Welcome, Guest

Sign in to learn, create, and do more with the product you love.

News & Updates

Filters:
Tag
Embedded thumbnail for Coming Soon: Sectional View
New in Altium Designer 24
Coming Soon: Sectional View

Discover more about our latest upgraded feature, premiering on December 13th. The Sectional View is a tool that simplifies and enhances your PCB design process. Whether you're troubleshooting complex designs or streamlining your workflow, it provides clarity and efficiency.

Embedded thumbnail for Coming Soon: Advanced Mixed Simulation Features
New in Altium Designer 24
Coming Soon: Advanced Mixed Simulation Features

We invite you to explore the world of mixed simulation. Delve deeper into key information about this feature and its enhanced functionalities, available starting December 13th. Set up mixed-signal simulations to ensure accuracy and reliability in your design testing

Embedded thumbnail for Coming Soon: Harness MCAD CoDesign
New in Altium Designer 24
Coming Soon: Harness MCAD CoDesign

In this short video, you can explore how Harness MCAD CoDesign, available on the 13th of December, streamlines the design process by minimizing errors, accelerating iterations, and ensuring a synchronized development process. Altium Designer 24 is on the horizon, and it's not just a request but a requirement for optimizing your electronic design process.

Blog
PCB CoDesign: Design Faster Together

Experience accelerated design collaboration with PCB CoDesign, exclusively available on Altium Designer starting from December 13th. This innovative feature adopts a collaborative approach by seamlessly integrating schematic and PCB design, enabling multiple engineers to work on the same project. Explore this cutting-edge feature on our newly launched page dedicated to its functionalities.

Embedded thumbnail for Altium Designer 24: From Requested to Required
New in Altium Designer 24
Altium Designer 24: From Requested to Required

Altium Designer 24 is getting closer! In this short video, we are presenting a list of new features and improvements that will be available starting from the 13th of December in our software.

Blog
45V-5A Adjustable Half-Bridge DC to DC Converter

DC-to-DC buck converters are extensively employed in electronic devices. In this article, we will introduce you to one of our new projects—a DC-to-DC converter designed to serve as a power supply as well.

Embedded thumbnail for Coming Soon: Harness Multi-Board
How-To's
Coming Soon: Harness Multi-Board

Altium Designer's all-in-one approach to electronic design seamlessly combines Harness and Multi-Board Design capabilities, allowing you to create complex multi-board systems with ease. This new feature, available from December 13th, provides an opportunity to bring design and manufacturing teams together, inspiring a streamlined design process, reducing the risk of errors, and ensuring unwavering project deliveries.

Blog
Efficiency And Noise Top 10 Switching Regulator Modules

Switching regulator modules have become indispensable in a wide array of electronic devices, providing a more efficient means of voltage conversion between different levels by storing and releasing energy. Explore further insights into these devices in today's dynamic world of electronics.

Embedded thumbnail for The Most Common 2-Layer PCB Design Mistakes and How To Avoid Them
How-To's
The Most Common 2-Layer PCB Design Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

Do you encounter issues when preparing a two-layer board? In this video, we address some of the most common mistakes made with this type of board and explain why upgrading to a four-layer board might be the solution you need.

Blog
Add USB Type-C Power Delivery to Your Designs!

We want to invite you to explore the fundamentals of USB Type-C Power Delivery which is now the most popular energy transmission in current times. We will show you how to easily incorporate a dedicated PD IC into your own designs. 

Embedded thumbnail for Coming Soon: Ansys CoDesigner
How-To's
Coming Soon: Ansys CoDesigner

Ansys CoDesigner (which will be released on the13th of December) simplifies your design process by connecting ECAD and Simulation to eliminate manual export/import steps. With features like design change synchronization and commenting, Altium Designer ECAD engineers and Ansys Electronics Desktop (AEDT) SIM engineers can collaborate seamlessly in one workspace.

Tag
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?

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.

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.

6-Layer PCB Design
Blog
6-Layer PCB Design Guidelines

Once you’ve run out of room on your 4-layer PCB, it’s time to graduate to a 6-layer board. The additional layer can give you room for more signals, an additional plane pair, or a mix of conductors. How you use these extra layers is less important than how you arrange them in the PCB stackup, as well as how you route on a 6-layer PCB. If you’ve never used a 6-layer board before, or you’ve had EMI troubles with this stackup that are difficult to solve, keep reading to see some 6-layer PCB design guidelines and best practices.

