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PCB Layout Constraints That Help Manage Component Obsolescence

PCB Layout Constraints That Help Manage Component Obsolescence Just about everyone in the world of engineering has heard some variation of the “Iron Triangle” theory. It’s a popular way to talk about what is or isn’t possible among those given the task of getting things done. Basically, it is a philosophy that says you can get something done fast, cheap, or good; pick two. For example, when designing a PCB for an aircraft, cheap goes out the window, fast takes a back seat and quality is paramount Read Article

BOM Part Number Management: Why It Should Be Automated

BOM Part Number Management: Why It Should Be Automated If you’ve ever worked with high voltages or have designed a high voltage circuit, you know that they always require careful planning. In my last job, we had been using a particular high voltage power supply circuit for years. When it was initially designed, the board took longer than usual to complete. While its design required some extra finicking, it was worth the effort. Everything was going well until the larger assembly's design was modified Read Article

How to Prevent Silkscreen Placement Errors in PCB Manufacturing: PCB Design Tips & Tricks - Altium Audio Bites

How to Prevent Silkscreen Placement Errors in PCB Manufacturing: PCB Design Tips & Tricks - Altium Audio Bites Altium Audio Bites, giving you bite-sized information that's easy to digest and apply to your everyday design tasks. From our PCB Design Tips & Tricks audio series here is: How To Prevent Silkscreen Placement Errors in PCB Manufacturing. All our audio series are from real PCB designers in the field, detailing their day to day problems and experiences. We hope you can learn from this as much as we have. Give it a listen and let us know what you Read Article

PCB Design Guidelines for Designing Solar Powered Embedded Systems

PCB Design Guidelines for Designing Solar Powered Embedded Systems Have you ever gone on a vacation and felt like you needed another one immediately after? I sure do, my last beach holiday was completely ruined by constant thunderstorms. Unpredictable weather always is always a dilemma when I’m planning ahead for my next vacation, especially if it involves outdoor activities. I take the same cautious approach when I’m designing solar-powered embedded systems intended for outdoor applications. It is a totally Read Article

How to Plan Your PCB Layout for a High Voltage Design

How to Plan Your PCB Layout for a High Voltage Design I used to trail run with a friend who is an urban planner. As part of her devious plan to get me to run further before I was too tired and bored, she’d tell me about the various considerations that go into the zoning and construction in a town. There were also a lot of shenanigans with local politics that provided a juicy distraction. Although my friend would disagree, a high voltage PCB layout have some similarities to complex urban planning. In Read Article

Why You Should Follow These Best Practices In Real Time Clock Design

Why You Should Follow These Best Practices In Real Time Clocks Design Have you ever been late for school because your alarm clock decided to stop at 3.15 AM? In high school, my alarm clock wasn’t very pleasant sounding, but the sound of my mom shouting at me was worse. I knew that my clock had stopped because its battery was dead. However, had I paid closer attention, I would have noticed that my clock ran slower as the battery drained off. That way I could have changed it in time and avoided rising to my mom’s Read Article

RF Technologies for Low-Power Wireless Communications: Ambient Backscatter

RF Technologies for Low-Power Wireless Communications: Ambient Backscatter I love family reunions, though, with forty people in my extended family they can get a bit hectic. Whether we’re playing cards, swimming, or at the dinner table there’s always someone telling jokes and stories. In fact, most people are trying to talk so sometimes you have to yell to be heard. It can also be difficult to communicate in the electromagnetic spectrum. Your devices often have to “shout” their own signals into the void in order to Read Article

Wearable Devices: Technology Bridging Function and Fashion

Wearable Tech: Functional and Fashionable Technology Do you ever look at old pictures of your parents when they were younger and wonder, “why were they wearing those hideous clothes?” I find the giant glasses to be particularly bad. Fashion is and always has been important, even if trends change. When it comes to the Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable electronics, aesthetics often seem to be left by the wayside. Designers seem to let functionality determine to look and form factor, rather than Read Article

