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Design Phase – Lid Assembly Mechanics Part 1

It is time to delve deep into the mechanical design of our Open Source Laptop project. In this article we give you an update about the first part of fitting elements into the system. You will learn more about laptop lid, webcam integration, light sensor and microphones which will be used in this project.

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How-To's
Coming Soon: Automatic Multi-Net Tuning

Automatic Multi-Net Tuning enhances PCB design accuracy and efficiency by automatically adjusting multiple nets simultaneously to meet specific design rules, including length and delay. Learn more about this feature, which will be released on December 13th. Its flexibility enables effective work with differential pairs and traces at any angle. It not only identifies but also rectifies issues related to automatic length tuning, ensuring your designs adhere to key standards without the need for manual adjustments.

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How to Design for Test in Embedded Systems

Whether you're designing a high-speed PCB, or a complex embedded system, it will need some level of testing. In this article, we will show you some simple tricks that can make testing and debugging a prototype much easier. 

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How-To's
Coming Soon: PCB CoDesign

PCB CoDesign makes it easier for everyone to work together and meet project deadlines. In Altium Designer 24, which is scheduled for release on December 13th, we are introducing a new feature. This feature optimizes your resources through a Git-like approach, allowing multiple team members to work simultaneously and commit changes to a master branch. This expedites the design process and lowers project costs.

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Crosstalk Basics in PCB Design

Crosstalk is one of the most common issues related to electronics. Learn the basics of this phenomenon in PCB design, and gain knowledge on how to avoid it in your projects.

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How-To's
Coming Soon: MultiBoard Draftsman

MultiBoard Draftsman enhances the efficiency of design reviews and assembly precision by offering a unified platform for detailed viewing and documentation of MultiBoard Designs. Discover more about this feature in our brand-new short video.

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How-To's
Coming Soon: PCB Layout Replication

PCB Layout Replication allows quick replication of layouts for repetitive circuitry blocks in a flat PCB design. In this short video we will show you how this new tool (scheduled for release on December 13th) eliminates the need to do repetitive tasks manually or for various workarounds like snippets or multi-channel designs.

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Access to your Training Certificates on My Altium

Introduce an update on the My Altium user page that highlights your certificates and tracks your training progress, with one-click access to the Training Dashboard and Training Catalog pages. Easily view and share your certificates, keep an eye on your learning journey, and explore a variety of training resources.

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Rigid-Flex PCBs: Advantages and Challenges

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.

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.

Intrusive Soldering
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When Should You Use Intrusive Soldering?

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.

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How-To's
Coming Soon: Constraint Manager

Constraint Manager simplifies PCB design by facilitating collaborative constraint definition from both Schematic and PCB. Learn more about this new feature, which streamlines the process of setting electrical clearances and creating rules while centralizing class management for time-saving convenience.

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.

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Simulation in Altium Designer
Debounce Circuit

Learn how to simulate the circuit, identify a common issue, and walk through how to diagnose and correct any errors found in a seemingly well-designed debounce circuit. 

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Import Component Footprints Faster with Altium Designer
Import Component Footprints Faster with Altium Designer. Part II: Using an External Library, Internal IPC Compliant Footprint Wizard, and Datasheet-Based Creation

In this video, we will guide you through three distinct manual component import methods; employing an external library, utilizing the internal IPC Compliant Footprint Wizard, or creating one yourself based on documentation.

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What is a Schematic Netlist for Your PCB?

If you’ve created your next great schematic, there is a lot going on behind the scenes in your design software. A schematic netlist is one of the central pieces of information that will be used in multiple features in your design software to create a real PCB. Your schematic netlist provides both electrical connectivity information, and reflects the functional structure of your design data in a single set of data.

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Blog
How to Select an Inductor for a Buck Converter

An SMPS is one of those quiet (yet electrically noisy) devices that makes your favorite electronics run smoothly. Among the numerous DC-DC converter topologies, a buck converter finds plenty of uses for stepping down the input voltage to a lower level while providing high efficiency power conversion. A common question around component selection for these power converters is how to select an inductor for a buck converter. The goal in working with an inductor and other components in a buck converter is to limit power loss to heat and while minimizing current ripple.

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Blog
US Department of Transportation Seeking Alternatives to GPS

GPS-capable devices range from your phone to your smartwatch; simply type in your destination and follow the directions. Simple, right? According to the Washington Post, we should all stop using GPS as it’s ruining the navigation centers of our brains. Despite the neurological effects on perception and judgment, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) aims to find alternatives to GPS to provide redundancy.

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Blog
Bluetooth 5.1 SoC vs. Module: Which is Best for Your Design?

The list of features available in Bluetooth just got a little longer since the release of Bluetooth 5.1. If you want to incorporate a Bluetooth 5.1 SoC into your new product, you have two primary options for bringing this component into your board. The first is as an SoC that mounts to your board just like any other component. The other option is to bring a module into your new board—directly onto the surface layer. Here’s what you need to know about a Bluetooth 5.1 SoC or module in your next IoT product.

