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Ground Below SMPS Inductors
Blog •
Should Ground Be Placed Below Inductors in Switching Regulators?

We love answering questions from our readers and YouTube viewers, and one of the recent questions we received relates to EMI from switching elements in a switching regulator is "Should a cutout be placed below the inductor in a switching regulator circuit?". Despite the variations in inductors and their magnetic behavior, there are some general principles that can be used to judge the effects of placing ground near inductors in switching regulator circuits. We’ll look at some of these principles in this article

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Embedded thumbnail for How To Do Versioning And Releases by Robert Feranec and Michal Faruga
Discovering Altium 365 •
How To Do Versioning And Releases by Robert Feranec and Michal Faruga

Meet Robert Feranec in an educational video on version control, project history, comments, comparison and other features in Altium Designer 

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Alternative Pins
Blog •
Altium Designer 22.6 Update

We are happy to announce that the Altium Designer 22.6 update is now available. Altium Designer 22.6 continues to focus on improving the user experience, as well as performance and stability of the software, based on feedback from our users. Check out the key new features in the What's New section on the left side of this window!

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Embedded thumbnail for Using Rooms in Rules
How to work with Rooms •
Using Rooms in Rules

Rooms allow you to use rules on specific areas of your design. This helps immensely with properly defining trace widths and hole sizes for specific components. We’ll show you how easy it is to assign rules to specific rooms in the PCB.

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What’s New in Altium 365
On-Demand Webinar •
What’s New in Altium 365

Now you can assess your library’s health at a glance with the Library Health dashboard, view and share your bill of materials (BOM) and view and download PDF documents, all in your web browser. We improved the existing diff and compare features, and released a new version of MCAD CoDesigner. Register for the webinar to learn more!

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Embedded thumbnail for Creating a Schematic Symbol: Dealing with Power Pins
How to create a Schematic Symbol •
Creating a Schematic Symbol: Dealing with Power Pins

Multiple schematic symbols often require the use of multiple power and ground pins. We’ll show you the difference between hidden and visible power pins, and the various methods you can use to use them in your design however it works best for you.

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Top 5 Questions Regarding Stack Up
Blog •
SAP (Semi-Additive PCB Process) – Top 5 Questions Regarding Stack Up

This Semi-Additive Process is an additional tool in the PCB fabricators' toolbox that enables them to provide feature sizes for trace width and spacing that are 25 microns, (1 mil) and below depending on the fabricators' imaging equipment. This provides much more flexibility to breakout out tight BGA areas and the ability to shrink overall circuit size and/ or reduce the number of circuit layers in the design. As the PCB design community embraces the benefits of this new printed circuit board fabrication technique, there are of course many questions to be answered.

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How-To's •
Allowing Permanent Display of Some Layers

This video demonstrates how to permanently display some layers in the PCB using the View configuration panel.

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Embedded thumbnail for Creating Rooms in the PCB
How to work with Rooms •
Creating Rooms in the PCB

If you want to create a room manually in the PCB or have them generated for the Schematic, Altium Designer allows you to create custom rooms. We’ll show you how to hand draw different rooms, how to create rooms by defining them through the room definition, and how to have them generated for the schematic and pushed through to the PCB by the Engineering Change Order.

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Three ways to manage your BOM costs
Blog •
Improving Supply Chain Success with BOM Management

It’s no secret that component shortages have become more frequent this year. In fact, countries around the world are losing billions in revenue due to supply issues. Having the right components on hand is more crucial than ever as availability, obsolescence, counterfeit products and environmental non-compliance risks continue to grow. Fortunately, many shortages can be avoided by introducing proactive supply chain practices.

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Design Reuse
On-Demand Webinar •
Rapidly Creating New Designs And Reusing Existing Ones

It's no secret that software developers often use completed code fragments from other projects for quick and predictable results. The same can be done for PCB Design, there is no need to spend time rewiring schematics or laying out components on boards you’ve done before. Join us this webinar where we’ll go over how you can use your existing designs to create reusable design blocks, speeding up the design cycle for your future projects.

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Length Tuning Impedance
Blog •
What is the Impedance of Length-Tuning Structures?

