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Embedded thumbnail for Use Cases with Dave Young: Multiboard and Harness
New in Altium Designer 24
Use Cases with Dave Young: Multiboard and Harness

In this video, Dave Young demonstrates the use of MultiBoard and Harness in Altium Designer 24, using a custom quadcopter motor part as an example. Learn how these advanced tools can optimize your design workflow.

Embedded thumbnail for Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials - Verifying Changes and Finalizing the Design
Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials
Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials - Verifying Changes and Finalizing the Design

In this final installment of our tutorial series on the upcoming extension – Signal Analyzer by Keysight – we will guide you through the process of ensuring that your design meets all necessary performance standards. 

Blog
Signal Integrity Principles based on Altium Designer 24

Check out this article where Rafał Stępień dives into the essentials of maintaining signal integrity in high-speed digital systems. Discover key techniques like controlling signal reflections, reducing crosstalk, and designing differential pairs in Altium Designer 24 to ensure reliable and efficient PCB performance.

RSP Launch Cover
Blog
Launch of Requirements & Systems Portal in Altium 365

The Requirements & Systems Portal is now live in Altium 365! Engineers can write, manage, and verify requirements within the Altium 365 workspace. You can link your requirements directly to schematics and PCB designs to ensure all engineers are working with the latest data. Request access today!

Embedded thumbnail for Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials - Analyzing Simulation Results and Correcting Violation
Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials
Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials - Analyzing Simulation Results and Correcting Violation

We invite you to join the third chapter of the Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials. In this installment, we’ll show you how to analyze simulation results and correct violations to ensure your PCB design aligns with performance standards.

Embedded thumbnail for LDO Regulator Essentials: From Basics to Advanced. Part IV: Step Response
LDO Regulator Essentials
LDO Regulator Essentials: From Basics to Advanced. Part IV: Step Response

In this new chapter of the LDO Essentials series, Rafał Stępień explores the Step Response of LDO regulators using Altium Designer's Mixed Simulation. Discover how to optimize your designs for enhanced stability and efficiency!

Embedded thumbnail for Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials - Setting Up and Running Simulations
Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials
Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials - Setting Up and Running Simulations

We are continuing our tutorial series on the Signal Analyzer by Keysight extension, diving deeper into its setup. We'll guide you through the configuration process and demonstrate how to run simulations using this powerful tool.

Embedded thumbnail for Kickstart Your Rigid-Flex Journey: Part II - Altium Designer Setup for Rigid-Flex
Kickstart Your Rigid-Flex Journey
Kickstart Your Rigid-Flex Journey: Part II - Altium Designer Setup for Rigid-Flex

Learn how to set up Altium Designer for Rigid-Flex PCB projects with step-by-step guidance from Piet Callemeyn. Master both manual and automatic layer stack configuration in just a few minutes!

Embedded thumbnail for Subterranean Robots Secure Our Global Food Future
Altium Stories
Subterranean Robots Secure Our Global Food Future

After discovering the Crover effect, Lorenzo Conti developed a groundbreaking grain-swimming robot to monitor and protect stored cereals. Using Altium-powered design, this innovative technology gathers critical data beneath bulk storage surfaces, reducing waste and enhancing food security. Join us as we explore how these robots are shaping a sustainable future and safeguarding our global food supply.

Embedded thumbnail for Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials - Initial Setup
Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials
Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials - Initial Setup

In our new tutorial series, we will explore how the upcoming Signal Analyzer by Keysight enhances signal analysis in your PCB designs. In this first part, we'll guide you through a step-by-step installation process, ensuring the extension is properly set up in your Altium Designer environment.

Blog
Favorite Tools for BOM Review

Check out our article, where Lawrence Romine shares his top tools for conducting efficient Bill of Materials (BOM) reviews in PCB design. It highlights key features in Altium 365, Octopart, and ActiveBOM that help engineers avoid unsourceable components and streamline procurement.

