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PCB fabrication notes
Blog •
Decoding PCB Fabrication Notes

Sending a board out for fabrication is an exciting and nerve-wracking moment. Why not just give your fabricator your design files and let them figure it out? There are a few reasons for this, but it means the responsibility comes back to you as the designer to produce manufacturing files and documentation for your PCB. It’s actually quite simple if you have the right design tools. We’ll look at how you can do this inside your PCB layout and how this will help you quickly generate data for your manufacturer.

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Embedded thumbnail for Assigning Impedance Profiles for Differential Pairs
How to Work with Differential Pairs •
Assigning Impedance Profiles for Differential Pairs

When you assign an impedance profile to a differential pair you open up several options for control over your routes. We'll show you how to do just that, as well as how to fix errors that may pop up and how to create classes for differential pairs based on assigned impedance profiles.

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Embedded thumbnail for How to Highlight or Select Net Connections in the PCB
How-To's •
How to Highlight or Select Net Connections in the PCB

We’ll show you how to highlight net selections so you can easily track where connections are made. We’ll show you how to hide and show nets, and how to use the view configuration and PCB panels to view and highlight nets across your design, and how to assign net colors in both the PCB and the schematic.

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HDI PCB design and HDI PCB manufacturing process
Blog •
Design Basics for HDI and the HDI PCB Manufacturing Process

As the world of technology has evolved, so has the need to pack more capabilities into smaller packages. PCBs designed using high-density interconnect techniques tend to be smaller as more components are packed in a smaller space. An HDI PCB uses blind, buried, and micro vias, vias in pads, and very thin traces to pack more components into a smaller area. We’ll show you the design basics for HDI and how Altium Designer® can help you create a powerful HDI PCB.

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Embedded thumbnail for Remove Unused Via Pads
How to Design a BGA •
Remove Unused Via Pads

The Remove Unused Pad Shapes tool in Altium Designer gives you control over the via pads in your design. We’ll show you how to use it to increase the usable area of power and ground polygons, increase the density of conductors between hole rows, and fixing incorrect connections.

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All About PCB Test Points
Blog •
Is It Printed or a Component? All About PCB Test Points

Test points in your electronic assembly will give you a location to access components and take important measurements to verify functionality. If you’ve never used a test point or you’re not sure if you need test points, keep reading to see what options you have for test point usage in your PCB layout.

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Embedded thumbnail for Tent Vias under BGA
How to Design a BGA •
Tent Vias under BGA

When via are located close to component pads some soldering issues can arise, but this can be fixed with Tented vias. We’ll show you how to manually tent vias and how to tent vias through the Design Rules.

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How to Design to a Differential Impedance Specification
Blog •
How to Design to a Differential Impedance Specification

The concept and implementation of differential impedance are both sometimes misunderstood. In addition, the design of a channel to reach a specific differential impedance is often done in a haphazard way. The very concept of differential impedance is something of a mathematical construct that doesn’t fully capture the behavior of each signal in a differential trace. Keep reading to see a bit more depth on how to design to a differential impedance spec and exactly what it means for your design.

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Embedded thumbnail for Via-in-Pad for BGA
How to Design a BGA •
Via-in-Pad for BGA

We’ll teach you how to use Via-in-pad to reduce inductance, improve signal integrity, and improve power distribution system performance in BGA designs.

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Embedded thumbnail for Using HDI Stackups during BGA Design
How to Design a BGA •
Using HDI Stackups during BGA Design

Micro Vias and Buried Vias play an important role in high density interconnection layer stackups (HDI Stackups). We’ll show you how to add via and create rules to allow you to take full advantage of the HDI Stackup.

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Product Lifecycle Management in Electronics Manufacturing
Blog •
Product Lifecycle Management in Electronics Manufacturing

An effective product lifecycle management (PLM) solution will integrate the tools and processes employed to design, develop and manufacture a new device. This solution goes beyond engineering activities to include the project management, process control, and financial management of the end-to-end business processes. PLM solutions create this collaborative environment where product development can flourish, bringing additional benefits in efficiencies and transparent communications, breaking silos, and speeding up the development process.

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On-Demand Webinar •
Length Matching in High Speed Buses

With ever increasing speeds in high-speed data systems comes a couple of PCB layout challenges. High-speed busses like DDR, VME, PCIe just to mention a few can all reach data transfer speeds that require strict timing with very tight tolerances, thereby leaving very little slack in the PCB layout. Watch this on-demand webinar to learn why it's imperative to match track lengths in high-speed data systems and differential signals. You’ll see how to properly define PCB length matching and time delay constraints, and how to effectively route high-speed signals in Altium Designer®.

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Tight versus loose coupling
Blog •
Should You Use Tight vs. Loose Differential Pair Spacing and Coupling?

In this article, we want to get closer to a realistic description of tight coupling vs. loose coupling in terms of differential pair spacing, as well as how the differential pair spacing affects things like impedance, differential-mode noise, reception of common-mode noise, and termination. As we’ll see, the focus on tight coupling has its merits, but it’s often cited as necessary for the wrong reasons.