DRCs in PCB Design: How They Can Save Your Design from Sinking

DRCs in PCB Design: How They Can Save Your Design from Sinking For many years I owned a small boat which gave me hours of fun on the water, but there are a few critical rules that have to be obeyed. One of those rules is that you MUST install the drain plug before putting your boat in the water. It’s a lot cheaper to go for a swim intentionally, rather than unexpectedly in order to retrieve your new boat. Everyone knows that rules are there for our protection. But sometimes, whether accidentally or on Read Article

Considerations for Designing a High Voltage PCB

Considerations for Designing a High Voltage PCB I used to think that high voltage applications were only used in power engineering. Since I had no desire to work at a power plant or transformer station, I was safe from having to learn high voltage PCB design considerations. Alas, my interest in space applications proved me wrong and forced me to confront my laziness. It turns out high voltage applications show up in almost every industry, from manufacturing and power plants to medical and Read Article

Spin Wave Breakthrough Could Lead To Ultra Low Power Non Volatile Memory

Spin Wave Breakthrough Could Lead To Ultra Low Power Non Volatile Memory At my university, we weren’t required to take quantum mechanics. The whole premise behind it is that you can never truly “know” anything, just the probability of something right? It sounded a bit silly to me. Then I got into high-level electromagnetics and signal processing and had to deal with a lot more numbers that didn’t make sense. I’m glad some people decided to take that course because they are the ones making breakthroughs in quantum Read Article

The Most Important Features for PCB Layout Software Comparison: PCB Design Tips Tricks - Altium Audio Bites

The Most Important Features for PCB Layout Software Comparison: PCB Design Tips Tricks - Altium Audio Bites Altium Audio Bites, giving you bite-sized information that's easy to digest and apply to your everyday design tasks. From our PCB Design Tips & Tricks audio series here is: The Most Important Features for PCB Layout Software Comparison. All our audio series are from real PCB designers in the field, detailing their day to day problems and experiences. We hope you can learn from this as much as we have. Give it a listen and let us know what you Read Article

The Most Important Features for PCB Layout Software Comparison

The Most Important Features for PCB Layout Software Comparison Have you ever gone to a used car dealership and tried to get a good deal on a car? It’s nearly impossible for anyone but a mechanic. When I went I ended up with a choice between two cars that seemed nearly identical to me, except for their price. I picked the cheaper one and took it to a local shop, and found out that I’d chosen a jalopy. Sometimes choosing PCB design software can feel the same way. You use a free program or spend some money on Read Article

Altium Designer 16 Is Now Available

Altium Designer 16 Is Now Available Altium Designer^® 16 is here! This release is available now as a free upgrade to all Altium Subscription customers and can be downloaded on the Altium Products Download page. Not an Altium Subscription customer? Contact our support team now to upgrade. This release is all about tapping into your true design potential and includes powerful new features to accelerate your PCB design workflow. From productivity-focused enhancements to intelligent Read Article

Rigid-Flex PCB Design - A Fabricator’s Perspective

Rigid-Flex PCB Design - A Fabricator’s Perspective Do you have all the knowledge you need to design not just a proper rigid-flex PCB, but one that’s efficiently optimized for your manufacturing process? Learn how to avoid the 7 most common rigid-flex design mistakes from the manufacturing experts at Sierra Circuits! As PCB designers, we commonly approach rigid-flex design from our limited perspectives, concerning ourselves with streamlining workflows, saving space on board layouts, and choosing Read Article

Making friends with differential pairs

Making Friends with Differential Pair Schematics A question arises when working with differential pairs, particularly when you inherit or import designs where the differential pair directives were not added to the schematics. Is it actually necessary to set up the directives in the schematic documents? In order to use the schematic Differential Pair directives in Altium Designer^® , a specific naming convention must be used. The negative and positive signals of the pair must follow the Read Article

How to Avoid the Most Common Errors in Your Schematic Design Process

How to Avoid the Most Common Errors in Your Schematic Design Process There are over 100 errors a PCB designer can make in the schematic design process. Are you catching them all in your current design criteria review process? Read on to find out how you can better catch some of the most common PCB design mistakes. A Decade of Differences Schematic designs review processes were a lot simpler 10 years ago, and the schematic review process to check for errors didn’t seem to require such a huge dedication of man-hours Read Article