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USB Power Delivery for Your Next Project

Since its introduction in the late 90s, the USB standard has never ceased to grow in popularity. There has been a growing trend toward USB being a power delivery interface with data, rather than a data interface that can supply power, as the 1.0 specification originally intended. To supply the increasing thirst for power over USB, the USB 3.0 Spec with Type-C began implementing the Power Delivery standard, which you should consider using for your next electronics project.

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Circuit Board Design for In-Circuit Testing

There are many types of circuit board tests available in electronics manufacturing today, each having unique goals and characteristics. This article presents guidelines at the design level (schematic and layout) to enable the use of in-circuit testing (ICT) fixtures to verify proper component assembly. These simple test fixtures allow your board to be tested as its assembled, which helps identify and remove failed boards from your production run.

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Planning for the Future with Cirris Systems and Altium

Technological advancements have been a hallmark of the past few decades, from the widespread adoption of internet technology to the smartphones and wireless devices we rely on every day to stay connected. Orlan Thatcher, Board Layout Specialist at Cirris Systems, could never have predicted the demand their services would generate. The company struggled with six different software platforms before switching to Altium Designer.

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Blog
An Introduction to NFC

I used to work in a research lab that worked primarily with RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) and NFC (Near Field Communication) technology, particularly for the agriculture industry and cattle identification. These were very specialized fields; however, the lab also worked on projects which involved retail and various other applications for NFC. It’s an amazing technology that you might be using every day without thinking about it - building access to your mobile phone payments, for instance. 

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Editing Your PCB Geometry with MCAD Tools

You need to define your PCB geometry in the context of your enclosure. If your board cannot physically be assembled into the final product, it doesn't matter how well laid out it is electrically. This webinar focuses on how the MCAD CoDesigner allows you to edit your PCB in the context of a higher-level assembly, allowing you to respect the relevant mechanical constraints.

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The PCB Fabrication Process — what Every Design Engineer Needs To Know, Part 2

In Part 1 of this article, I described the first steps that occur during the PCB fabrication process. They detailed the inner layer processing effort as well as the efforts that take place during the transition from inner layer processing to lamination. This part of the article will provide a detailed description of the lamination, drilling and plating processes.

Blog
The PCB Fabrication Process—What Every Design Engineer Needs To Know, Part 1

There are still a number of designers - perhaps most of them - who have never toured a PCB fabrication facility. They are also unaware of the various steps that occur during the fabrication process. The purpose of this article is to describe those steps and what transpires in each of them. Part 1 of this article focuses on inner layer processing and the steps that are done prior the lamination process.

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Webinar "8 Reasons to Store Your Components in Altium 365"

Working with local libraries seems like a simple solution, but we often don’t take into account the added time spent maintaining libraries and sharing them between team members. This webinar showcases the advantages of component storage in Аltium 365 to resolve the issues of local libraries and component management.

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Bridging the Gap Between Designers and Customers

Every piece of electronic equipment starts with a great idea. Transforming great ideas into real, physical products takes a team of talented individuals and multiple companies coming together to make everything from the internal components to the external hardware. Paul Payen de la Garanderie, Founder and Owner of AW Audio, an engineering services company based in France, understands these challenges very well. With an extensive background in the Audio/Visual industry, Paul has had to work with multiple companies over the years, from small start-ups to celebrated AV firms.

Blog
Additive PCB Manufacturing: The Vaccine for Electronics Supply Shocks?

At this time, at least a quarter of the world’s population is under quarantine, with workers unable to go to offices or factories, leading to fundamental disabling of the world economy. The electronics industry is suffering greatly as well, dealing with a supply shock from factories shutting down in Southeast Asia, to demand-side shocks from Western markets literally shutting down. Now it is the electrical engineers taking the lead with additive PCB manufacturing.

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Blog
Webinar "6 Steps to Master Project Storage"

Altium 365 provides a secure cloud platform to store all of your design files in a single place so you can share them with anyone and access them from anywhere. This webinar discusses the advantages of placing, storing, and working with projects in Altium 365.

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New in Altium Designer 25
Make Smarter Design Decisions with Signal Analyzer by Keysight

Discover how to simplify your workflow and boost design confidence with Signal Analyzer by Keysight—a complete extension available right inside Altium Designer 25. This whitepaper shows you how to analyze impedance, delay, and insertion/return loss without ever leaving your design environment.

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Altium Designer's 25 Quantitative Benefits
Unveiling 86% Task Time Efficiency in Altium Designer 25

Watch how Altium Designer 25 saves time on PCB visualization. This short video shows a side-by-side comparison of the same task done in Altium Designer 25 vs. an external CAD tool—revealing big time and click savings. A great teaser to highlight the value of the unified design environment and promote the Benefit Calculator.

Embedded thumbnail for AGND vs PGND: Proper Net Tie Connections in Power Regulator PCB Design
How-To's
AGND vs PGND: Proper Net Tie Connections in Power Regulator PCB Design

What’s the difference between AGND and PGND — and when should you use a net tie? Zach Peterson breaks down proper PCB layout for buck converters, grounding best practices, and why component placement matters in switching regulator designs.