Do length-tuning structures create an impedance discontinuity? The answer is an unequivocal “yes”, but it might not matter in your design depending on several factors. Applying a length-tuning structure is equivalent to changing the distance between the traces while meandering. Therefore, you will have a change in the odd-mode impedance of a single trace. The question then becomes: does this deviation in trace impedance in a length tuning structure matter?

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Embedded thumbnail for Creating a Schematic Symbol - Placing Designators and Comments
How to create a Schematic Symbol •
Creating a Schematic Symbol - Placing Designators and Comments

Placing your designator or comments can be done automatically, but that doesn’t mean they’re visible. We’ll walk you through how to make them visible and position them correctly no matter what orientation your symbol is with automatic positioning.

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Embedded thumbnail for Creating a Schematic Symbol: Adding Additional Parts
How to create a Schematic Symbol •
Creating a Schematic Symbol: Adding Additional Parts

Altium Designer makes it easy to add additional parts to your schematic library. We’ll show you how through copying and configuring your new components through the Pin Editor and the properties panel.

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Designing the Next-Generation Electronics
Blog •
A-SAP™ – What do you need to know?

The continued miniaturization of both packaging and component size in next-generation electronics is becoming harder and harder to work around and presents a significant challenge for both PCB designers and PCB fabricators. To effectively navigate the constraints of the traditional subtractive-etch PCB fabrication processes, PCB designs require advanced PCB fabrication capabilities while pushing the limits of finer feature size, higher layer counts, multiple levels of stacked micro vias and increased lamination cycles.

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Embedded thumbnail for Component Placement Control Using Rooms
How to work with Rooms •
Component Placement Control Using Rooms

Rooms give you more control over how and where your components are placed in your PCB. We’ll show you how to use room properties to limit what is allowed in and out of a room using the room definition and custom queries.

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Pin-package and Via Delay Values
Blog •
Pin-Package Delay and Via Delay in High Speed Length Tuning

Take a look at the inside of some integrated circuit packages, and you’ll find a number of wires bonded to the semiconductor die and the pads at the edge of the component's package. As a signal traverses makes its way along an interconnect and into a destination circuit, signals need to travel across these bond wires and pads before they are interpreted as a logic state. As you look around the edge of an IC, these bond wires can have different lengths, and they incur different levels of delay and contribute to total jitter.

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Embedded thumbnail for How to work with Differential Pair Classes?
How to Work with Differential Pairs •
How to work with Differential Pair Classes?

Modern boards can contain a large number of differential pairs. For convenience, they are combined into differential pairs classes. In this video, we'll walk you through how to create and apply a differential pair class. 

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Embedded thumbnail for Adding Rooms from the Schematic
How to work with Rooms •
Adding Rooms from the Schematic

Rooms can be added directly from the schematic sheet. From the schematic sheet they are pushed to the PCB. Here we'll look at the rooms and component classes generated by default in the schematic, how to add and configure rooms manually, and how to push them to the PCB.

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Blog •
Getting Through PCB DFM

In this article, we’ll discuss the key design features to implement, and steps to take prior to fabrication that will help prevent some DFM process pain.

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Altium Designer Getting Started User Guide
Blog •
Level Up Your Design Skills - Altium Designer Getting Started User Guide Update
We are happy to announce the new update of our Altium Designer Getting Started User Guide. Whether you are new to Altium Designer or you want to brush up on some topics, the Altium Designer Getting Started User Guide will take you from a beginner to a master in PCB design.  This is only the beginning! This guide will be updated with new information based on user feedback. Let’s first go over the contents of the guide.
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Blog •
Modeling Copper Foil Roughness in Altium Designer's Impedance Profiler

With the new layer stack manager in Altium Designer®, you can now include copper foil roughness factors directly in your impedance calculator. This is quite easy to do in the layer stack manager, but it begs the question: what exactly is the copper roughness factor? Which value should be used for your interconnects?

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Blog •
High-Speed Signal Routing: The 5 Important Constraints

After you capture your schematic as an initial layout and create an initial component arrangement, it’s time to define your routing constraints. Doing this early will allow your DRC engine to spot rules violations before you finish your layout. Likewise, you’ll be able to modify the default rule set to meet your layout requirements. Here are the important routing constraints you’ll need to check before you start routing your board.

