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Embedded thumbnail for Altium Harness Design Tutorial - From Schematic to 3D Layout
How-To's
Altium Harness Design Tutorial - From Schematic to 3D Layout

Design professional harness systems in Altium with confidence. Follow this comprehensive tutorial to learn multiboard project setup, create wiring diagrams, visualize in 3D, and produce manufacturing-ready documentation complete with ECAD-MCAD integration for precise wire length measurement.

NEW
Blog
Getting Started with the GreenPAK Introduction Kit

Take your first steps into mixed-signal design with the Renesas GreenPAK Introduction Kit. Ari Mahpour shows how to design, simulate, and validate a clock divider project, making it easy for beginners to start experimenting with programmable mixed-signal devices.

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Embedded thumbnail for Arduino to Custom PCB: Professional Design Transformation
How-To's
Arduino to Custom PCB: Professional Design Transformation

Discover how to upgrade your Arduino Nano-based PCB design into a professional, custom PCB. This tutorial walks through the process of replacing development boards with individual components to create a production-ready design, using a real drone project as the example.

NEW
Blog
Smarter Electronic Part Sourcing for Automotive Purchasing Professionals

Targeted at procurement professionals in the automotive industry, the article outlines the evolving pressures of sourcing components for electrified and connected vehicles. It highlights Octopart’s ecosystem as a unified tool that centralizes availability, compliance, pricing, and lifecycle intelligence to optimize sourcing efficiency.

Embedded thumbnail for PCB Library Management: One Library or Many?
How-To's
PCB Library Management: One Library or Many?

This detailed guide walks you through the pros and cons of each approach and offers proven strategies for managing component data, whether you're an independent designer or overseeing libraries for an entire organization.

Blog
Stack-Up to Success: Avoid the Pitfalls

"Stack‑Up to Success" highlights how a carefully planned PCB stack‑up is foundational to preventing warpage, managing impedance, and avoiding manufacturing delays by clearly communicating layer construction, materials, and tolerance requirements to fabricators.

Embedded thumbnail for Coming Soon: Sawtooth Rounding Support for Length Tuning
New in Altium Designer 25
Coming Soon: Sawtooth Rounding Support for Length Tuning

Sawtooth Rounding for Length Tuning improves signal‑path accuracy by applying controlled corner‑rounding to sawtooth geometries during both Interactive Length Tuning and within‑pair matching in the Auto Tuning engine. Discover this capability and additional innovations on our Coming Soon page.

Embedded thumbnail for Coming Soon: Z-Axis Clearance Rule
New in Altium Designer 25
Coming Soon: Z-Axis Clearance Rule

The Z-Axis Clearance Rule checks the shortest distance between copper features on different layers in a PCB design. It is available in both the Constraint Manager and the legacy PCB Rules Editor. Discover more new features in Altium on our Coming Soon Page.

Embedded thumbnail for Coming Soon: Advanced Polygon Pour Engine
New in Altium Designer 25
Coming Soon: Advanced Polygon Pour Engine

Now supports true arcs instead of approximated curves in copper pours. This enhanced engine marks a major advancement in the polygon pour process in Altium Designer, delivering smoother and more accurate copper shapes. Native arc rendering improves visual quality and helps ensure cleaner, more professional PCB designs.

Embedded thumbnail for How to Design Rigid-Flex PCB Stackups from Scratch
How-To's
How to Design Rigid-Flex PCB Stackups from Scratch

Watch this tutorial to learn the fundamentals of Rigid-Flex design. We cover everything from understanding polyimide materials and adhesive layers to building complex, multi-layer Rigid-Flex constructions that are ready for manufacturing.

Blog
How to Effectively Use Jira for Hardware Development Projects

Originally built for software development, Jira has become a popular tool for agile project management across various industries. Our new article explores how hardware teams can leverage core Jira features and adapt agile principles to suit the unique needs of hardware development.

Embedded thumbnail for How to Draw Antipads - Complete Tutorial
How-To's
How to Draw Antipads - Complete Tutorial

Discover how to draw and define antipads in Altium with this complete tutorial. Learn three different methods for creating antipads around vias. From simple design rules to advanced polygon cutouts for both basic and complex PCB designs.

Embedded thumbnail for Do PCB Manufacturers Actually Look at Fabrication Drawings?
How-To's
Do PCB Manufacturers Actually Look at Fabrication Drawings?

Explore this in-depth tutorial featuring real fabrication drawings, stackup specifications, and drill tables - all created using Altium Designer’s Draftsman tool. Learn essential insights into PCB data management and manufacturing requirements from an industry perspective.