Embedded thumbnail for EMI Solutions for Six-Layer PCB Stackups: A PCB Designer's Guide
How-To's
EMI Solutions for Six-Layer PCB Stackups: A PCB Designer's Guide

In our brand new video, our host Zach Peterson explores essential EMI solutions for six-layer PCB stackups, ensuring your designs achieve peak performance and reliability. Stay tuned as he delves into common issues, practical tips, and a detailed Altium Designer example to help you optimize your PCB designs.

Embedded thumbnail for Elevate Your Design Skills: Tips & Tricks for Success - Recording Preview
New in Altium Designer 24
Elevate Your Design Skills: Tips & Tricks for Success - Recording Preview

Unlock essential PCB design tips and tricks in our latest webinar recording. Learn how to streamline your workflow, tackle common challenges, and boost your productivity with Altium Designer. Check the recording here: COM August Webinar.

Embedded thumbnail for Finding Alternate Microcontroller Units (MCUs): Alternate Parts Series: Pt. 4
Octopart
Finding Alternate Microcontroller Units (MCUs): Alternate Parts Series: Pt. 4

Join Phil Salmony in the next part of our series dedicated to navigating the complexities of component substitutions. In this chapter, we'll demonstrate how to use Octopart to find suitable alternate microcontroller units (MCUs). Octopart will guide you in narrowing down critical parameters, helping you select the right component for your specific application.

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freeway in the background of the city
Blog
Designing for V2X Communication: Wireless Protocols and Standards

If you’re waiting for truly connected cars on a grand scale, there is still a massive amount of work to be done, both on the hardware and software sides. Connected cars can only become a widespread reality once the automotive industry and telecom carriers can decide which protocol will work best for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication. PCB designers will then need to step in to create these systems and fit them into a vehicular environment.

Everything You Need to Know About Stitching Vias
Blog
Everything You Need to Know About Stitching Vias

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.

All About Box Build Assemblies
Blog
All About Box Build Assemblies

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. 

Ultra-HDI Technology is Not New
Blog
Ultra-HDI Technology is Not New

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. 

Today's PCB Designers Are Driving Electronics Product Design
Blog
Today's PCB Designers Are Driving Electronics Product Design

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.

Phased Array Antenna Design for 5G Applications
Blog
Phased Array Antenna Design for 5G Applications

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.

IPC - Vias
Blog
IPC - Vias

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.

Power Integrity Analysis in Your PCB Design Software
Blog
Power Integrity Analysis in Your PCB Design Software

Power integrity problems can abound in modern PCBs, especially high-speed boards that run with fast edge rates. These systems require precise design of the PDN impedance to ensure stable power is always delivered throughout the system.

Schematic Compare
Blog
Schematic Compare

A design project doesn’t appear out of nowhere. The design process spreads over time, and project documents change. Schematic documents gradually become more complex, new functional blocks appear, and already finished parts can be modified and updated.

Embedded Capacitance Materials Overview
Blog
Embedded Capacitance Materials Overview

Capacitance is your friend whenever you need stable power integrity, which is why there is so much focus on decoupling capacitors. While these components are important and they can be used to provide targeted power integrity solutions to certain components, there is one specialty material used to supercharge capacitance in your PCB stackup or package substrate. 

How To Import Libraries and Manage Components With Altium 365
Blog
How To Import Libraries and Manage Components With Altium 365

The problems you can experience with components and libraries are endless. These problems are the most significant source of design issues and the biggest reason behind respins, costing companies untold amounts of lost profit annually.
If you want to have a better understanding of how to use Altium 365 to maintain a strong and centralized library that is free of problems and headaches, you may want to consider attending this lecture.

The High-Speed PCB Stackup Design Challenge
Blog
The High-Speed PCB Stackup Design Challenge

As much as we would like to build every high speed PCB perfectly, with ideal SI/PI/EMI characteristics, it isn’t always possible due to many practical constraints. Sometimes a stackup can be “good enough,” even for a high-speed PCB. This always comes from the need to balance engineering constraints, functional requirements, and the need to ensure signal and power integrity in a high-speed design, and finally to ensure compliance with EMC requirements.