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Blog •
How to Create a PCB Manufacturing Cost Estimation

Some manufacturers have very convenient PCB manufacturing cost estimation calculators you can use, but the real costs depend on a number of factors. If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re producing your own boards, or you are managing manufacturing, testing, and delivery for a new project, it’s your job to help clients understand the primary cost drivers for new boards. Here’s how you can get an estimate of your fabrication costs, both for local and overseas manufacturers.

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Blog •
PCB Mountable Connectors: SMD vs. Through-hole

Selecting a connector is as much an art as it is a science. The artistic side is all about aesthetics and satisfying clearances, while the scientific side is all about signal integrity. For PCB mountable connectors, you’ll need to choose between surface-mounted or through-hole connectors, and you’ll need to consider how each type affects signal integrity in your application. Here’s what you need to think about beyond the standard connector specifications.

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Blog •
PCB Via Current-Carrying Capacity: How Hot is Too Hot?

Trace and via current-carrying capacity are legitimate design points to focus on when designing a new board that will carry high current. The goal is to keep conductor temperatures below some appropriate limit, which then helps keep components on the board cool.

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Blog •
How to Maximize Copper in Your PCB Design: The Pros and Cons of Copper Pouring Versus Placing

There is a saying in copper pour PCB design, “Copper is free.” It means a PCB editor designer must think in reverse. A board starts off as solid copper, and the copper you don’t want is removed. It is faster to build, less consumptive, and less expensive to make a board that is mostly copper as compared to the same size board that is mostly bare. Picking the correct technique will make the difference between an effortless or frustrating experience.

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Article preview
Blog • May 14, 2020
How to Highlight Nets in Altium Designer to Simplify Schematic and PCB Designs

Highlighting nets will help you simplify your schematic and PCB design. In Altium , there are multiple options that enable you to leverage this capability to simplify the verification of connections and circuit paths and make sure that the design you send to your manufacturer accurately reflects the printed circuit board you need built.

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Routed tracks
Blog • May 5, 2020
Helpful Tips for Interactive Routing in Altium Designer

Before you jump into the software, you should know the types of things you’re going to want to look out for. Traces, connection lines, differential pair routing, and route paths can all affect the routing process of your board. Make sure that you’re equipped knowing, ultimately, what you want your board design to accomplish and furthermore, where you anticipate potential problem areas to be.

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NEW
Embedded thumbnail for Import and Export with Modern Mechanical Models
How-To's •
Import and Export with Modern Mechanical Models

We have expanded mechanical integration by adding support for SOLIDWORKS 2024 and SOLIDWORKS 2025 part models when importing 3D bodies into the design environment. This enhancement allows designers to work with the latest mechanical models created in SOLIDWORKS without the need for additional conversions or workarounds.

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NEW
Embedded thumbnail for How to Input Via Delay in Altium for DDR Routing
How-To's •
How to Input Via Delay in Altium for DDR Routing

In this video, we tackle a real viewer question about DDR3 routing across multiple PCB layers and show how via delay can silently eat into your skew margin before you’ve even finished routing, using Altium’s default 10-layer stackup as a reference.

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Embedded thumbnail for Clearly Show Jumper Wires in Your Harness Designs
How-To's •
Clearly Show Jumper Wires in Your Harness Designs

Support has been improved so that jumper wires connecting two cavities within the same connector are now properly shown in Layout Drawings, making the connector wiring easier to understand during documentation and review.

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Embedded thumbnail for Why Datasheet PCB Guidelines Are Often Wrong
How-To's •
Why Datasheet PCB Guidelines Are Often Wrong

Watch our brand-new video where we tackle the persistent issue of outdated PCB design guidelines still found in datasheets and application notes from major semiconductor manufacturers. Drawing on viewer comments, real-world datasheet examples, and insights from industry experts, we examine why recommendations such as splitting analog and digital ground planes (an approach rooted in the 1980s) continue to circulate despite their potential to cause EMC failures, signal integrity problems, and costly redesigns.

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Embedded thumbnail for Keep Your Harness Designs in Sync with Library Updates
How-To's •
Keep Your Harness Designs in Sync with Library Updates

The "Update From Libraries" feature has been enhanced to provide broader support for harness-related objects across both Wiring Diagrams and Layout Drawings. With this expansion, a wider range of harness components such as connectors, wires, splices, and associated attributes can now be synchronized directly with their corresponding library definitions.