Embedded thumbnail for Compensating Transmission Line Losses in a PCB Calculator
How-To's
Compensating Transmission Line Losses in a PCB Calculator

This tutorial uncovers the key difference between ideal, lossless impedance calculations and real-world signal behavior giving you practical techniques to design controlled impedance PCBs that deliver reliable performance.

Blog
How to Make Your PCB Layout AOI and X-Ray Friendly

Designing for inspection is key to reliable manufacturing. This article covers practical PCB layout tips to optimize your board for AOI and X-ray inspection helping you reduce defects, false positives, and production delays.

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Blog
Near-field vs. Far-field EMI: What's Causing Noise Problems in My PCB?

If you’re an antenna designer, then you’re likely familiar with all aspects of near-field vs. far-field radiation. Given the litany of radiated EMI problems that cause noise within and outside of an electronic device, one might suddenly realize their new product is acting like a strong antenna. To understand how EMI affects your circuits, it helps to understand exactly how near-field vs. far-field radiation from your PCB affects your ability to pass EMC checks and affects your circuits.

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Increasing PCB Prototype Iteration Speed in the Cloud

How often have you started down the PCB development process and been bogged down by time-consuming administrative tasks? Once you get ready for production, working through a design review and correcting any DFM problems takes its own share of time. With hastening product development timelines and shorter product life cycles comes the pressure to increase PCB prototype iteration speed without sacrificing cost or quality. So how can PCB design teams keep their development schedules on track without sacrificing quality or risking a failed prototyping run?

Blog
Why you should be using Concord Pro?

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, or so the aphorism goes. I think it’s worth noting that the first step is the most difficult to take. Analysis Paralysis is especially true when dealing with a new software package, including the recent release of Concord Pro. The recent version has brought with it a deluge of interest and enthusiasm in such a phenomenal tool. But I must say, Altium hit this one out of the park.

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What Types of EMI Filters are Best for Passing EMC Certification?

When you need to pass EMC certification and your new product is being crippled by a mysterious source of EMI, you’ll probably start considering a complete product redesign. Your stackup, trace geometry, and component arrangement are good places to start, but there might be more you can do to suppress specific sources of EMI. There are many different types of EMI filters that you can easily place in your design, and that will help suppress EMI in a variety of frequency ranges.

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Blog
An Overview Of PCB Outer Layer Processing

Previously, I described the PCB fabrication operations relative to inner layer processing, lamination, drilling, and plating. The last step in the process is outer layer processing which is described below. Once the desired plated copper thickness of a PCB has been achieved, it’s necessary to etch away the copper between the features in order to define the outer layer pattern.

Blog
How Do Pads and Vias Impact Total Capacitor Parasitic Inductance?

There are many factors at play in determining the impact of inductance on high-frequency power distribution systems. Two topic areas, inductance of the decoupling capacitor and inductance of the power planes, were addressed in earlier articles. This article will focus on the inductance of the capacitor footprint and via inductance from the capacitor footprint back to the PCB power planes.

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Blog
Analyzing Crosstalk on FIFO and DDR4 Parallel Bus Interfaces

High-speed buses, whether single-ended or differential, can experience any number of signal integrity problems. A primary problem created by propagating signals is crosstalk, where a signal superimposes itself on a nearby trace. The industry-standard PCB design tools in Altium Designer® already include a post-layout simulator for examining crosstalk. Still, you can speed up crosstalk analysis in parallel buses when you use a powerful field solver.

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Blog
Amplifier Stability at High Frequencies and Stray Capacitance

Any time-dependent physical system with feedback and gain has conditions under which the system will reach stable behavior. Amplifier stability extends these concepts to amplifiers, where the system output can grow to an undesired saturated state due to unintended feedback. If you use the right design and simulation tools, you can easily account for potential instability in your circuit models before you create your layout.

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Blog
Working with Design Variants

The concept of design variants entails taking a single PCB design, and then on the assembly side, modifying specific components used in the design. Either by not installing, not installing, or choosing alternate components as replacements on a specific assembly to ultimately create different end products. In that way, you could support multiple product lines. This article describes the approach to working with variants. 

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Blog
Setting Up Concord Pro Revisions and Lifecycle

Before anything else, some advice. The revisions and lifecycle are an area that takes some planning. It used to be that Concord Pro was primarily for components, but now it has gone far beyond that. With the ability to store and manage many other items, including your various templates, projects, even PDF documents, not everything will have the same revision scheme. Concord Pro is so powerful that it can handle any revision scheme you’d want to set up.

Blog
How to Successfully Design a BGA

Whether the board will be placed in a high pressure vessel or underwater, your design will need to withstand pressure to avoid failure. On the enclosure side, your vessel should be rated up to a certain pressure and may require frequent cycling to prevent implosion. On the electronics side, component selection and layout (especially at high voltage) become critical to preventing failure and ensuring reliability.