How I Improved My Collaboration Efficiency with Altium 365
Blog
How I Improved My Collaboration Efficiency with Altium 365

Involving the whole team that will bring a product to completion early on in the development cycle is vital to efficient development. Design reviews with all the relevant parties are critical at each step of the design process, starting with high-level component selection, then through the schematic capture and PCB layout stages. 

Countersink and Counterbore
Blog
Countersink and Counterbore

Ergonomics and convenience are important issues when designing a printed circuit board and the device as a whole. A lot of Altium Designer tools are aimed at solving them. These include Countersink and Counterbore holes, which allow the use of various types of screws in the mounting holes of the board.

Migrating Data From Other Version Control Systems
Blog
Migrating Data From Other Version Control Systems

The development of electronic devices always involves the release of many different types of files. And these files are not static - they change as the project progresses. When filling a project with data, a user creates new files, modifies outdated files that have become irrelevant. Managing project data is a separate task, especially for large developments where several participants with different specializations are involved in the process.

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Embedded thumbnail for How to Draw a Board Outline Using Coordinates
How-To's
How to Draw a Board Outline Using Coordinates

In this video, we cover how to draw a curve by using coordinates. This can be very helpful when creating a board outline.

Embedded thumbnail for Creating a Schematic Symbol: Mapping out the Component
How to create a Schematic Symbol
Creating a Schematic Symbol: Mapping out the Component

When creating a schematic symbol, one of your first tasks will be creating a component symbol. We’ll show you how to map out a component in the Schematic Library Editor by creating and configuring the component, adding pins, and creating graphics.

Embedded thumbnail for How and When to Use Rooms
How to work with Rooms
How and When to Use Rooms

Rooms are an extremely valuable tool within the Altium Designer PCB environment, but how and when do you use rooms? If you need to control component placement and layout, assign a specific design rule to a group of items, or if you have repeated channels that need similar layouts in your multichannel design, rooms can make it much easier.

22.5-2_Custom_Diff_Pair_Suffixes
What's New in 22.5
Custom Diff Pair Suffixes

Even more possibilities for creating differential pairs. Now you can use any postfixes to designate positive and negative net of a differential pair.

22.5-2_Custom_Diff_Pair_Suffixes
What's New in 22.5
自定义差分对后缀

更加有利于进行差分对创建。您现在可以使用任何后缀来指定差分对的正网络和负网络。

22.5-3_PCB_Health_Check_Monitor
What's New in 22.5
PCB Health Check Monitor

The condition of the PCB is under your control. A new intelligent feature that gives you confidence that your PCB is okay and complies with design rules.

22.5-3_PCB_Health_Check_Monitor
What's New in 22.5
PCB健康状况检查显示器

PCB的状况将由您控制。您可以通过此项全新智能化功能,确认PCB正常运行且符合设计规则。

Embedded thumbnail for MCAD CoDesigner Quick Start: Autodesk Fusion 360
Working with MCAD CoDesigner extension
MCAD CoDesigner Quick Start: Autodesk Fusion 360

MCAD CoDesigner is built to address the challenges of electronic product design by enabling seamless collaboration between your electrical and mechanical engineers. This video will show you how to start collaborate between Altium Designer and Autodesk Fusion 360. 

Embedded thumbnail for Component Placement Control for DFM
DFM and Fabrication Cost/Time Constraints
Component Placement Control for DFM

Component placement is a crucial part of making sure your design is manufacturable, so you need to be able to control placement. We’ll show you how, through rules and courtyard layers to maintain accessibility and manufacturability in your entire design through component placement control.

