PCB Supply Chain

Don't let component shortages and supply chain volatility derail your production schedule. Browse our library of resources to learn more about the PCB supply chain and how to source components for your design.

PCB Supply Chain Basics Design Bill of Materials (BOM) Design For Manufacturing Nexar - Supply Chain Intelligence

Altium 365 Getting Started User Guide - Available Now Hi Everyone, A month ago, I announced the release of the Altium Designer Getting Started User Guide. This week we are following up with the release of another helpful guide: Altium 365 Getting Started User Guide. The Altium 365 cloud platform offers the most connected experience for PCB design and realization with direct access from Altium Designer or any web browser. All active subscribers can access Altium 365 to unlock powerful functionality Read Article

Best Practices for Using DNI/DNP Entries in Your PCB BOM You can use the DNI/DNP designation on components in your PCB BOM to create design variants as long as you’ve created your layout correctly. Read Article

How to Compare PCB Manufacturing Services for Your Board Do you know what to look for in PCB manufacturing services? Here are some of the important points to consider before placing your next order. Read Article

Designing for Shock Management in Avionics PCBs Of all the electronics application areas, there is one that needs to carefully consider mechanical and thermal shocks during design: avionics. An avionics system that is put into production within a satellite, aircraft, or spacecraft can experience strong vibration and mechanical shock during flight, and these systems need to be designed with high reliability in mind. IPC standards, MIL-PRF standards, and other standards specify some design Read Article

Using Product Lifecycle Management Software for PCB Design Any product, including circuit boards and electronic components, will become obsolete and must be replaced with completely new versions. If a product is ever manufactured and taken to market, the product and its components will inevitably have a finite life cycle. Products are eventually upgraded to new versions and capabilities or components are added, or they become obsolete and are replaced with completely new circuit designs and technology Read Article

Sourcing Military PCB Components in a Unified Design Environment Whether you are a procurement officer for the military, a prime contractor, or a defense subcontractor, you’ll face a number of obstacles when sourcing components for electronic defense systems. Given the component shortages and potential for counterfeiting in the components market, military PCB components cannot be procured from just any company. Any component for a military electronic system must meet rigorous quality standards and be traceable Read Article

Power Electronics for Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries in Altium Designer Power electronics encompasses a massive list of systems that make modern life possible. From automotive systems to power distribution systems, power electronics are responsible for controlling and managing the flow of power throughout an electrical system. With alternative energy systems bound to become more popular in the future, engineers and designers need the right PCB design software for power electronics systems. Design software for power Read Article

PCB Library and Supply Chain Integration in Altium Concord Pro Anyone planning to manufacture a new circuit board has plenty of challenges to overcome. From component shortages to outdated design data, project managers and designers face obstacles to timely production that arise from stale component data and supply chain information. Sourcing shouldn’t be guesswork, and it shouldn’t require 3rd party tools that only provide visibility to a portion of the supply chain. Supply chain changes can catch any Read Article

PCB Design Reuse and Product Lifecycle Management in Altium Concord Pro Reusing design data is a great way to hasten redesigns of existing hardware. Managing this design data, including version control and component data management, can be a real challenge. Production lead times are decreasing, component lifecycles are shorter, replacement parts are pushed to market sooner, and design data steadily grows as new designs become more complex. Reusing design data for a portion of an existing board or functional blocks Read Article

Microelectronics for the Defense Industry Defense contractors, military procurement officers, and contract manufacturers face a number of obstacles when designing and manufacturing PCBs for use in defense systems. Defense microelectronics and manufactured PCBs cannot be procured from just any company, and these components must meet rigorous standards that ensure quality and reliability. These components must also be traceable back to a compliant component manufacturer. Only Altium 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 allowed 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

Designing Your PCB for Transient Voltage Suppression PCBs in aircraft, near high voltage equipment, and with a weak grounding strategy are at serious risk of damage due to electrostatic discharge (ESD). When ESD occurs, a huge spike of current propagates through your board, causing damage to components and thermally sensitive components. There are a number of ways to protect your board from ESD. In addition to implementing the right grounding strategy, choosing the right components for suppressing Read Article

Data Management for Component Models in SPICE Simulations Simulation software is becoming more powerful as time goes on, but the simplest solutions are sometimes still preferable for many applications. SPICE simulations have been around for decades, yet their applicability to a wide variety of circuits and applications is not lost on anyone. With SPICE simulation tools being so popular, it’s only natural that they appear in PCB design software platforms. Devices continue to become more powerful and more Read Article

Create, Share, Collaborate, and View CAD Drawings with Altium Designer PCB design collaboration is easy with a complete set of design tools and a cloud platform to view CAD drawings. Your PCB design features should make it easy to create a circuit board and take it through manufacturing. Instead of settling for freeware CAD programs or mechanical programs like AutoCAD, your team can connect through powerful tools that allow secure access to all design files in a PCB project. Whether you need to view your board or Read Article

How the Best Integrated PCB Libraries Lower Development Costs With development schedules becoming tighter and technology advancing at an ever faster pace, designers and engineers need tools that help them cut development costs and stay competitive in every way. This means designers need supply chain tools that help them compare electronic component prices and manage their fabrication data in a single program. Each integrated library helps lower development costs and time by providing the supply chain Read Article

Sync Your Electronics Inventory Management System With the Cloud Do you use internal databases and tracking tools for electronics inventory management? Sync your inventory management system with the cloud. 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