Altium Designer Interface
Blog
Altium Designer 22.5 Update

We are happy to announce that the Altium Designer 22.5 update is now available. Altium Designer 22.5 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!

Are Hybrid PCB Stackups Reliable?
Blog
How Reliable is Your Hybrid PCB Stackup?

PCB stackups often incorporate slightly dissimilar materials that could pose a reliability problem. Hybrid PCBs are one case where the PCB stackup will include different materials, typically a standard FR4 laminate and a PTFE laminate for RF PCBs. Designers who want to take the lead on material selection when designing their hybrid stackups should consider these factors that affect reliability. As with any PCB stackup, make sure you get your fabricator involved in the manufacturing process early to ensure reliability problems do not arise during production.

Monte Carlo vs Sensitivity Analysis
Blog
Monte Carlo Simulation vs. Sensitivity Analysis: What’s the Difference?

In a previous article about circuit simulation and reliability, I looked at how Monte Carlo analysis is commonly used to evaluate circuits that are subject to random variations in component values. Sensitivity analysis is a bit different and it tells you how the operating characteristics of your circuit change in a specific direction. Compared to a Monte Carlo simulation, sensitivity analysis gives you a convenient way to predict exactly how the operating characteristics will change if you were to deliberately increase or decrease the value of a component.

Simulation, Build and Test
Blog
Creating Continuous Integration Pipelines for FPGAs

Field Programmable Gate Arrays, or FPGAs, have become ubiquitous amongst high-speed, real-time digital systems. The speed at which FPGAs operate continues to increase at a dizzying pace but their adoption into Continuous Integration pipelines seems not to trail as closely. In this article we will review the concept of CI pipelines, their application to FPGAs, and look at examples on how to set this up.

Collaborators Visualization
Blog
Soft Locks [Conflict Prevention] in Altium 365

Conflicts can occur when multiple people work on the same project simultaneously. The user might not realize that they are not looking at the latest version of the documentation, leading to problems later. To address this issue, Altium features an intuitive graphical user interface that allows you to examine conflicts quickly and carefully

Guide to Monte Carlo in SPICE
Blog
The Basics of Monte Carlo in SPICE: Theory and Demo

Anytime you place a component in your PCB, it’s almost like you’re gambling. All components have tolerances, and some of these are very precise, but others components can have very wide tolerances on their nominal values. In the event the tolerances on these components become too large, how can you predict how these tolerances will affect your circuits?

BGA Land Patterns and Footprints
Blog
What's In Your BGA Land Pattern and Footprint

If you look in datasheets for most components, you’ll often find a recommended land pattern, usually alongside some mechanical package information and assembly information. This is not always the case with BGA components, especially components with high ball count. There are a few reasons for this that we can speculate: those ball counts might just be too big to put into a single page, or the manufacturer just expects you to know how to create that land pattern.

Molded Interconnect Devices
Blog
MIDs Make a Comeback as Vertical SMD Modules for Your PCB

Molded interconnect devices are essentially plastic molded substrates with traces running along any surface, including at right angles and running vertically. Altium users can use the new 3D Routing extension to design their own component carriers, which can be mounted vertically in a standard assembly process. If you’ve always wanted to vertically mount components or entire circuits, but without the expense of adding a flex section to your design, the new 3D Routing extension with HARTING’s component carrier designs provides a unique solution.

MCAD CoDesign Process
Blog
MCAD CoDesigner 2.9.0 is Out

Altium has released version 2.9.0 of the MCAD CoDesigner. This version has the option to exclude small components when transferring from ECAD to MCAD. The arc behavior was improved, and the support for splines in board shape and cutouts was added. With this release, you can now select a specific SOLIDWORKS configuration of a part to use on the board and view the improvements made for Siemens NX.

Rigid-Flex in Altium Designer
Blog
Support for Rigid-Flex in Altium Designer

Altium Designer's world-class PCB design features help users quickly get started with new rigid-flex designs and prepare them for manufacturing. Rigid-flex in Altium Designer starts with designing a manufacturable PCB layer stack complete with via transitions and any calculated impedance requirements. Keep reading to see how Altium Designer supports your flex and rigid-flex designs.

2+N+2 PCB Stackups
Blog
2+N+2 PCB Stackup Design for HDI Boards

Like any other advanced PCB, success in HDI design comes from designing the right stackup. One common HDI stackup used to support routing into moderate pin count, high-density BGA components is the 2+N+2 PCB layer stack for HDI boards. We’ll explore this stackup more in this article, as well as how it is related to other advanced stackups used in HDI PCBs.

