Thought Leadership

Altium works closely with the industry's leading experts to bring you these thought leadership resources on PCB Design.

Beginner’s PCB Design for Manufacturing Guidelines

Beginner’s PCB Design for Manufacturing Guidelines We’ve compiled some of the most important design for manufacturing guidelines for beginner engineers. Read Article

Meeting Standards: IPC 6012 Class 3 Annular Ring

Meeting Standards: IPC 6012 Class 3 Annular Ring Take a look at the above image of a PCB layout, specifically the vias and drill holes poking through the silkscreen. It's quite clear that some of these vias are off-center, meaning the drill hit that created these vias was not dead-center in the receiving land. This leaves behind an annular ring, something which might be considered a defect in certain IPC product classes. Under the IPC standards for rigid boards, we have several possible Read Article

Star ground PCB

What is PCB Star Grounding and Why Would Anyone Use It? PCB star grounding can encourage bad design practices that lead to radiated EMI emissions in your PCB layout. Read Article

Mastering Magnetism: Hall Effect Sensors and Applications for PCBs

Mastering Magnetism: Hall Effect Sensors and Applications for PCBs Magnetism allows you to do some really cool things—especially when electrons move through a magnetic field. One device that uses the deflection of electron motion for sensing is a Hall effect sensor. These little devices are used in automotive, manufacturing, consumer electronics, and other industries. The Hall effect basically allows a magnetic field to be sensed, which offers several possible applications. Some of the possible applications Read Article

MLCC controlled ESR capacitor

Controlled ESR Capacitors: Should You Use Them for Power Integrity? I can’t think of a single product I’ve built that doesn’t require capacitors. We often talk a lot about effective series inductance (ESL) in capacitors and its effects on power integrity. What about effective series resistance (ESR)? Is there a technique you can use to determine the appropriate level of resistance, and can you use ESR to your advantage? Like many answers to important engineering questions, the answer is “it depends.” One type of Read Article

PCB mount transformers

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

microstrip to ground clearance

Microstrip Ground Clearance Part 2: How Clearance Affects Losses In a previous article, I provided a discussion and some simulation results on the necessary clearance between impedance controlled traces and nearby grounded copper pour. What we found was that, once the spacing between the pour and the trace becomes too small, the trace becomes an impedance-controlled coplanar waveguide (with or without ground). We also saw that the 3W rule for the spacing between the trace and the grounded copper pour is a bit Read Article

Differential Pairs and Differential Signals

What Are Differential Pairs and Differential Signals? Differential pairs and differential signals are the mainstay of high speed digital communication and data transfer. Read Article

what is signal integrity

What is Signal Integrity? Learn about the basics of signal integrity and how you can ensure your PCB layout complies with best practices for signal integrity. Read Article

PCB routing

How to Route a PCB Learn about Routing a PCB and how to design traces to proper routing in any device. You can access the best PCB routing features in Altium Designer. Read Article

Efficient Heat Dissipation with SMD Heat Sinks Keeps You From Dropping PCBs

Efficient Heat Dissipation with SMD Heat Sinks Keeps You From Dropping PCBs In electronics, there is the possibility that your PCB can get pretty hot due to power dissipation in certain components. Whenever a component reaches an extreme temperature that goes beyond a component's safe operating range, its lifetime will be greatly reduced or the component may fail immediately. The heat-producing component being defective means the entire PCBA will need to be scrapped. There are many things to consider when dealing with Read Article

State of PCB Design Education

State of PCB Design Education Zach Peterson shares his insights about the availability and accessibility of education related to PCB design for high school and university students. Watch or listen on the go now. Read Article

buck converter regulator STM32

Buck Converter Regulator vs LDO for DC, AC, and RF: Which is Best? For small, low-current loads, LDO is usually the best option. What about a buck converter? Learn more about choosing between a buck converter vs. LDO in this guide. Read Article

PCB silkscreen

Your Guide to PCB Silkscreen PCB silkscreen helps ensure your board is easy to read and test, and it aids assembly by clearly indicating component locations. Read Article

Resistor Derating to Improve Mean Time Between Failure

Resistor Derating to Improve Mean Time Between Failure All resistors have a specified power rating that determines the maximum energy they can convert without its performance degrading or the component failing. Read now to learn more. Read Article

Methods to Protect your Circuit

Methods to Protect your Circuit Overvoltage, overcurrent, and heat are the three most likely events that can destroy our expensive silicon-based components or reduce our product’s life expectancy. The effects are often quite instant, but our product might survive several months of chronic overstress before giving up the ghost in some cases. Without adequate protection, our circuit can be vulnerable to damage, so what should we do? Or do we need to do anything? For instance, if Read Article

PCB fabrication notes

Decoding PCB Fabrication Notes Your PCB fabrication notes contain important information that ensures your board can be manufactured exactly as you intend. See what you should include and what these mean. Read Article