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Embedded thumbnail for How to Set Up Flex PCB Materials in Altium
How-To's •
How to Set Up Flex PCB Materials in Altium

Discover how to set up flex and rigid-flex PCB materials in Altium with the Layer Stack Manager. In this tutorial, you’ll follow the key steps for defining polyimide cores, adhesive layers, coverlay, and stiffeners helping you build accurate, production-ready rigid-flex PCB designs.

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Embedded thumbnail for How Benchmark Unifies Hardware Development with the Altium Platform
Altium Stories •
How Benchmark Unifies Hardware Development with the Altium Platform

Discover our latest customer success story and see how Benchmark streamlined hardware development using the Altium Platform. By leveraging a unified environment with real-time data, synchronized ECAD-MCAD workflows, and built-in collaboration tools, their engineering teams eliminated manual handoffs, improved cross-domain visibility, and accelerated project delivery while staying perfectly aligned.

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Embedded thumbnail for ESP32-S3 Design Deep Dive: Power, RF, and Layout Best Practices
How-To's •
ESP32-S3 Design Deep Dive: Power, RF, and Layout Best Practices

Explore our detailed design review of a custom ESP32-S3 PCB. This four-layer board is built around the ESP32-S3 microcontroller chip (not the standard module) and includes an integrated LiPo charging circuit, USB-C with data line protection, NCP voltage regulators, and a ceramic chip antenna with a properly tuned impedance matching network.

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Embedded thumbnail for Working as One for What Matters Most | How Benchmark Unifies Engineering Teams
Altium Stories •
Working as One for What Matters Most | How Benchmark Unifies Engineering Teams

See how Benchmark Electronics uses Altium’s collaborative hardware development platform to unify its electrical, mechanical, and software engineering teams. By replacing manual processes, disconnected tools, and siloed workflows with a shared workspace, Benchmark unlocked a new way of working.

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Embedded thumbnail for PCB Design Tips to Improve RF Power Amplifier Layout
How-To's •
PCB Design Tips to Improve RF Power Amplifier Layout

Take a deeper look at RF power amplifier PCB design as we expand on our original 6 GHz RF signal generator tutorial with an in-depth design review. Discover essential layout optimization techniques such as switching regulator routing, feedback loop placement, stitching via implementation, and effective copper balancing.

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Embedded thumbnail for How Altium's Assembly Assistant unifies Quantum Systems' Dev Process
Altium Stories •
How Altium's Assembly Assistant unifies Quantum Systems' Dev Process

Quantum Systems develops unmanned drone systems for aerial intelligence and rapid, field-ready innovation. With the Assembly Assistant, their team streamlined a once tedious prototype build process, eliminating manual exports, file conversions, and unnecessary guesswork.

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Embedded thumbnail for Creating Stacking Stripes for PCB Fabrication: Altium Tutorial
How-To's •
Creating Stacking Stripes for PCB Fabrication: Altium Tutorial

Watch our new tutorial where we demonstrate how to place stacking stripes along the edge of a PCB and configure design rules to control clearances. In this video, you’ll learn how to create a dummy net, use the query system to apply rules specifically to stacking stripes, and leverage split planes on internal layers.

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Embedded thumbnail for Empower Your Designs with Advanced Power Analysis
How-To's •
Empower Your Designs with Advanced Power Analysis

Power Analyzer brings clarity. Agile Teams brings control. Combined, they help teams deliver reliable hardware with confidence.

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Embedded thumbnail for Component Selection Process Tips for PCB Design
How-To's •
Component Selection Process Tips for PCB Design

Explore our new component selection tutorial and learn Zach Peterson’s proven approach to finding and choosing parts that take your electronic designs from good to exceptional.

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Embedded thumbnail for Signal Analyzer by Keysight Promo Video
How-To's •
Signal Analyzer by Keysight Promo Video

Design faster, collaborate smarter, and catch signal integrity issues early with Altium Agile Teams and the Signal Integrity Analyzer by Keysight — both integrated directly into Altium Designer Agile. Check out our new promo video to learn more.

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Embedded thumbnail for NFC Reader Testing: Flashing and Validating the Project
How-To's •
NFC Reader Testing: Flashing and Validating the Project

Join Zach Peterson as we build and test an NFC reader board from start to finish. You’ll see how a custom NFC reader goes from manufacturing to working hardware, with step-by-step guidance on firmware flashing, power checks, and RFID tag detection.

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