News & Updates

This one area of PCB design can be contentious among some designers as it is related to copper pour, which it is often stated is not needed in most designs. Regardless of your feelings about copper pour, stitching vias have important uses in PCBs at low frequencies and at high frequencies.

The IPC-2221 standard includes many requirements for printed circuit board design and manufacturability, and there are several online calculators that have been developed based on this standard.

When you’re ready to manufacture a new device at production volume, there are many aspects of the product that must come together. The enclosure, cabling and connectors, embedded software/firmware, and of course the PCBA all have to be considered in totality. There is a quick way to get your product into a usable enclosure, complete with input power and cabling, and with a form factor that fits your PCBA. This overused route to a new product is a box build assembly.

It is essential to ask questions and review the design approaches used with your team. Design reviews are essential in the design process, but they can be inconvenient for team members and lack traceability or history. To create the best designs, you need review methods that are as cutting edge as the boards you're making.

Printed circuit board fabricators have become skilled at manufacturing these technologies and also at understanding the reliability and producibility challenges associated with high-density-interconnect technology. Let’s look at where the PCB industry is at today.

What can the industry do to support PCB designers as they continue taking a more active role in product development? Here at Altium, there has been a progressive shift towards looking at the system level and creating tools that get designers more involved throughout the product development process. As the saying goes, over the wall engineering is over… today’s most successful products are built in a collaborative process.

As the 5G rollout progresses and researchers continue to discuss 6G, many new 5G-capable products operating in sub-GHz and mmWave bands are reaching the marketplace. Devices that will include a 5G-compatible front-end, whether small stations/repeaters or handheld devices, use phased arrays as high-gain antenna systems to provide high data throughput without losing range at higher frequencies.

Via protection is an important part of modern PCB design. It provides additional benefits in PCB manufacturing and assembly, increasing the number of acceptable products.

Version control systems (VCS) have been around for a long time in the software world but can be surprisingly new to some folks in the electronics design industry. Version control tools are great for tracking and maintaining entire codebases without the old-school copying, pasting, zipping, and emailing steps many PCB designers use.

In this article, we will begin with a basic explanation of how rigid-flex technology differs from rigid board technology. We will then provide an overview of the advantages and conclude with a discussion of the challenges to be aware of.

Through-hole components are frequently employed in power electronics, particularly when dealing with AC power from a wall outlet. In this article, you can delve into the intrusive soldering process and discover when it can be applied in PCB design.

Multi-board designs are the key to meeting evolving demands, requiring robust PCB Harness Design for seamless interconnection and success. Join us as we explore the importance of PCB Harness Design capabilities and how they are crucial for the success of multi-board designs.

Whether you purchase products off-the-shelf or online, they all come housed within an enclosure. In some cases, these enclosures are intentionally ruggedized to withstand harsh environments or mechanical shocks. You can learn more about enclosures in this new and interesting article.

We are continuing our journey through the lid assembly design phase of our Open Source Laptop project. In this section, we will discuss the layout of the test adapter and provide a demonstration of the first test for the display panel, along with the initial steps involved in assembling the boards.

In the exciting next phase of the open-source laptop project we're (finally) diving into design, and getting hands-on with the display panel. Discover how we're selecting the right panel, integrating it seamlessly, and creating a custom DisplayPort adapter to illuminate the screen. Plus, learn how our choices impact features like microphones, webcams, and touch sensors, and how Altium can help bring it all to life. It’s not too late to join as we continue on this innovative journey!

Concurrent PCB Design is essential to unlocking the full potential of engineering teams and delivering innovative products that meet the demands of the modern world. Learn more about the main capabilities and the numerous benefits of this upcoming feature in Altium Designer.

Whether you're designing a digital board with a ton of traces, or an RF board operating at very high frequencies, any electronic device with propagating signals will experience crosstalk. Learn more about some sure-fire ways you can reduce crosstalk in your high-speed designs.

The Baxandall volume control is an especially useful, flexible, and simple-to-implement circuit for numerous audio designs. In this article, we will demonstrate how to design this type of equipment.

Designing flexible circuits involves managing numerous factors. Discover how to prevent mistakes in this process and how to rectify them post-implementation.

In this article you will learn about finding the right balance between PCB mask expansion and potential problems.

RF power amplifiers can be found in many wireless products, often integrated into chipsets or modems. However, in certain specialized systems, you might require higher power output at a specific frequency. This necessitates a discrete amplifier circuit to deliver that power. In this article, we present an example project for a power amplifier that you can incorporate into your RF project.

Simulation tools are extremely useful for understanding electromagnetic behavior in a design. Learn more about how to avoid obtaining inaccurate results during your PCB simulation process.

When designing the power supply for your device, there are lots of different options. In this article, we will take a brief tour of the main choices in DC power supply design.

Learn more about the combination of using both flexible materials and ultra-HDI feature sizes in this article.

Troubleshooting power supply current handling issues is crucial to achieving optimal performance of your electronic devices. In this article, we will explore the common reasons why a power supply fails to handle the defined output current and provide practical solutions to solving these issues.