Whitepapers

Whitepapers

Looking for Altium Whitepapers? Read the latest Altium Whitepapers covering PCB Design Topics in-depth from Prototype to Production.
Simplify Routing With Pin, Part, And Diff-Pair Swapping When placing parts for a PCB design, the placement often leads to connections that will cross over each other. Although vias to other layers or slightly longer trace routing can be used to address a small number of crossover connections, a large number of crossovers, like those in the figure below, can make routing extremely difficult and time consuming. TOPICS IN THIS SOLUTION Pin and part swapping Configuring the swap groups Performing the pin Download PDF
The Final Step: Online Design Rule Check PCB designers begin with a set of physical requirements and specifications regarding the board layout. Certain factors such as the clearance between components and other primitives, establishment of electrical connection, size requirements of traces and vias, are just a few of the requirements that must be followed when designing a PCB. The ever-increasing complexity of boards has made it nearly impossible to carry out this verification manually Download PDF
Snippets Part B: Linking Your Schematic and PCB Snippets The key to successfully linking circuitry on a single schematic sheet with circuitry in a PCB design, including the components and routing, is in the designation of the components. When creating the two mating snippets in the schematic and the PCB, you need to create unique designators for the components. This paper illustrates the key to success in linking the two schematic and Printed Circuit Board snippets together, making the re-use of Download PDF
Hierarchical Schematic Designs: Organization Is Golden Save time and eliminate the headaches associated with multi-sheet design by using hierarchical multi-sheet schematic designs. To learn more about this topic please see the full solution - Hierarchical Schematic Designs: Organization Is Golden - at Altium.com. Download PDF
Effortlessly Bridging Altium Designer and Agile Environments A product lifecycle management (PLM) tool allows users to access all data related to corporate products. This includes all component and design data, but also other critical data such as cost, preferred suppliers and other relevant corporate data. They integrate data, processes, business systems, and ultimately people, offering unrivaled transparency into extended enterprise. PLM systems allow companies to manage information throughout the entire Download PDF
3D PDF Capabilities Support Seamless Communication It’s difficult to communicate aspects of a printed circuit board design effectively, using only text and static images. This is especially true in today’s world of increasingly complex PCB design. However, the Altium Designer3D PDF flip book export capabilities take advantage of the native 3D format, as well as the ability to embed this format into PDF documents. TOPICS IN THIS SOLUTION Enable pdf 3d extension Create a 3d pdf 3d pdf export options Download PDF
Import Wizard One task that has always proven difficult is moving electronic product designs from one design environment to another. Whether you’ve changed design tools or acquired designs from another company, there are a number of challenges involved in moving a project from one software platform to another, while maintaining design consistency. It’s a difficult and time-consuming process, but it has to be done. TOPICS IN THIS SOLUTION Hurdles when changing Download PDF
Designing For Testability (DFT) The overall cost to produce a completed printed circuit board PCB can be broken down into several basic categories: The cost of manufacturing the blank PCB, the cost of components, the assembly costs, and the cost of test. That last one, the cost of testing the completed board, can comprise as much as 25% to 30% of the total cost of producing the product. TOPICS IN THIS SOLUTION DFM and DFT guidelines Planning ahead ICT test Design considerations Download PDF
The Challenge of Grounding Altium Designer provides you with the variety of methods you need to solve all different grounding challenges in all different design types. TOPICS IN THIS SOLUTION DIGITAL AND ANALOG WORLDS HAVE ALREADY MERGED METHODS FOR A PROPER GROUNDING LET’S SUM IT UP HOW WE CAN HELP YOU INTRODUCTION Grounding has proven to be one of the greatest challenges in modern Printed Circuit Board PCB grounding design. Circuits continue to become more complex over Download PDF
3D Measuring in Altium Designer The Altium Designer PCB editor gives designers the ability to display their board in glorious 3D measuring. With the help of Microsoft DirectX, the PCB editor allows the complete visualization of printed circuit boards, completely loaded with all of their components. You can then view the loaded board, zoom in, rotate it, and thoroughly examine it in full, three-dimensional detail. You can view it from any angle or position that you choose, or Download PDF
3D Modeling Has Changed Electronic Design Forever Learn how to easily ensure that your board fits its mechanical enclosure right the first time with Native 3D PCB editing capabilities. To learn more about this topic please see the full solution - BOM Customization and 3D Modeling - at Altium.com. Download PDF
Adopting Signal Integrity In Your High Speed Design Process With switching speeds in TTL and newer logic families being fast enough to process data at Mbps and Gbps data rates, high speed design techniques are now critical for nearly every PCB designer. As rise times in digital signals have become faster, designers must either make their interconnects shorter or devise some important design strategies to prevent signal integrity problems. Today’s engineers need a complete toolset for signal integrity Download PDF
How To Improve Your Productivity With Added Screen Real Estate In electronics design, there’s an inherent need to increase productivity whenever possible. To that end, electronics designers also tend to have an inherent affinity for technology that will help them to do that. They’re willing to invest money in the most up-to-date tools, training, and other bells and whistles, if it means saving time and money in the long run. However, there’s another area that’s often overlooked--and which doesn’t cost very Download PDF
The Basics of PDN for the PCB Designer When PCB designers hear the term “PDN”, or “Power Distribution Network”, it might conjure up notions of bode plots, black magic, and other mysterious, scary things. In reality, the goal of the PDN is as straightforward as are most of the PCB design aspects that affect PDN performance. In this paper we’ll explain the various aspects of most PDN designs and how the PCB design software can influence them. TOPICS IN THIS SOLUTION Overall goal Download PDF
Facilitating Physical and Electrical PCB Design Comparison The increasing demand for smaller, more capable electronics has been a major driving factor behind the development of more complex, densely packed PCBs. Although Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software is regularly updated to handle the added complexity of PCB board design, board designers must still review and approve any and all design modifications made by the software. Comparing physical and electrical PCB design through a review cycle Download PDF
Unifying Your Component Management Workflow (Design Data Mgmt) Unify component management for better design data management. No more main components on backorder, or worse yet, in obsolescence! This Altium whitepaper can help. To learn more about this topic please see the full solution - Unifying Your Component Management Workflow - at Altium.com. Download PDF
DC Analysis of a PDN: Essentials for the Digital Designer PDN analysis is an essential element in any digital designer's toolbox, providing valuable insight into how to reduce a design's size and complexity while improving performance. To learn more about this topic please see the full solution - DC Analysis of a PDN - at Altium.com. Download PDF