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PCB Routing
Creepage and Clearance Design Rules Require More Than Integrated Flow
Occasionally, I get to drive through the Pacific Northwest on a clear day. Unencumbered by rain clouds, the mountain ranges are visible. So visible that I feel I could reach out and touch them. If I could fly the line of sight, I could be at the top of any mountain quickly. Since I can’t fly, driving my car along a twisting mountain highway would get me there on a longer route. So it is with PCB creepage and clearance design rules on a printed
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Transmission Lines: Propagation Delay, Transmission Delay, and Analog Signal Resonance in Your PCB
Legend has it that opera singers can break champagne flutes just by wailing at the right note. From opera singers to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and the high tide in the Bay of Fundy in Canada, resonance can be a beautiful and simultaneously destructive phenomenon. The terms “transmission delay” and “propagation delay” are sometimes used interchangeably. In analog systems, both terms can refer to the time required for a signal to travel between
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Explain Like I’m a Designer: ELIC PCB and HDI Routing
Using ELIC in your HDI PCB can help you maximize your connection and component density. Read more about using ELIC for high density interconnect routing.
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PCB Routing Angle Myths: 45-Degree Angle Vs 90-Degree Angle
There is nothing wrong with a healthy debate, whether it’s related to determining the worst pizza topping or the best solder mask. In the PCB editor world, a debate that plagues designers and researcher alike revolves around PCB routing angles. Should copper tracks of a PCB be routed at a 45-degree angle vs 90 degree angle PCB? With today’s equipment, however, it turns out that it usually doesn’t matter which angle you use. By utilizing modern
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Ducks in a Row: Process Control and Document Traceability in One Place
Louis Pasteur captured the essence of complicated endeavors when he stated that “fortune favors the prepared mind.” Don’t miss opportunities for excellence when faced with complex tasks. Designing and building printed circuit boards and their assemblies is a complex task, made up of many meticulous endeavors. You could say that unified PCA documentation and communication favors successful outcomes when building products. Document types and
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How to Interface an LED With an 8051 Microcontroller: Processes and Applications
When my professors saw my first electronics project, they weren’t too hopeful about my future as a design engineer. With hundreds of jumper wires clumsily soldered onto a prototyping board, my feeble attempt at making a ham radio barely passed as a joke. I was learning about the dot matrix, pic microcontroller, and RGB LED lights. Everyone has to start from the beginning! Thankfully, I’ve come a long way since those days. If you’re starting your
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Rigid PCB Vs Flexible PCB: How Adaptable is Your Design Approach
After working on multiple projects for a demanding client, I often relieve my stress by kicking it out at a local martial arts gym. When I was a teenager, I was quite flexible and had no trouble landing kicks. These days, however, my kicks are somewhat restrained by my rigid legs; I’m simply not as flexible as I used to be. Of course, flexibility and rigidity are important concepts outside of the martial arts gym as well. While designing PCBs
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How to Connect Two PCB Boards With a Bus: Do Not Pass When Flashing Yellow
During my school days, my favorite time of the day was when the bell rang and we were free to go home. While waiting for my school bus, I spent time messing around with my friends and would be so engrossed in playing that I’d occasionally miss my bus. Naturally, my mom wasn’t too thrilled about having to pick me up after a busy day of work. Missing the school bus, fun as it may have initially seemed, resulted in some serious grounding. Without
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Learning the PCB Design Software Shortcuts to Hack Your Design Growth
Even simple PCB designs can require the use of many functions and tools, and this doesn’t change if you’ve been a designer for 20-minutes or 20-years. One feature that will always make your PCB design software more efficient is using keyboard shortcuts. So how can you improve your efficiency beyond where it's at now? With a little help from Altium Designer and the shortcuts they’ve so graciously added to the program! No matter how quick your
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Routers in PCB Boards: Working with Altium Designer’s Multilayered Via Routing Rules
Some of the first ideas and drawings of two-layered PCB design came at the turn of the century, right before the world would descend into its first world war. It should come as a surprise that an idea and an adaptation to circuit boards, two-layers, developed over one-hundred years ago is still alive and well. But it should come as no surprise that with time comes new adaptations, and the era of multilayered stackups is much more appropriate for
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Understanding 2-Layer PCB Ground Planes
Like many designers, my first board was a 2-layer board, and it didn't use a PCB ground plane. It wasn't very elaborate, just an amplifier with some connectors and a connection to a DAQ module that interfaced with a LabVIEW app. When you're designing with through-hole components on a copper-clad perfboard, there's no way to create a solid ground region anywhere on the board, and your grounding strategy will suffer for it. If you watch the
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Better PCB Routing - How Altium Highlight Nets
Regardless of how many PCBs I design, I always find myself having to regularly review network paths on the schematics layer and Altium highlight trace routes on PCBs. The complexity reminds me of a maze where only one path is the right one for a particular network. It is imperative that all the connections are accurate as errors made here will come back to haunt you later in the form of redesigns. The best way to ensure network accuracy is by
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High Density Interconnect Boards and How They Can Benefit Your Design
In the world of PCB design, high-density interconnect boards are among the fastest growing designs that are surfacing. Offering lighter weight, faster transmission times, more real estate to place components, and a reduction in signal loss there are few downsides to implementing these designs into your device. In any industry, the push for better, faster, stronger is usually a consumer-driven force. It is no different here. The push for devices
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Pin Swapping and Gate Swapping in Your PCB Layout to Clean Up Your Logic Rat Nest
I recently moved into a new apartment, and it was time to unpack all of my electronics. When I reached into the box to pull out my audio cords, power cords, and extension cords, everything was a tangled, helpless mess. If I had taken more time to pack them properly, they probably would not have become tangled. If you are routing traces between an FPGA and external logic ICs on your PCB, your design might look like my mess of cords on moving day
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Increase Component Density in Multilayer PCB Design with Blind Vias
When I was still a novice circuit designer, my boards would be crammed with components. I later learned how to place components on both sides of the circuit board, freeing up some desperately needed real estate. If only there was a way to free up space by hiding traces below the surface of the circuit board... Newer devices are taking on smaller form factors, and the increasing demands for more capabilities will require that more components be
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Aspect Ratios and Their Importance to Multi-Layered PCBs
There’s a certain level of gratification that comes with doing something challenging. In my off time, I tinker with carving spoons and other utensils. They seem incredibly simple to make but the difficulty comes in making the curve just right, smoothing out the wood, and adding any ornate finishes you want on the handle. When embarking on the manufacturing journey post PCB design, you may be one of the skilled few who have taken on the challenge
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