PDF Viewer in Altium 365
Blog
PDF in Altium 365 Web Viewer

Altium 365 Web Viewer now includes a built-in PDF viewer that allows you to view PDF files in releases without an external PDF viewer application. Keep reading to learn about new key features that make your work easier

Tag
Embedded thumbnail for How to Define Different Clearance for Internal and External Layers
How-To's
How to Define Different Clearance for Internal and External Layers

If you need to define difference clearance values for your external and internal layers, the answer is with design rules. We’ll walk you through it in this short video. 

Embedded thumbnail for Setting Snap Distance and Axis Snap Range
How to use Snapping
Setting Snap Distance and Axis Snap Range

Learn more about what snap distance and axis snap range are and how to use them.

Embedded thumbnail for Polygon Editing
Working with Polygons
Polygon Editing

Editing existing polygons is crucial for optimizing your design. You can easily select polygons to edit, resize, combine, and more.

Embedded thumbnail for How to Open All Schematic Documents
How-To's
How to Open All Schematic Documents

This video shows how to open all your project's schematic documents at once.

Embedded thumbnail for Calculating Impedance in Altium Designer
Impedance calculation
Calculating Impedance in Altium Designer

This video covers how to calculate impedance in Altium Designer. This is especially important when dealing with high-speed designs. You want to make sure impedance is matched to avoid any reflections and maintain good signal integrity.

Embedded thumbnail for Using 3D Component Body Features for Precise Component Creation
How to Work with 3D Mode
Using 3D Component Body Features for Precise Component Creation

Learn to quickly and accurately place 3D models of components on their footprints

Embedded thumbnail for How to Define an Impedance Profile for an Assymetric Stripeline
Impedance calculation
How to Define an Impedance Profile for an Assymetric Stripeline

This video shows how to define an impedance profile for an asymmetric stripline.

Embedded thumbnail for How I Improved my Collaboration Efficiency with Altium 365 | Altium 365: Power User Insights
How I Improved my Collaboration Efficiency with Altium 365 | Altium 365: Power User Insights

Collaboration with other teams or contractors in the electronics industry is typically a painful and inefficient experience. All too often, communication is left until the last minute when boards are all but ordered. Let's talk about how to collaborate with colleagues with Altium 365 in a different way.

Embedded thumbnail for Working with Annotation Tools
How to Work with Draftsman
Working with Annotation Tools

Draftsman Documents provide annotation tools to convey physical properties such as tolerances and surface finish

Embedded thumbnail for 3D View Control
How to Work with 3D Mode
3D View Control

Learn how to use the 3D display mode of the PCB and learn to control the camera in this mode in this video

Embedded thumbnail for Impedance Calculation Single-Ended Transmission Lines
Impedance calculation
Impedance Calculation Single-Ended Transmission Lines

Transmission lines help preserve signal integrity and reduce EMI in high speed designs. We’ll show you you to define your single ended transmission lines in Altium Designer and automatically calculate impedance on a two layer and multi-layer board.

Embedded thumbnail for Working with Dimensions: Draftsman Documents
How to Work with Draftsman
Working with Dimensions: Draftsman Documents

Draftsman Documents provide dimensioning tools to capture and display the physical features of the product for fabrication and documentation. 

Embedded thumbnail for Impedance Calculations: Differential Pairs
Impedance calculation
Impedance Calculations: Differential Pairs

Altium designer makes it easy to calculate geometry when you need to calculate impedance for differential pairs. We’ll go over how differential pairs can help with a two layer and multi layer board, as well as what types you can create such as differential co-planar, and how to configure them for your specific design.

Embedded thumbnail for Creating and using templates
How to Work with Draftsman
Creating and using templates

Draftsman Templates are a quick way of laying out your Draftsman Document in Altium Designer. We’ll show you how to utilize them and the differences between sheet and document templates.

Embedded thumbnail for Adding 3D Assemblies to a Multi-Board Project
How to work with Multiboard
Adding 3D Assemblies to a Multi-Board Project

The next step in the multiboard design process is adding 3D PCB Assemblies. We’ll show you how to add them to your design and how to work with the Assembly Editor.

Embedded thumbnail for Altium 365 - Design Collaboration | Tasks
Getting Started with A365
Altium 365 - Design Collaboration | Tasks

The Tasks feature brings lightweight task tracking to further enhance design collaboration in Altium 365. With Tasks, you will never lose an important action item and easily gain a high-level view of the state of your project, all without leaving your design environment. 

Tag
Your search returns no results.