Blog
Altium Designer 20.2 Update 1 is now available

The first update of Altium Designer 20.2 and Altium NEXUS Client 3.2 is now available. You can update through the Altium Designer update system ("Extensions and Updates") or download fresh builds from the Downloads section of the Altium website. Click on "Read More" to see a list of all changes in this update.

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Blog
How Copper Foil Roughness Affects Your Signals and Impedance

The history of engineering, both electrical and mechanical, is littered with approximations that have fallen by the wayside. These approximations worked well for a time and helped advance technology significantly over the decades. However, any model has limits on its applicability, and the typical RLCG transmission line model and frequency-independent impedance equations are no different. Copper foil roughness modeling and related transmission line impedance simulations are just one of many areas in which standard models cannot correctly treat signal behavior.

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Blog
What is Burn-in Testing for Electronics?

Once you’re planning for production of any new board, you’ll likely be planning a battery of tests for your new product. These tests often focus on functionality and, for high speed/high frequency boards, signal/power integrity. However, you may intend for your product to operate for an extreme period of time, and you’ll need some data to reliably place a lower limit on your product’s lifetime. In addition to in-circuit tests, functional tests, and possibly mechanical tests, the components and boards themselves can benefit from burn-in testing.

Blog
PCB Design for Testability to Ensure High Yield and Quality

If you remember your days in school, then you probably remember the feeling of happiness and celebration when you pass a big exam. You’ll feel the same sense of adulation when your board spin passes a barrage of pre and post assembly tests, but a complex design might not reach that stage unless you implement the right design for testability methods. There are some simple steps that can help your manufacturer identify and quickly implement important bare-board and in-circuit testing (ICT), especially on critical circuit blocks.

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Blog
Top Tips from Experienced Flex Designers

This article describes the best hints and tips for designers of rigid-flex circuits. These tips include choosing the most appropriate material, suggestions for coordinating the PCB with the manufacturer, and a set of rules to be followed while PCB design. 

Tag
NEW
Embedded thumbnail for Altium Harness Design Tutorial - From Schematic to 3D Layout
How-To's
Altium Harness Design Tutorial - From Schematic to 3D Layout

Design professional harness systems in Altium with confidence. Follow this comprehensive tutorial to learn multiboard project setup, create wiring diagrams, visualize in 3D, and produce manufacturing-ready documentation complete with ECAD-MCAD integration for precise wire length measurement.

NEW
Embedded thumbnail for Arduino to Custom PCB: Professional Design Transformation
How-To's
Arduino to Custom PCB: Professional Design Transformation

Discover how to upgrade your Arduino Nano-based PCB design into a professional, custom PCB. This tutorial walks through the process of replacing development boards with individual components to create a production-ready design, using a real drone project as the example.

Embedded thumbnail for PCB Library Management: One Library or Many?
How-To's
PCB Library Management: One Library or Many?

This detailed guide walks you through the pros and cons of each approach and offers proven strategies for managing component data, whether you're an independent designer or overseeing libraries for an entire organization.

Embedded thumbnail for Coming Soon: Sawtooth Rounding Support for Length Tuning
New in Altium Designer 25
Coming Soon: Sawtooth Rounding Support for Length Tuning

Sawtooth Rounding for Length Tuning improves signal‑path accuracy by applying controlled corner‑rounding to sawtooth geometries during both Interactive Length Tuning and within‑pair matching in the Auto Tuning engine. Discover this capability and additional innovations on our Coming Soon page.

Embedded thumbnail for Coming Soon: Z-Axis Clearance Rule
New in Altium Designer 25
Coming Soon: Z-Axis Clearance Rule

The Z-Axis Clearance Rule checks the shortest distance between copper features on different layers in a PCB design. It is available in both the Constraint Manager and the legacy PCB Rules Editor. Discover more new features in Altium on our Coming Soon Page.

Embedded thumbnail for Coming Soon: Advanced Polygon Pour Engine
New in Altium Designer 25
Coming Soon: Advanced Polygon Pour Engine

Now supports true arcs instead of approximated curves in copper pours. This enhanced engine marks a major advancement in the polygon pour process in Altium Designer, delivering smoother and more accurate copper shapes. Native arc rendering improves visual quality and helps ensure cleaner, more professional PCB designs.

Embedded thumbnail for How to Design Rigid-Flex PCB Stackups from Scratch
How-To's
How to Design Rigid-Flex PCB Stackups from Scratch

Watch this tutorial to learn the fundamentals of Rigid-Flex design. We cover everything from understanding polyimide materials and adhesive layers to building complex, multi-layer Rigid-Flex constructions that are ready for manufacturing.

