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PCB Routing

PCB Coplanar Waveguide Calculator

PCB Coplanar Waveguide Calculator RF PCBs can be complex boards that need careful interconnect design and layout. If you’re designing an RF PCB for microwave or higher frequencies, controlled impedance routing should be top of mind to ensure signal integrity. You can choose from many routing styles, but whichever routing style you choose, it should provide isolation against noise and crosstalk. A coplanar waveguide routing style is an excellent choice for RF PCBs as they can be Read Article

PCB 3D Design Software Helps You Build Advanced Products

PCB 3D Circuit Design Software Helps You Build Advanced Products New products are intimately designed to fit their enclosures, and getting the design right takes the right set of PCB design tools. When you can see your entire board, you can spot layout errors and component collisions and make sure your new circuit board will fit inside its enclosure easily. Now you can design and evaluate all aspects of your circuit board layout when you use the native MCAD tools in Altium Designer’s complete PCB design Read Article

How Antipads Affect Signal Integrity in Your Multilayer PCB

How Antipads Affect Signal Integrity in Your Multilayer PCB Antipads in your PCB can create a signal integrity problem if not used properly. Here are some guidelines to help you get started. Read Article

Altium Designer keyboard shortcuts

My Favorite Altium Designer Keyboard Shortcuts and Viewing Features If you want to be more productive in PCB design and layout, try out these common Altium Designer keyboard shortcuts. Read Article

Making the Switch from Proteus to Altium Designer for PCB Design

Making the Switch from Proteus PCB Design to Altium Designer With so many PCB design software packages on the market, you need design software that is adaptable to any design requirements. Features like interactive routing, layer stack, and copper pour management, and defining design rules can make or break your next design. The best circuit design software makes using these tools easy and gives you the power to customize them to meet your design requirements. With Altium Designer, you can rest assured Read Article

Crosstalk or Coupling

Crosstalk or Coupling The words crosstalk and coupling are used to describe the injection of electromagnetic energy from one transmission line to another running nearby. In printed circuit boards crosstalk is usually two traces running side by side in the same layer or one over the top of the other in adjacent layers. This coupled energy appears as noise on the victim trace and can cause malfunctions if the amplitude is too large. Learn how this noise is transferred Read Article

Transmission Line Termination Techniques in High-Speed Design

Transmission Line Termination Techniques in High-Speed Design A transmission line is a pair of conductors used to deliver energy in the form of an electromagnetic field. Most of us are familiar with the wires that lead to our houses delivering the power needed to operate our lights and appliances. In the context of PCB design, it is a signal in a signal layer on top of a plane or between two planes. TRANSMISSION LINE TERMINATION TECHNIQUES FOR PCB DESIGN The purpose of this section is to explain what Read Article

Clone and Modify an Arduino Mega Schematic in Altium Designer

Clone and Modify an Arduino Mega PCB Schematic in Altium Designer There are many different Arduino boards available for development and prototyping, and you might consider designing your own Arduino PCB schematic. If you want to modify an Arduino Mega schematic, you need design software that lets you easily build around an Arduino board and quickly add functionality. Your design software should make it easy to use any Arduino mega pinout board, like the Arduino Uno PCB schematic, Mega, Zero, or another model Read Article

The Best PCB Layout & Design Software for Your Needs

The Best PCB Layout & Design Software for Your Needs When designing circuit boards, there are some functions that your PCB (printed circuit board) design tools must excel at without exception. These include the basic functions of schematic design, schematic capture, placing parts, and routing traces. There are other important functions you won’t find in free PCB design software. These include bill of materials compilation, generation of Gerbers and other deliverables, and data management functions Read Article

Altium Designer’s Board Layout Software

Altium Designer’s Board Layout Software Handling the ever-growing complexities of today’s routing demands requires board layout software that can keep up. When yesterday’s tools are no longer getting the job done, get back on the road of productive design today with the most powerful easy draw PCB design layout software. When you need powerful board layout software, you need to easily complete the following tasks: Visually and easily manage your PCB copper pours Peace of mind PCB Read Article

Why Altium Designer Will Give You Better Results Over OrCAD

Why Altium Designer Will Give You Better Results Over OrCAD A free download of software and a fancy demo can make PCB design tools seem very attractive. You owe it to yourself to do your research before you purchase so that you get the design features you need for success. Altium Designer delivers on its promise of an easy-to-learn, professional set of PCB design tools. When you switch to Altium Designer, you’ll have the same set of design features you’ll find in OrCAD and much more. You can also Read Article

Design Your PCB Stackup with Altium Designer

Design Your PCB Stackup with Altium Designer Your PCB stackup is the backbone of your circuit board, directly impacting how signals behave. Signals rely on internal plane layers as a reference, and with the right layer stack, signal routing becomes much more efficient. Beyond just organizing your board layers, selecting the right materials in your stackup is crucial for handling power, impedance, and signal integrity calculations. For modern designs, a four-layer board is the baseline, but Read Article

Auto-Interactive Routing Gives You More Control

The Altium PCB Auto Router: The Best PCB Automated Routing Tool Routing traces on your printed circuit board is that critical step during layout that creates the connectivity and functionality your board needs. It can also be time-consuming if your design autoroute software doesn’t contain the right routing tools. Your PCB design software should include high-precision routing tools that are designed to automate many portions of the routing process. Advanced PCBs require the best PCB auto-router, and your Read Article

The PCB Design Process Methodology and Application

The PCB Design Process Methodology and Application Your next great idea probably started on a piece of notebook paper. How do you go about taking your great idea and turning it into a real design, and eventually into a finished product? There are a number of ways to approach your new design. Any new circuit board can be very complicated, but the right PCB design process methodology helps you get through the design process quickly. PCB designers follow a general PCB design process methodology, and Read Article

Easily Create Your PCB Solder Mask in Altium Designer

Easily Create Your PCB Solder Mask Layer in Altium Designer You’ve just finished the electrical layout of your board and now you are working through the final steps to prepare for PCB manufacturing and assembly. What steps do you need to take to get your board ready for production? Aside from generating deliverables like Gerber files, a bill of materials, drill files, silkscreen, and PCB assembly instructions, you’ll need to define the solder mask (sometimes called solder stop mask or solder resist) on Read Article

Use PCB Routing Tools With an Integrated Trace Length Calculator

Use PCB Routing Tools With an Integrated Trace Length Matching Calculator If you’re a mechanical or electrical designer, you need CAD tools that provide accurate trace length and geometry calculations. Once you start working with high-speed or high-frequency circuits, propagation delay and skew become critical points to consider as you need to make sure your signals are properly timed throughout your nets. Altium Designer is the only PCB design package that includes an ultra-accurate trace length calculator for PCB Read Article

Schematic Drawing Software and PCB Layout Tools in Altium Designer

Free Schematic Drawing Software and PCB Layout Tools in Altium Designer Every circuit board starts with circuit diagrams and schematic sheets. Your schematic capture software takes your component and footprint data and creates an initial layout, which you then route to create a complete circuit board. If you’re just getting started with PCB design, you need a schematic diagram maker that helps you quickly move component data into a new layout. You shouldn’t need to use multiple programs to move from schematic drawing Read Article