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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.

Routing Guidelines for PCB Layouts Efficient PCB Routing Routing PCB Traces in Altium Designer High-Speed Routing Guidelines

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

What is the High Speed Signal Frequency Range and Bandwidth? High speed signals have broad bandwidth, meaning the high speed signal frequency range extends theoretically out to infinity. Although signals are band-limited when recovered by a high speed receiver, your interconnect design should account for the entire signal bandwidth. In the past, this required complex simulations that could account for band-limiting effects in PCBs, including package parasitics and dispersion in a PCB substrate.Today, the Read Article

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

Designing Coplanar Waveguide with Ground in Your PCB RF designs that run at high frequency need high isolation from digital components, power subsystems, and external sources of noise that can degrade signal quality. One option in many RF designs is coplanar waveguide with ground as this can be used with controlled impedance routing on external layers. When you need to use coplanar waveguide with ground routing in your RF PCB designs, use the industry’s best set of routing features. Only Altium Read Article

What is ISO 14300 In looking for the answer of what is ISO 14300, find out about space exploration device requirements and the potential behind CAD tools. ALTIUM DESIGNERPCB Design software with excellent communication through the design process.The International Standards Organization (ISO) represents 163 national standards bodies and functions as an independent, non-governmental entity. ISO meetings bring experts together to share knowledge and to gain consensus Read Article

Taking a Modular PCB Design Approach in Altium Designer PCB design is rarely discussed in terms of designing to functional blocks or as connecting modules with different functionality. Simple designs can usually be designed without considering how your PCB layout affects the operation and interaction between multiple functional blocks in your board. With more complex designs, you’ll need to consider more than just the high-level overview of your board when you are designing a complex system.Modular Read Article

Modeling and Placing Connectors Within Altium Designer ALTIUM DESIGNER The most powerful, modern and easy-to-use PCB design tool for professional use. I/O use connectors for PCB system integration In this guide to PCB connectors, we’ll take a look at connectors within electrical systems, how they benefit from ECAD/MCAD tools, and optimal design specifics like appropriate cable connectors or gold fingers gold plating. Connectors abound on printed circuit assemblies given integrated electrical Read Article

How to Keep Your 3D PCB Models Current with Data Management Tools Any component includes a significant amount of design data. This includes electrical models, 3D component models, and PCB supplier information. Your PCB design software should be allow to take this data and integrate it with your MCAD tools. This allows you to create 3D body models from your PCB footprints and integrate them into a data library. Ensuring that this data stays up to date takes a data management platform that operates directly Read Article

ESD Grounding Requirements in Your Next PCB Any PCB that will be deployed in an environment surrounded by high voltage equipment or power sources is at risk of electrostatic discharge (ESD). Static electricity can also discharge directly into a board and ruin sensitive electronic components if a board is handled without a wrist strap. This induces a transient voltage in the PCB, which can cause damage to sensitive components. In extreme cases, such as lightning strikes or major power Read Article

Designing Physical Layer Security for Military PCBs in Altium Designer PCBs for military systems are high performing beasts that must meet stringent design and performance standards. Military systems that store and process sensitive data require extra layers of security that goes beyond locking them in a secure enclosure. You’ll need to design your Printed Circuit Boards to be extremely resistant to EMI, route data so that it cannot be tapped passively, and include blacked-out chips to prevent attackers from Read Article

Changing PCB Reference Planes During Routing in Multilayer Boards Routing through multiple PCB reference planes is not the best routing strategy, but there are some simple design tips that can help Vias with annular rings for reaching an interior PCB layer If you’re a new designer and you take a look at some boards in common electronic products, you may not even realize they are multilayer boards unless you know exactly where to look. The fact is that more complex devices simply do not allow every single trace Read Article

Your Complete Guide to Via Stub Analysis Via stub accumulate loss for high speed and high frequency signals. Here’s how you can spot problems with stubs and solve them easily. Read Article

The Best Printed Circuit Board Design Software for Your Aluminum PCB Whether for thermal performance, electrical isolation, or mechanical strength, your aluminum PCB needs the precision of Altium Designer to meet your design requirements. Altium Designer allows almost any aspect of your circuit boards to be customized, including the metal core or backing on an aluminum PCB. Designers can also specify other materials in their documentation for their fabricator, such as ceramics, aluminum flex PCBs, or other Read Article

With Altium Designers PCBDOC Viewer Nothing is Left to Chance With Altium’s free PCBDOC viewer, every member of your design team will have read-only access to your design data leaving nothing to chance. ALTIUM DESIGNERAny kind of file viewing should be an easy process for your PCB design software. Your printed circuit board design may have started with just yourself or a small team of people, but by the time it is completed there will be a lot more involved. There will be people checking to make sure that Read Article

FR4 Dielectric Constant and Material Properties High speed and high frequency boards need accurate dispersion calculations to ensure signal integrity and accurate propagation delay. FR4 is the most popular type of PCB laminate, and its material properties are well-documented. We’ve compiled the important material properties for FR4, including FR4 dielectric constant, thermal conductivity, and more. Altium Designer includes an accurate wideband Debye model calculation for FR4 dielectric Read Article

Transmission Line and PCB Track Design Digital designs fall broadly into two categories: low-speed and high-speed. The category “high speed” does not necessarily mean a high clock rate. Rather, it refers to the rise time of the signal during switching, which leads to propagating wave behavior on long PCB tracks. When a PCB track gets too long, it needs to be designed like a transmission line, not just a simple conductor with DC resistance.Understanding how to design transmission lines Read Article

How to Find the Transistor Parts You Need for Your Circuit Board Transistors are fundamental devices for everything from power supplies to high-power integrated circuits for embedded computing. Many power electronics products, sensors, low-power analog systems, and other systems requiring high-power switching need transistors to operate properly. When you need to find and place transistors in your new design, you need a complete set of PCB supply chain tools for finding transistor parts for your design.When Read Article