Workflow Management

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PCB Workflow Management

Cost vs. Price:The Economics of PCB Design

PCB Manufacturing Cost vs. Value: The Economics of PCB Design Every decision made in the design process of any PCB or system has an economic as well as an engineering effect. Some of these effects are more visible or tangible than others but if the “dollars and cents” elements are weighted along with the design decisions it is more likely that that the resulting product will be both economically efficient and well-engineered. As with most everything in life, price and cost are not the same things Read Article

Problem Solving Methodology for PCB Designers

Problem Solving Methodology for PCB Designers One of the skills that is useful when working in a high-technology industry like electronics is problem- solving. If you are an engineer, then this is one of your key focuses in your career. Even if you are not, having good problem-solving skills is always useful. In electronics manufacturing today, problems in production will involve numerous ‘cause-factors’, many of which are design created. PCB designer communication is essential. The timing Read Article

Everything You Need for Successful PCB Stackup Design There are three demands placed on stackup design: controlled impedance, crosstalk control and the need for interplane capacitance. Some fabricators could get the impedance right in a stackup, but there is no way for them to account for the other two. This responsibility rests with the design engineer who is the only one who knows what is needed and how to implement the needed control. This information is intended to provide guidance on the Read Article

How to Control Switching Signals with Terminations for Best Signal Quality

How to Control Switching Signals with Terminations for Best Signal Quality A transmission line is a pair of conductors used to deliver energy in the form of an electromagnetic field. Most of us are familiar with the wires that lead to our houses to deliver the power needed to operate our lights and appliances. In the context of PCB design, it is a signal in a signal layer on top of a plane or between two planes. TRANSMISSION LINES AND TERMINATIONS The purpose of this section is to explain what transmission lines are Read Article

Building Your Treasure Trove of Component Information

Building Your Treasure Trove of Component Information Learn about PCB data Management and how it interrelates to the PCB Design process and roles of everyone involved. According to the business dictionary, a process is defined as: “A sequence of interdependent and linked procedures which, at every stage, consume one or more resources (employee time, energy, machines, money) to convert inputs (data, material, parts, etc.) into outputs. These outputs then serve as inputs for the next stage until a Read Article

The Brave New World of PCB Data Management

A Brave New World: PCB Data Management and the Great Paradigm Shift PCB Data Management is the acquisition, storage, verification, usage, distribution and maintenance of all the data connected to the development of printed circuit boards or PCBs In what some refer to as the “Olden Days” of the Electronics industry, it was definitely a different time. There wasn’t much need for PCB Data, let alone anything to manage it with. Tasks such as creating schematics, BOMs, drawings, and gerber files were problematic at Read Article

Design Layout Integration and What it Means for Your Printed Circuit Board

Design Layout Integration and What it Means for Your Printed Circuit Board Not all PCB design software is created equal. Your PCB design tools can come in a variety of interfaces, software programs, and workflows, and creating some consistency among tools can be a huge productivity booster. Design tools that are separated into different programs and that enforce different workflows will seriously hamper your productivity. When everything is separated into different interfaces, translating between programs creates the Read Article

Altium Vault Streamlines Product Development Process With Early Access to Component Sourcing and Costing

Altium Vault Streamlines Product Development Process With Early Access to Component Sourcing and Costing Instead of Placeholders The product development process for printed circuit assemblies is highly dependent on complete Bills of Material. Complete Bills of Material list the PCB along with all components soldered or adhered onto the board to make the assembly. Components are unavailable early in the product development cycle because EDA libraries are antiquated and lack current parts information when circuit designers are drawing schematics. To stay on the development’s Read Article

AltiumLive 2018 Panel Discussion with Experts from PCB Supply Chain

AltiumLive 2018 Panel Discussion with Experts from PCB Supply Chain Didn't get to attend AltiumLive this year? Check out the Panel Discussion from industry experts across the Printed Circuit Board supply chain. Watch or Listen to AltiumLive 2018 Panel Discussion now. Read Article

Hybrid Construction Trends in the Marketplace

Hybrid Construction Trends in the Marketplace Hybrid construction is a huge growth area with a lot of opportunity for PCB designers. In this episode Chris Hunrath, VP of Technology at Insulectro, shares valuable insights about the latest trends. Read Article

Exploring Altium Designer's Project Releaser

Exploring Altium Designer's Project Releaser What is the Altium Product Releaser? The Project Releaser is a single-click automation of manufacturing output generation built on top of Altium Designer^® ’s Output Job functionality to render complete release packages to a file folder structure, zip file or Altium Vault^®/ Altium NEXUS^® managed server. If you were unable to attend the August 9th live Project Releaser webinar, you can view the video above or the presentation slides at your Read Article

Component Symbol Information Management and Display Usability

Component Symbol Information Management and Display Usability Building a library of PCB components requires compiling information on footprint, electrical specifications, simulation models, pin arrangements, and other specifications. The amount of information in any component library is massive and needs to be aggregated into a single module in your PCB design software. A PCB component library should be flexible enough to allow designers and engineers to define proprietary components and implement the Read Article

Design for Manufacturability (DFM) and Assembly (DFA) tips with Jay Colognori

Design for Manufacturability (DFM) and Assembly (DFA) tips with Jay Colognori Get Design for Manufacturability and Assembly tips from Jay Colognori, Director of Business Development at Electronic Instrumentation & Technology (EIT) in this OnTrack Podcast episode. Watch it now! Read Article

BOM Management Tools for PCB Manufacturing

BOM Management Tools for PCB Manufacturing Between the mid-1980s and late 1990s, Spy magazine published a monthly “Separated at Birth” column/pictorial that would pair two selected photos of unrelated celebrities, cartoon characters, or movie characters. The authors would then point out similar physical characteristics from each photo. Mentally picture a space alien from a popular movie paired with a sultry singer to gain some appreciation for their humor. Separated at Birth? Well… Kinda Read Article

Constraint Driven Design versus Rules Driven Design in a Unified Environment

Constraint Driven Design versus Rules Driven Design in a Unified Environment Wouldn’t it be great if more rules in life were checked automatically? I love to cook Italian food, but it gets tiring going back and forth between a cookbook and a pot of tomato sauce. The only automatic rules checking mechanism in the kitchen is your oven timer. Fortunately for PCB designers, high-quality software packages include constraint and rules checking features that can check your layout and schematic automatically. The ability to set Read Article

Commodore 128 Principal Engineer, Bil Herd on Best Practices for Learning a New CAD Tool

Commodore 128 Principal Engineer, Bil Herd on Best Practices for Learning a New CAD Tool Curious about the early days of Early Home Computer Design? Former Commodore 128 Principal Engineer, Bil Herd shares stories from his illustrious career and Best Practices for Learning a New CAD Tool. Read Article

CAD Layout Software for Modern PCB Design and Modern PCB Designers

CAD Layout Software for Modern PCB Design and Modern PCB Designers Back in the day, PCB designers drew schematics by hand. Instead of guiding a mouse, technicians used red and blue pencils to carefully draw pads and traces on vellum parchment paper. Their tools included a triangle, a T-square, and templates. Forget a thorough design process involving CAD tools, full team collaboration, differentiated schematic diagrams and circuit board designs - one was lucky enough to have a steady hand. After completing a Read Article