485 In Part 4 of a series of articles about some of the popular Serial Communication Protocols, we explore the popular RS-485 protocol standard. Read Article

PCB trace length

All About Your PCB Trace Length: How Long is Too Long? Learn more about PCB trace length and how transmission line losses mount in your designs. Read Article

Identify RFI Problems in an Intuitive Interface

Design with Radio Frequency Interference Analysis in Mind with Altium Radio frequency interference analysis is one important task in high frequency and high-speed PCB design. Interference at radio frequencies can arise due to many simple design errors, but these problems can be easy to spot with the right PCB design tools. When you need to identify areas of a design that can create RFI problems, an automated rules-driven toolset can help. If you’re unclear on what RFI is or how you can spot areas in a design that Read Article

What is RF Trace Tapering?

How to Use Your CAD Tools for RF Trace Taper Design PCB traces in RF systems must be designed to have specific impedance, which is normally 50 Ohms in order to limit reflection when interfacing with other RF components like antennas. Waveguide routing is often used and requires controlled impedance, but not all components can support wide traces used in RF waveguide routing. To provide the required interface with components, the end of an RF waveguide, including coplanar waveguide routing, can be Read Article

The RF PCB Design Process

How to Design and Route Your RF Filter PCB Layout RF PCBs and mixed-signal systems are challenging for many designers. Careful attention must be paid to the PCB stackup design, process for designing transmission lines, placement of components, and floorplanning the PCB layout to ensure predictable return path. Many RF PCB layout designs will include printed elements, like an RF filter, antenna, isolation structures, and unique waveguide geometries. RF systems can make copious use of RF filters Read Article

Design Your Copper-Clad Board With the Best PCB Layout Software

Design Your Copper-Clad Board With the Best PCB Layout Software Some designers prefer to build their own prototypes in their home or company lab as it gives them a firsthand view of potential quality problems in their boards. While designers can go this route if they’re comfortable using etchants and cleaning solutions needed to remove copper from PCB laminates, they’ll need design tools to create their etching stencils. An at-home designer will need to procure PCB copper boards to use for etching and create Read Article