Unified Design

Browse our library of resources to learn more about unified design strategies for PCB design engineers.

Better PCB Routing - Highlight Nets Regardless how many PCBs I design, I always find myself having to regularly review network paths on schematics layer and trace routes on PCBs. The complexity reminds me of a maze where only one path is the right one for a particular network. It is imperative that all the connections are accurate as errors made here will come back to haunt you later in the form of redesigns. The best way to ensure network accuracy is by isolating it so that each 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

Learn to Manage Your BOM Inventory for Smooth Production Runs I’ve recently gotten into fermenting kombucha (which, I am well aware, is about the most hipster thing I could have said), and I ordered a handful of different-sized mason jars online in order to store it. Mason jars are reliable as ever but with the increasing popularity of home-fermenting and brewing, they’re one part of an industry trying to optimize how we store. During my ordering process alone, I had twelve tabs open of marginally different Read Article

Thermal Pads vs Thermal Paste: The Best Choice for Mounting Your Heatsinks I used to work as a construction assistant, where my primary responsibility was to level properties prior to the heavy concrete trucks laying down a level foundation. It was a tedious and taxing job, but something that is quite crucial for a building in order for it to withstand years of use and abuse. I would run through a spit of land with nothing more than a shovel ensuring that the ground is flat and level within an inch tolerance. One inch Read Article

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Active and Passive RFID Technologies When I’m designing a new PCB or product one of the hardest parts for me is choosing exactly which components I should use. It seems like every technology out there now has a different configuration to achieve the best performance. Even when you’re dealing with a fairly straightforward technology like radio frequency identification (RFID) circuit board there are a lot of flavors to choose from. While every type of RFID design label uses an active Read Article

Circuit Design Tips: PCB Moisture Protection for Humid Environments I pride myself on being meticulous when I check my designs. I can spend hours checking schematics, footprints and the proper values of components before finalizing the design. Unfortunately, the same zeal and perfectionism cannot be said with my housekeeping skills. A cleaner would have been horrified by the accumulated dust in the corners of my house. It was particularly embarrassing when I forgot to wash my dish tray and it became the home to a Read Article

Your Guide to Gerber File Extensions in PCB Design Gerber files come with multiple extensions but in only two common file formats. You can learn more about Gerber file extensions in this article. Read Article

How to Navigate the Perils of PCB Design Review Whether you’re a first-time designer or a hardened veteran, the integrity of your designs relies heavily on inspecting a product for design errors before production. What can be done to identify design flaws while staying productive? Before a new design is sent into production, it's critical to put the design through a PCB design review so that design errors can be identified before manufacturing. In many cases, a design will pass rules checks Read Article

Building the Library - Unified Data Model Introduction This may come as a shock to some, but I was raised on a farm back in Pennsylvania. Every spring, we would prepare for the planting season. It was amazing to me to take the seeds, plant them in the field, tend them, and in time end up with a crop. Within each one of those seeds was packed with an untapped potential to produce something amazing. In the same way, in the PCB Design field, we have untapped potential available to us in the Read Article

The Great PCB Layout "Rules of Thumb" Debate Rages On To this day, I still see many PCB layout “rules of thumb” that first became common nearly 20 years ago. Do these rules still universally apply? The answer is a firm “maybe.” Many of the conversations you’ll see on forums regarding PCB design rules devolve into an always/never discussion, causing some designers to use or ignore common design rules in situations where they may not apply. In some cases, this will not cause a board to fail. As some Read Article

Flat vs. Hierarchical Schematics: Why You Need Dynamic Schematic Compilation Define a hierarchy for schematic designs In PCB design, organization is critical, and it takes a bit of experience to anticipate when you will need to use flat vs. hierarchical schematics. When I started working on one of my first projects, and as my design continued to grow in size and complexity, it quickly became obvious that I would never be able to fit all my components and connections into a single schematic, and it became extremely Read Article

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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

PCB Design Rule Verification in Agile Development Agile development relies on a unique workflow that can benefit from PCB design rule verification I used to think that agile development is just a software development methodology with specific rules and processes. Agile hardware design processes seem to be rigid when viewed from the surface, but any agile design process is designed to allow a team to adapt to change throughout the product development cycle. In reality, the central ideas in agile Read Article

Integrate Your ECAD Tools with Mechanical Design Software Communication between ECAD and MCAD teams can be like a game of telephone Ever play a game of telephone as a child? Once the message gets back to the sender, successive miscommunication along the way causes the original message and idea to be completely modified. This is the same thing that happens when mechanical and electrical design teams are siloed into different groups. Collaboration breaks down and communication becomes difficult. The Read Article

Crosstalk Elimination Techniques in Altium Designer Remember back in school when the teacher would ask the class a question and you actually knew the answer! You and a few other students would excitedly raise your hands hoping the teacher would call on you. And if you were lucky enough to speak first you felt vindicated for the time you invested studying while some of your friends opted for other activities like playing outside. Although being able to speak without interruption was elating, the Read Article

Technological Development Made Easy as Pie with Historical Altium Designer Some words constantly pop-up in daily conversation. Think about how often the word “easy” is used, whether in a bumper sticker that says, “Easy Does It” or a childhood favorite, Easy Bake Ovens. We tell people to “take it easy” and refer to New Orleans as the “Big Easy.” I’m reasonably certain that a guide or book somewhere out there proclaims the “12 Easy Steps to Becoming a Nuclear Scientist.” In a 1940s film called “The Long Voyage Home,” a Read Article