Embedded thumbnail for MCAD CoDesigner Quick Start: PTC Creo
Working with MCAD CoDesigner extension
MCAD CoDesigner Quick Start: PTC Creo

MCAD CoDesigner is built to address the challenges of electronic product design by enabling seamless collaboration between your electrical and mechanical engineers. This video will show you how to start collaborate between Altium Designer and PTC Creo

Embedded thumbnail for Variants in Multi-Channel Designs
How to work with Variants
Variants in Multi-Channel Designs

Multi-channel designs can utilize variations in the channels to reduce design time and sheet count. We’ll show you how to take advantage of this by configuring several types of components.

Embedded thumbnail for Stackup Considerations
DFM and Fabrication Cost/Time Constraints
Stackup Considerations

There is a lot to consider about the Layer Stackup when it comes to designing a manufacturable board. We’ll walk you through enabling symmetry, finding correct balance of your layers, materials, creating and loading templates, and adding a layer stack table for better communication between you and your manufacturer.

Embedded thumbnail for What Are Design Variants For?
How to work with Variants
What Are Design Variants For?

Variants in Altium Designer allow you to create several variations of the same design all from one source project. Variants can be managed in the project and through Altium Designer you can control variants in the PCB, Schematic, Draftsman, and Outjob files to make your designs easily editable without redundancy.

Embedded thumbnail for MCAD CoDesigner Quick Start: Solidworks
Working with MCAD CoDesigner extension
MCAD CoDesigner Quick Start: Solidworks

MCAD CoDesigner is built to address the challenges of electronic product design by enabling seamless collaboration between your electrical and mechanical engineers. This video will show you how to start collaborate between Altium Designer and SolidWorks. 

Embedded thumbnail for Panelization
DFM and Fabrication Cost/Time Constraints
Panelization

When you go to manufacture your design you can get a board manufactured by itself or with multiple in a panel. We’ll show you the how and the why to create panelization with the Embedded Board Array/Panelize tool, as well as how to create break away points for your individual boards.

Embedded thumbnail for Display Variants in Draftsman Document
How to work with Variants
Display Variants in Draftsman Document

You can use the draftsman document to display your board variants. We’ll show you how to create a draftsman document and add variants to it properly displayed and editable through the properties panel.

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Z2Data Webinar Cover Photo
On-Demand Webinar
Bridge the Information Divide: Altium 365 Meets Z2Data

Watch the webinar and get a sneak peek at revolutionizing your engineering, compliance, and procurement approach with Altium 365 and Z2Data integration. Leverage comprehensive component data and advanced risk management strategies to enhance resilience in your operations.

Design with Confidence: Altium 365 meets SiliconExpert
On-Demand Webinar
Design with Confidence: Altium 365 meets SiliconExpert

Learn how the SiliconExpert integration in Altium 365 can optimize your workflows and elevate your design process. Hear from experts from SiliconExpert and discover insights into data-driven design decisions. Also don't miss the chance to see the integration in action and explore improved risk analysis and alternative component discovery features.

From PCB to MCAD - Designing a USB Isolator with Altium & SOLIDWORKS
On-Demand Webinar
From PCB to MCAD - Designing a USB Isolator with Altium & SOLIDWORKS

Dive into the world of Altium's MCAD CoDesigner and its compatibility with SOLIDWORKS. Watch the recording to explore a unified approach with a real-life project that will redefine your design process and find out more about how you can optimize your Electronic Lifecycle Management by bringing together all experts involved in product development.

On-Demand Webinar
Faster Design, Fewer Errors with Altium 365 Requirements Manager

? Join our experts to learn how you can develop products faster with fewer errors with the Altium 365 + Valispace Integration. This integration connects your live design and requirements workflow to implement design intent better and comply with industry standards.

printed circuit board, photo by the author
On-Demand Webinar
Learn to Collaborate Like a Pro with Altium Designer 23

Get ready to speed up your design process with new Altium Designer collaboration capabilities. Designing a PCB is a team effort. Engineers must work with customers, manufacturers, and other stakeholders to get the best results. You need help to bring your design to life, even if you're a one-person team.

The Best Way to Review Your PCB Designs
On-Demand Webinar
The Best Way to Review Your PCB Designs

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.