Simulation / Analysis

Browse our library of resources to learn more about pcb design and ways to improve debugging and design testing of circuit boards with circuit simulation and analysis.

Analyzing Crosstalk on FIFO and DDR4 Parallel Bus Interfaces Do you need to spot crosstalk on a parallel bus? Use a field solver that integrates with your PCB design and layout tools. Read Article

Getting Started with PDN Analyzer To learn more about this topic please see the full solution - Getting Started with PDN Analyzer - at Altium.com. Download PDF

High Currents and Higher Temperatures: PCB Design Tips for Heat Management I remember the first (and hopefully the only) time one of my circuits caught on fire. It started with the resistors and quickly spread to a nearby decoupling capacitor. Thankfully, the destruction was minor and most of the components were salvageable. Why did this happen you ask? No, this was not due to a short circuit. Very simply, I did not take into account the high current PCB layout. As electronics continue to be miniaturized, the thermal Read Article

Embedded RF Design: Ceramic Chip Antennas vs. PCB Trace Antennas Over the years, there’s been a large rise in café culture which has left many of the newer cafés looking for ways of adding a creative interest to their store. Café and bookstore hybrids, gourmet coffee with baristas that have an expertise over regional coffee beans, and even cat cafés have all been twists I’ve seen pop-up. When it comes down to it, people are going to cafés for a few key reasons though: to get a drink or snack, to meet and talk Read Article

How to Test for a Short Circuit on a PCB Every engineer has that “worst case scenario” story that they survived. During the worst week of my professional life, we had a shipment of overdue PCBs come in. These PCBs were supposed to have been installed in hardware and deployed at customer sites more than a month earlier. We were beyond a little mortified. Needless to say, there was a slight rush to ship these new circuit boards. Once we powered them up for testing, you could smell the Read Article

Using ESD Grounding Techniques to Protect Your PCB from Electrical Damage I was in high school before I considered engineering as a career outside of the engine room on any Star Trek show. Although, subconsciously I was definitely interested in it. The signs were there early considering I could name all the chief engineers from Star Trek. The deal was sealed though when I was ridiculously excited to receive an ESD grounding wrist strap bracelet as a gift. Don’t have one in your jewelry box? Well, it’s composed of Read Article

PCB Design Guide for Engineers: Part 1 The Team INTRODUCTION What people are involved in the PCB design process? Surely all of the tasks of creating a PCB layout don’t just fall on single pair of shoulders. There are many engineering and scientific disciplines that must be harnessed and managed to bring your vision to life. As the project engineer, your first task is identifying your team. TOPICS IN THIS SOLUTION The Team In-House Assembly Advanced Testing PCB Design Guide for Engineers Part 1 Download PDF

S-Parameter Measurements and Errors in Power Integrity No matter where you look, it seems S-parameters never go away! They are mandatory tools for understanding some systems, such as an interconnect or antenna, while other network parameters can sometimes give a better conceptual understanding of electrical behavior. These parameters are normally reserved for signal integrity among electronics engineers, but if you look hard enough, you’ll find that S-parameters are also used for power integrity Read Article

Making the Most of Your Crystal Oscillator “Blindly” adopting what a crystal oscillator data sheet says usually results in adequate frequency stability. An oscillator requires the phase shift around the loop to be 360° and this total phase shift must be a precise and stable oscillation frequency. Read Article

Huge Vu-meter with RGB LEDs Project A laboratory journal to guide you through the steps to develop a successful product that value-conscious customers are sure to love. Read Article

Expert Analysis of Measured S-Parameters Read to learn an introduction about S-parameter analysis. This article covers how to identify port maps, what insertion loss and return loss looks like, how the various S-parameters look in the time-domain, and some additional analysis techniques to use when data mining S-parameters. Read Article

All About PCB Loss Tangent: What it Means and When it Matters Do you know the PCB loss tangent for your laminate? Learn more about this important factor and how it affects your signals. Read Article

How Load Capacitance on a Transmission Line Affects Your Signals If you ever read about transmission lines and integrated circuit datasheets, there is this seemingly mysterious quantity called load capacitance. This value depends on the geometry of the component lead connected to the transmission line, as well as the substrate material and distance to the reference plane on the integrated circuit die. When working with transmission lines, the load capacitance of a component has some important effects on signal Read Article

MIMO Antenna Design and PCB Layout Tips Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) has become a more popular term now that 5G is becoming more publicized, but this term and the technology have been around for awhile. MIMO can be traced all the way back to research papers from the 1970s, and significant development was required before the technology could be commercialized. Recently, the drastic increase in wireless services direct to consumers and in offices has been enabled by MIMO. If you Read Article

Microwave Cavity Resonator Emissions in Your PCB Layout Even digital designers need to worry about cavity resonant emission in PCBs. Here’s how your circuit board can act like a microwave cavity resonator. Read Article

EMI Filter Simulation for Noise Suppression with Altium Designer 20 and Altium 365 Simulations can get very complicated, but Altium 365 helps you keep your simulation models and data organized. Read Article

Transmission Line Transfer Function from ABCD and S-parameters High frequency and data rate channels can be routed as a mode-selective transmission line. Here’s when you should consider this routing technique. Read Article