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Embedded thumbnail for Automatic Fanout With BGA
How to Design a BGA •
Automatic Fanout With BGA

When routing a BGA it can be necessary to use automatic fanout to make the routing process easier and faster. We’ll show you how to run the automatic fanout for routing a BGA and how the rules can affect the outcome of the route.

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Embedded thumbnail for Specifying NSMD and SMD for BGA
How to Design a BGA •
Specifying NSMD and SMD for BGA

BGA layouts use two types of pads: SMD, Solder Mask Pads, or NSMD, Non-Solder Mask Pads. Here we’ll walk you through the differences and how to specify and edit them for your layout.

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Engineering Design Review Guide
Blog •
How to Solve Your Engineering Design Review Challenges

You’ve possibly gone through plenty of engineering design reviews, both on the front-end of a project and the back-end before manufacturing. Engineering design reviews are performed to accomplish multiple objectives, and with many engineering teams taking a systems-based approach to design and production, electronics design teams will need to review much more than just a PCB layout and BOM. Today’s challenges with sourcing, manufacturability, reliability, and mechanical constraints are all areas that must be confronted in real designs

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Embedded thumbnail for Via Shielding and Stitching
Via Stitching •
Via Shielding and Stitching

Altium Designer gives you full control over your via shielding and stitching. We’ll show you how to use our shielding and stitching tools, how to alter their parameters, and how to remove any unwanted via shielding and stitching.

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Schematic Review Checklist
Blog •
Schematic Review Checklist

One of the most common points of failure of a device occurs even before you start to layout your circuit board. Mistakes in your schematic design can easily make their way all the way into prototypes or production without a second thought once layout starts. In this article, I’m not going to extol the virtues of a good schematic design. Instead, this article is a simple no frills checklist.

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Embedded thumbnail for xSignals for DDR3 and DDR4
How To Work with High-Speed Projects •
xSignals for DDR3 and DDR4

In a high-speed design, DDR3 and DDR4 memory chips can utilize xSignal classes to match track lengths from the controller to the memory chip easily and quickly using the xSignals wizard.

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Blog •
Concept Phase – Initial CAD Design

We are continuing our journey through the open-source laptop project. This article explains an initialization of CAD design process from the early concept and brainstorming phase.

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Blog •
High-Speed PCB Design Tips

Essential tips for high-speed PCB designs, and when you need to start being concerned about how and where you route your traces.

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Introduction to Open Source Laptop Project
Blog •
Introduction to Open Source Laptop Project

We have started a very exciting journey into the creation of an open source laptop project. This project will be an ongoing one, with our community able interactively participate. By utilizing Altium 365 users will be able to view, comment on, and download design files. This will be a great learning experience for new and experienced PCB designers.

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Blog •
Ebook: Routing High-Density Interconnects with Reliable Microvias

HDI PCBs take a particular approach to routing interconnects through multiple layers to ensure reliability during fabrication, assembly, and operation. The critical structure that enables this is microvias, which are prone to failure if not designed properly. In this e-book, readers will receive an initial look at the reasons microvia reliability has come into the spotlight and why HDI PCB designers put reliability first when routing through microvias.

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Blog •
IPC-2221 Calculator for PCB Trace Current and Heating

Aside from impedance and annular ring calculations, one of the other major formulas specified in the IPC 2221 standard relates temperature rise, trace width, and trace current. THere is also the IPC-2152 standard, both include this guidance on designing for thermal reliability, but which standard should we use?

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Blog •
Stripline Impedance Calculator

Striplines provide some advantages over microstrips as they take advantage of natural shielding and coupling from nearby ground plane layers. Although they tend to experience higher losses due to total confinement in the dielectric, they can be thinner due to the high dielectric constant used in internal layers of a PCB. Use our free impedence calculator to help you determine the correct width needed to hit a target impedance.

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Blog •
Which Types of Opto-Isolators Are Right For Your Signal?

An optoisolator is a cool electronic device that can be used to pass information between a diode without passing an electrical current. There are many great applications for these, but do you know which one is right for you?

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Blog •
Properties panel document options in SCH editors

The Properties panel provides access to the properties of documents and objects. The contents of the panel change depending on the active document or the selected object. This blog will quickly go over some of need to know options around the properties panel in the schematic document.

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

Even with all the good guidelines out there for high speed design, there are particular aspects of stackup construction and their relation to building boards that get overlooked. This blog is goes beyond just the typical SI/PI guidelines and looks at these problems from more of an engineering perspective.

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stitching vias
Blog •
Everything You Need to Know About Stitching Vias

Stitching vias are something you often see spread around the surface layer of a PCB, but what are they? and should you be using them? In this guide, we'll go over some of the standard uses of stitching vias and when they should be used in a PCB.

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PCB Stackup Basics
Blog •
PCB Stackup Basics

In comparison to the build-up of a PCB, the stackup is more concerned with the electrical type of each layer, that is are we working with signals, power, or ground. Continue reading to learn how you can optimize your layer stack.

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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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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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Embedded thumbnail for Allowing Permanent Display of Some Layers
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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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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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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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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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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。

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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.

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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。

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