Schematic Capture and Schematic Entry

Browse our library of resources to learn more about PCB design, Schematic Capture, and Schematic Entry. We cover topics ranging from wiring symbols and electronic diagram to best practices for your next PCB design project.

PDN Impedance Simulation and Analysis in SPICE PDN simulations can be performed in SPICE if you know how to properly model parasitics and inductive effects in power integrity analysis. Read Article

How to Impedance Match and Terminate Capacitive Loads Impedance matching and capacitive load termination are examined in this article. Read Article

Can You Design a Rotation-Proof Connector Pinout? There are times where your connector pinout needs to be adaptable and reversible. What’s the easiest way to do this? Use a rotation-proof connector in your PCB. Read Article

All About PCB-Mount Transformers Before you rectify your AC input down to DC, you’ll need to step down your mains power to the desired voltage with a PCB-mount transformer. Read Article

Common Mode Choke Selection Noise on power supply lines can be a major headache. We'll examine how to select a common-mode choke to help eliminate common-mode noise. Read Article

Schematic Review Checklist This article is a simple, no-frills checklist to help you check schematics. Read now and avoid schematic design mistakes that could make their way into prototypes or production without a second thought. Read Article

Beginner's Guide to H-bridge Full Wave Rectifier Design Need to start a new power conversion design? You’ll probably need an H-bridge full-wave rectifier to produce a stable DC output. Read Article

Beginner’s Guide to ESD Protection Circuit Design for PCBs Circuit protection from transient voltages and currents can be applied with ESD protection circuit designs. Learn more about these circuits in our guide for new engineers. Read Article

Should You Use Power MOSFETs in Series? In this article, we look in greater depth at how to properly use combinations of MOSFETs in series compared to their use in parallel. Read Article

Use the Best Circuit Design Software With SPICE and Schematic Capture Use the best circuit design software to create your next electronic design and start your PCB layout. 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

The Anatomy of Your Schematic Netlist, Ports, and Net Names Your schematic netlist will create the link between components as you build your schematic sheets. See how your schematic sheets enable usage of net names and ports to help you stay organized. Read Article

What is Schematic Capture? All designs start with creating schematic sheets for your circuits. Learn more about what is schematic capture in our guide for new engineers. Read Article

Designing for the FPGA Pin Mapper It is a well-known fact that FPGA IO names must meet specific syntax requirements in Verilog or VHDL. The naming convention used in Altium Designer schematics doesn’t always meet these criteria specified by the hardware description languages (HDL). As a result, there can often be a mismatch between PCB net names and the actual FPGA signal names. As more users experiment with the FPGA Pin Mapper tool in Altium Designer, they will discover that the Read Article

Get the Most From Your Power Supply Design Software Power supplies can be difficult to design and layout as they require attention to safety and efficiency. Everything from isolation to thermal management needs to be considered in these systems, and designers need to have a complete set of design features to create reliable power supplies. In addition, power supplies tend to have mechanical constraints imposed by the enclosure, and these need to be considered when creating a PCB layout for a power Read Article

Guide to Transient Analysis in SPICE Simulations for Electronics The best SPICE simulation tools will make transient analysis easy. Learn more about transient analysis in circuit design in this article. Read Article

PCB Footprint Creation and Reuse with Altium 365 Many components come in standardized packages, but not all component manufacturers provide CAD models and schematic symbols in their PCB libraries. These CAD models show the location of pins, silkscreen information, centroids, and pads as they should appear in your PCB layout. PCB component creation can get repetitive when you need to apply an existing PCB footprint to a new component. With the component creation tools in Altium Designer and the Read Article