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Altium Stories
Students at Monash UAS Fly Higher with Altium Solutions to Power Their Autonomous Drone Technology

Discover how the Monash Uncrewed Aerial Systems team leverages Altium Designer, MCAD CoDesigner, and Altium 365 to develop custom drone boards for critical humanitarian missions.

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New in Altium Designer 25
Say Goodbye to Disjointed Workflows: Unified Product Design in Altium Designer 25

Check an overview of how Altium Designer 25 unifies Multi-Board and Harness Design into a seamless, efficient workflow for faster, error-free product development.

Embedded thumbnail for From Concept to Reality: Updated 3D-MID Demo in Altium Designer 25
New in Altium Designer 25
From Concept to Reality: Updated 3D-MID Demo in Altium Designer 25

A walkthrough of the new 3D-MID capabilities in Altium Designer 25. Covers setting up a 3D PCB document, component placement on curved surfaces, routing with grids and sketches, exporting for LDS manufacturing, and generating a 3D pick-and-place file.

Embedded thumbnail for Take 66% of Your Time Back with Custom Pad Stack in Altium Designer 25
Altium Designer's 25 Quantitative Benefits
Take 66% of Your Time Back with Custom Pad Stack in Altium Designer 25

This video demonstrates the measurable productivity gains of using the Custom Pad Stack tool in Altium Designer 25. It compares a detailed QFN-32 footprint customization process across versions, showing a significant reduction in time and mouse clicks—2 min 5 sec vs. 6 min 2 sec, and 45 vs. 116 clicks.

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How-To's
PCB Stackups in Reverse?

Watch our new tutorial on reverse PCB stackups — a unique approach that combines thin internal layers with thicker outer cores for specialized applications. Learn how to implement reverse stackups effectively in Altium Designer, understand key manufacturability constraints, and explore Rogers materials specifically suited for this technique.

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New in Altium Designer 25
Design Smarter - Harness, Multi-board, and MCAD CoDesign in Action

This webinar highlights how Altium Designer 25, with a Pro or Enterprise subscription, enables seamless ECAD-MCAD collaboration using Harness and Multi-board Design tools and the advanced MCAD CoDesigner. Viewers will learn how to integrate harness designs, optimize multi-board systems for enclosure fit, and synchronize designs with SolidWorks, PTC Creo, and Autodesk Inventor.

Embedded thumbnail for Unified Login in Altium Designer 25
New in Altium Designer 25
Unified Login in Altium Designer 25

We've unified the login experience across Altium Designer, Altium 365, and the Altium website—one set of credentials is all you need. This update simplifies access, enhances security, and improves session management for a smoother user experience.

Embedded thumbnail for Custom Ethernet Switch Powers Up: Assembly to Working Hardware Test
How-To's
Custom Ethernet Switch Powers Up: Assembly to Working Hardware Test

Watch our latest video as host Zach Peterson presents his custom Ethernet switch PCB. He walks through the design in Altium Designer, programs the firmware, and tests the board in a real server environment using both copper and fiber connections. This video showcases the complete journey from PCB design to fully functional hardware.

Embedded thumbnail for Mastering Pad and Via Templates (or Padstacks) in Altium Designer
How-To's
Mastering Pad and Via Templates (or Padstacks) in Altium Designer

Learn how to create, export, and reuse Pad and Via templates (Padstacks) in Altium Designer. This tutorial covers standardized libraries to optimize PCB design and ensure consistency across projects.

Embedded thumbnail for Power Rail Routing Mastery: Multiple Voltage Planes in Altium Designer
How-To's
Power Rail Routing Mastery: Multiple Voltage Planes in Altium Designer

Want to design a complex Power Distribution Network (PDN)? Watch our exclusive tutorial to learn expert techniques for routing 10+ power rails on a single PCB layer—while minimizing EMI and ensuring signal integrity.

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Altium Designer's 25 Quantitative Benefits
Unveiling 99% Task Time Efficiency

This video showcases Altium Designer 25’s PCB Section View, a powerful tool for detailed circuit analysis and optimization. Learn how it enhances precision, improves performance, and simplifies complex PCB layouts with real-world applications.

Embedded thumbnail for Bottom Terminated Component Guide: Footprint Design Best Practices
How-To's
Bottom Terminated Component Guide: Footprint Design Best Practices

Want to create a reliable footprint for your PCB design? Watch our latest video with Zach Peterson and learn best practices for designing PCB footprints for bottom-terminated components. This tutorial covers how to properly design paste masks for QFNs, BGAs, and other bottom-terminated packages to prevent common assembly issues.

Embedded thumbnail for Design 4x Faster with Altium Designer 25
Altium Designer's 25 Quantitative Benefits
Design 4x Faster with Altium Designer 25

PCB CoDesign in Altium Designer 25 enables multiple engineers to collaborate on a single PCB design, saving over 10 minutes and 300+ clicks. With an intuitive compare-and-merge workflow, teams can efficiently resolve conflicts and streamline their design process. Check out this video to learn more, and use the Benefit Calculator to see your potential time savings: https://www.altium.com/benefit-calculator.

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