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Simulation / Analysis for PCB Design

PDN Impedance Analysis and Modeling: From Schematic to Layout

PDN Impedance Analysis and Modeling: From Schematic to Layout Do you know the factors that determine the impedance of your PDN? Here’s what you need to know about PDN impedance analysis and modeling. Read Article

Agile Development and Testing: The Role of Simulations

Agile Development and Testing: The Role of Simulations Simulations can help you avoid repeated prototyping and testing Design, build, test; whether you are a hardware designer or a software engineer, you’ll go through multiple iterations when developing complex systems. The build and test portions are the moment of truth—when you find out whether your hard work will pay off. An important part of design, build, and test iterations concerns narrowly defining test cases and functionality requirements Read Article

Tools for Transient Signal Analysis in Circuit Design

Tools for Transient Signal Analysis in Circuit Design You can perform transient signal analysis with any of these circuits with the right simulator. I still remember my first differential equations class. One of the first topics that was discussed was damped oscillator circuits and transient signal response, which arises in many different physical systems. A transient response in an interconnect and on power rails in your PCB is a source of bit errors, timing jitter, and other signal integrity Read Article

Continuous Deployment: An Implementation Using Altium Designer

Continuous Deployment: An Implementation Using Altium Designer In Continuous Integration and Deployment in ECAD we discussed the concept of Continuous Deployment within a build system. In this article, we will take a deeper look at how to set up continuous delivery and deployment systems so your team and vendors can enjoy a continuous stream of updated ECAD packages for review. Continuous Deployment/Delivery: Revisited In Continuous Integration: An Implementation Using Altium Designer we went through the Read Article

What is the Return Current Path in a PCB?

What is the Electrical Return Path in a PCB? One of the fundamental aspects of any circuit diagram is the return current path or electrical return path. In a circuit diagram and a schematic diagram, the path the current follows to return to the low potential side of a power source should be obvious, but it may not be so obvious in a PCB. To quote the great Eric Bogatin at his PCB West 2019 presentation, the distinction between a schematic diagram and a PCB layout lives in the white space of Read Article

RF Signal Chain Design for FMCW Chirped Radar Systems

RF Signal Chain Design for FMCW Chirped Radar Systems If you could hear the output from your chirped radar system, it might sound like a brahminy starling In automotive and UAV radar applications, radar signals are amplified throughout the signal chain. Amplification is critical for ensuring the reflected signal can be accurately detected and for maximizing the range and resolution of your radar system. Although there are some ICs that integrate an entire signal chain into a single package, these Read Article

RF Amplifier Impedance Matching at Microwave and mmWave Frequencies

RF Power Amplifier Impedance Matching at Microwave and mmWave Frequencies According to MarketWatch, the overall market for RF amplifiers is expected to surpass $27 billion by 2023. So where are all of these RF amplifiers expected to be used? You can thank 5G and the expansion of cellular networks in general for a healthy portion of the expected growth. For the PCB designers out there, RF amplifier impedance matching becomes an important design point, especially with high power amplifiers. Large-signal RF Amplifier Read Article

Automotive Telematics System Design

Automotive Telematics Systems Design In 2015, the cost of the electronics in a new car surpassed the cost of raw steel for the first time in history. We shouldn’t be surprised; the increasing number of electronic systems placed in cars over time made this change in cost structure inevitable. As cars become more autonomous, more connected, and include more creature comforts, this trend is only going to continue. After the OnStar system was popularized by General Motors in the 1990s Read Article

Relative Permittivity of PCB Substrates: High-k or low-k dielectrics?

Relative Permittivity of PCB Substrates: High-k or low-k dielectrics? The relative permittivity of water makes this pencil appear bent If you’ve paid attention to refraction, then you know something about the physics of relative permittivity. The semiconductor industry has managed to continue scaling to smaller technology nodes by using materials with high dielectric constant (so-called high-k dielectrics), but can you see similar benefits in your PCB with similar substrate materials? What about the use of low-k Read Article

Backplane bus and connector arrangement

Signal Integrity Simulations for Backplane Bus and Connectors Modern embedded computing systems that interconnect a large number of modules in a single enclosure will probably need a backplane, and the buses connecting these systems run at multi-Gbps data rates. The connectors, PCB, and interfaces in total contribute to losses throughout the bus, and a system-level simulation will need to account for all of these elements to ensure a working design. As part of a design and verification flow, simulations are Read Article

Continuous Integration: An Implementation Using Altium Designer

Continuous Integration: An Implementation Using Altium Designer In a previous article, Continuous Integration and Deployment in ECAD, we discussed the concept of Continuous Integration while testing within a build system (leveraging Git). In this article, we will take a deeper look at how to set this up and run these “tests” against one’s PCB design project. Continuous Integration Tests: Revisited In Software Engineering, the purpose of implementing Continuous Integration into a workflow is to prevent one’s Read Article

The Evolution Of Simulation Technology and Impedance

The Evolution Of Simulation Technology and Impedance When design engineers started using simulation toolsets, we originally cared only about impedance and terminations. Then when things got fast, we had to worry about loss in the path. Next, we had to address differential pairs (which are specialized transmission lines) and skew. Most recently, we have had to worry about the effect of vias at very high data rates. Note: Of all of these elements, skew is the only one which cannot be simulated. From Read Article

Symmetric Stripline Impedance Calculators and Formulas

Symmetric Stripline Inductance or Impedance Calculators and Formulas In a previous article, we looked at the inconsistencies that can arise when using different calculators to compute the impedance of surface and embedded microstrip traces. Many of the same issues mentioned in the previous article apply to stripline impedance calculators. Symmetric striplines are easier to address than asymmetric striplines, both numerically and analytically. Here, we’ll give a short comparison of the various impedance formulas Read Article

Continuous Integration and Deployment in ECAD

Continuous Integration and Deployment in ECAD Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment have become widely adopted practices within the software world. The concept of Continuous Integration and Deployment don’t need to be limited to just software - they can be extended into the ECAD world as well. In this article we will address both concepts and how they can be leveraged in ECAD tools. Continuous Deployment Designers will frequently make changes to their code and check it into the Read Article

Clearing Up Trace Impedance Calculators and Formulas

Clearing Up Trace Impedance Calculators and Formulas While it might not be obvious to the casual or to those who think the mathematics underlying PCB design is largely settled, there is plenty of disagreement regarding the right formula to calculate trace impedance. This disagreement extends to online trace impedance calculators, and designers should make themselves aware of the limitations of these tools. The Problem with a Trace Impedance Calculator If you use your favorite search engine to find Read Article

Datasheet Reliability with Ben Jordan

Datasheet Reliability with Ben Jordan In this OnTrack episode Judy Warner and Ben Jordan discuss about Datasheet Reliability. Can you trust them? And what does “Gilded” mean? This & more about verifying app notes. Watch the full episode. Read Article

Design for Reliability with Yizhak Bot

Design for Reliability with Yizhak Bot Design for Reliability. In this episode learn from Yizhak Bot what derating is and how you can work on the schematic level with their simulation software to eliminate field failures. Watch it here. Read Article