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PCB Routing

Pin Swapping and Gate Swapping in Your PCB Layout to Clean Up Your Rat Nest

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 Read Article

Increase Component Density in Multilayer PCB Design with Blind Vias

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 Read Article

Aspect Ratios and Their Importance to Multi-Layered PCBs

PCB Design: What are Aspect Ratios and Why Are They Important? The aspect ratio of a via in a PCB is an important parameter that determines its reliability, and in some cases, its electrical performance. Read Article

Rigid Flex PCBs and Your Future: Smart, Effective Designing

Rigid Flex PCBs and Your Future: Smart, Effective Designing Oftentimes, in terms of PCB design, we are tasked with fitting a square peg into a round hole. Fitting thousands of various components onto a board no larger than a dollar bill, and maybe even a quarter, we always seem to be limited to the 2D plane of predetermined space within our equipment or device. We’ve all been there: after putting the finishing touches on a PCB design, you take a look at the space requirements of the device only to find Read Article

How Blind, Buried and Through-Hole Vias Can Impact Your PCB Design

How Blind, Buried and Through-Hole Vias Can Impact Your PCB Design Growing up, I was obsessed with all things Super Mario, but honestly, who wasn’t. Specifically, I was a sucker for the Super Nintendo, old school version. Bounding from platform to platform, tossing pixelated turtle shells, saving princesses… what a life. One of the best, albeit strangest, of the game, no doubt, was jetting in and out of those little green tubes that were seemingly all over the place. Who made them? Why were they even there Read Article

Annular Rings and Multilayer PCB Design: Stay Within Your Tolerances

Annular Rings and Multilayer PCB Design: Stay Within Your Tolerances One of my high school teachers had a pretty successful business for when he wasn’t teaching: he harvested maple syrup. I learned that a bit more goes into the process than simply taking the maple syrup from the tree after tapping a hole into it. You’ve got to let it rest and let some of it evaporate so you can distill the maple syrup into the tasty, flavorful product that will then go onto all of your pancakes. While there’s a whole process Read Article

SPI vs. I2C

SPI vs. I2C: How to Choose the Best Protocol for Your Memory Chips Which protocol is best for accessing memory chips? The differences between SPI vs. I2C for this application will be examined in this article. Read Article

Best PCB Routing Practices after Auto Routing Goes the Distance

Best PCB Routing Practices after Auto Routing Goes the Distance PCB auto-routing and routing techniques that will help you to finish your PCB layout once the auto-routing is completed. Read Article

A Big Kick in PCB Interconnect Solutions: Multi-Board Best Practices

A Big Kick in PCB Interconnect Solutions: Multi-Board Best Practices I’ve always enjoyed thinking about circuits similar to tiny cities. Copper routing as the streets, components as building structures, vias, and the following electrons as the inhabitants running around. But imagine what PCB would be in the city from Inception where the flat ground starts turning on its head and extending overtop, or if Salvador Dali became a city planner. In today’s world of densely packed components (HDI), advanced manufacturing Read Article

Practice Makes Perfect: How to Test Electronic Components during PCB Design

Practice Makes Perfect: Testing and Verifying Electronic Component Assemblies during PCB Design When I was younger, well much younger, I had dreams of one day being a pro athlete. I wanted to be the guy who scored the winning touchdown, knocked in the winning run or hit the buzzer-beater. Although I never made to the professional level, I did have some success and I learned a lot. The most important thing was the results you achieved were strictly tied to your preparation. In other words, if I wanted to do well in the game I had to test Read Article

Using Altium Designer’s Advanced Features to Ensure Design Integrity

Which is Best: Mentor PADS PCB Design Software vs Altium PCB Design Software If you are tired of jumping back and forth between PCB design tools that use different data models, take a look at Altium Designer; a PCB design platform that has been designed to work the way you need it to. ALTIUM DESIGNER The most powerful, modern and easy-to-use PCB design tool for professional use. When you are creating a PCB design, you need design tools that can keep up with you. You need powerful tools that work smoothly together with Read Article

Through It All: PCB Tools and What Experience Has Shown

Through It All: PCB Tools and What Experience Has Shown I have always been aware that places exist in the world where the January gray skies and chills never happen, but I’m still not entirely sure where they are. Whether it’s picking up a new hobby, being invigorated by your resolutions, or rewatching some of your favorite movies under a heavy, comfortable blanket, January has a lot more to offer than the cold, wet, and gloomy weather that is on the other side of most of our windows. As the doorstep Read Article

How is Your Design Affected by PCB Edge Clearance?

How is Your Design Affected by PCB Edge Clearance? We are often tasked with fitting a plethora of things into a small window of space. Whether it be cramming loads of info into our heads moments before a final exam, doing all twenty sightseeing activities into an eight-hour “vacation day,” or strategically stacking our Thanksgiving plates full of deliciousness, we must be aware of the boundaries given, and how each unique item interacts with the items surrounding (heaven forbid the mashed Read Article

The Best PCB Component Placement Software Helps You to Efficiently Finish Your Placement

The Best PCB Component Placement Software Helps You to Efficiently Finish Your Placement Remember when we were kids and our parents gave us permission to do something fun but first we had to finish our chores? Now, taking out the garbage, folding clothes, and mowing the grass I’d prefer compared to budgeting for vacations or renovating bathrooms. Getting the chores completed lets me move on to something that is at least significantly more convenient and in many cases more fun. When I’m designing, I have similar chore preferences and Read Article

What’s Worse: Holes in Your Winter Gloves or Copper Layer Defects?

What’s Worse: Holes in Your Winter Gloves or Copper Layer Defects? Much of the United States is going through a remarkably cold period right now; as I write this there is only about 10% of the country experiencing temperatures above freezing. It was a true, white Christmas for many; however, not the white that most expect: instead of snow, they got ice. Living in areas where the temperature can vary by up to 40℉ in a day means dressing in layers. If you’re anything like me, you’re still mastering the art of Read Article

No, I Don’t Want to Make a U-turn: Guidelines for PCB Trace Routing

No, I Don’t Want to Make a U-turn: Guidelines for PCB Trace Routing Watching your old town grow up can be a lot like watching your favorite television shows ending, or watching a sequel years after a good movie was released. The town I grew up in was laid out on a grid with streets so wide you didn’t even have to parallel park downtown. It was a town so small that traffic jams were caused by two people in different cars stopping to talk more often than accidents. When I go back to visit, the town has grown; the Read Article

High-Speed Design Techniques: Trace Tuning for Routing Length Matching

High-Speed Design Techniques: Trace Tuning for Routing Length Matching The first time I heard someone talking about “tuning” their high speed design techniques, the memory of my middle school band came to mind. Back in those days, “tuning” meant taking kids who lacked experience and who used tired old instruments and trying to turn it all into something that blended together. As you would expect, our first attempts at being in tune were not very successful. After some work learning about signal integrity, the ground Read Article