Embedded thumbnail for How to Draw Antipads - Complete Tutorial
How-To's
How to Draw Antipads - Complete Tutorial

Discover how to draw and define antipads in Altium with this complete tutorial. Learn three different methods for creating antipads around vias. From simple design rules to advanced polygon cutouts for both basic and complex PCB designs.

Embedded thumbnail for Do PCB Manufacturers Actually Look at Fabrication Drawings?
How-To's
Do PCB Manufacturers Actually Look at Fabrication Drawings?

Explore this in-depth tutorial featuring real fabrication drawings, stackup specifications, and drill tables - all created using Altium Designer’s Draftsman tool. Learn essential insights into PCB data management and manufacturing requirements from an industry perspective.

Embedded thumbnail for Compensating Transmission Line Losses in a PCB Calculator
How-To's
Compensating Transmission Line Losses in a PCB Calculator

This tutorial uncovers the key difference between ideal, lossless impedance calculations and real-world signal behavior giving you practical techniques to design controlled impedance PCBs that deliver reliable performance.

Embedded thumbnail for How Close Can You Bring a Reference Plane?
How-To's
How Close Can You Bring a Reference Plane?

Explore our in-depth investigation into practical simulations using both Altium Designer and Polar Si9000. We demonstrate impedance sensitivity analysis and reveal the real limitations of optimizing reference plane proximity for improved signal shielding.

Embedded thumbnail for Do PCB Thermal Vias Actually Work?
How-To's
Do PCB Thermal Vias Actually Work?

Are thermal vias really helping your PCB’s heat management? Tech Consultant Zach Peterson dives into simulation data, research, and a controversial article to uncover the truth. Learn why via count and spacing matter more than sheer quantity.

Embedded thumbnail for Stripline Routing Deep Dive: How Close Is Too Close?
How-To's
Stripline Routing Deep Dive: How Close Is Too Close?

In this video, Zach Peterson takes a deep dive into what happens when reference layers are incorrectly set in a PCB stackup and how that affects impedance, signal integrity, and EMC. He also shares valuable insights into stripline routing proximity issues and best practices for assigning reference planes.

Embedded thumbnail for Coming Soon: Solder Mask Zero Expansion
New in Altium Designer 25
Coming Soon: Solder Mask Zero Expansion

Solder Mask Zero Expansion marks a move toward industry alignment, specifically with IPC-7351B and IPC-2581B standards. It changes the default solder mask expansion value from 4 mil to 0 mil. Discover more upcoming updates on our Coming Soon Page.

Embedded thumbnail for Analog Supply without a Ferrite: Proper Isolation Techniques Explained
How-To's
Analog Supply without a Ferrite: Proper Isolation Techniques Explained

In our new tutorial, you'll learn why ferrite beads may not be the best choice for isolating analog and digital supply pins on integrated circuits. Zach Peterson debunks common misconceptions about ferrite bead isolation and introduces better alternatives, including dedicated LDOs, precision voltage references, and effective filtering techniques to help you achieve cleaner analog signals in your designs.

Embedded thumbnail for Enhanced Constraint Manager in Altium Designer 25. Part II: Physical Constraints and Routing Differential Pairs
Enhanced Constraint Manager in Altium Designer 25
Enhanced Constraint Manager in Altium Designer 25. Part II: Physical Constraints and Routing Differential Pairs

In the second video of Samer Aldhaher’s "Enhanced Constraint Manager" series, we continue designing a 1 kW, 400 V brushless DC motor driver. This episode focuses on setting physical constraints using constraint sets, routing differential pairs, and demonstrating the Auto Shrinking feature in Altium Designer 25.

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Integrating Requirements June 2025 Webinar
On-Demand Webinar 5月 28, 2025
Integrating Requirements into Your PCB Design Workflow
Join our webinar where you will learn about integrated requirements tools who can help you eliminate late-stage design changes, AI support through system requirements and integration of design requirements directly in PCB Design. Don't miss it, register now!
Streamlining Team Collaboration
On-Demand Webinar 4月 17, 2025
Streamlining Team Collaboration in Industrial PCB Projects
Join us for our upcoming webinar to discover how Altium Designer and Altium 365 can transform your team’s collaboration and take your PCB design projects to the next level. Attend for a chance to win free access to the Altium 365 Training Bundle.
PCB CoDesign Webinar
On-Demand Webinar 1月 24, 2024
Discover How Altium Designer 24 Revolutionizes Team Dynamics in PCB Design
Expand your collaboration skills and stay ahead of the curve with PCB CoDesign. Design teams often grapple with prolonged design cycles and coordination issues, leading to delays and inefficiencies. In the current landscape, design processes are hindered by fragmented collaboration, resulting in increased layout times and difficulties in synchronizing design updates.