News & Updates
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When to Use Tented Vias in Your PCB Layout
There are some guidelines I see many designers implement as a standard practice, often without thinking about it. Some of these practices are misunderstood or implemented without best practices. Others are implemented without thinking about the potential problems. One of these is the use of tented vias, which is sometimes implemented in a PCB layout by default. Is this always the right practice?
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How to Impedance Match and Terminate Capacitive Loads
The idea of a purely capacitive load is something of a fallacy. Yes, capacitors exist, but all capacitors are non-ideal, and it is this deviation from a theoretical capacitance that determines how to impedance match a load that exhibits capacitive behavior. Let’s take a look at this important aspect of interconnect design and see what it really means to terminate a capacitive load.
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Using Altium 365 Over Your Vanilla Version Control System
There are all sorts of version control systems out there that people have been using with their PCB design software. As discussed in Why Use a Version Control System, we looked at different options ranging for local hard drive storage to sophisticated online revisioning systems. In this article we will be reviewing the differences between a standard VCS and Altium 365.
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Why Use a Version Control System in PCB Design
Version Control Systems (VCS) have been around for many decades within the software world but can be surprisingly new to some folks in the electronics design industry. This article will cover what a VCS is, what it does, and why you should be using one for your PCB design projects.
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Meeting Standards: IPC 6012 Class 3 Annular Ring
Designers often conflate leftover annular ring and pad sizes - they need to place a sufficiently large pad size on the surface layer to ensure that the annular ring that is leftover during fabrication will be large enough. As long as the annular ring is sufficiently large, the drill hit will not be considered defective and the board will have passed inspection. In this article, I'll discuss the limits on IPC-6012 Class 3 annular rings as these are a standard fabrication requirement for high-reliability rigid PCBs.
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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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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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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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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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The Main Advantages when using Draftsman to Create a Component Mounting Drawing
Quite often, a standard assembly drawing is not enough to ensure the quality of a PCB assembly, especially when designing high-density boards. It would also be helpful to include additional detailing for simpler devices. The use of a Draftsman document brings an elegant, yet powerful solution to make these tasks easier.
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The Benefits of Ultra HDI
Learn more about the combination of using both flexible materials and ultra-HDI feature sizes in this article.
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Understanding Power Supply Current Handling Issues: Causes and Solutions
Troubleshooting power supply current handling issues is crucial to achieving optimal performance of your electronic devices. In this article, we will explore the common reasons why a power supply fails to handle the defined output current and provide practical solutions to solving these issues.
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Concept Phase – Cooling and Airflow Part 1
Next step in our open-source laptop project is to explain how to design cooling and airflow. In this article, we can show you the first part of this process, such as airflow concept, fan measurement and clearance.
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Create Connections with Harness Design
Many modern electronics have multiple boards, and connecting those different boards and systems together are harnesses. Learn more about how Altium Designer can help you create harnesses for your own multi-board designs here.
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Do You Know How to Prevent Voltage Fluctuation?
We invite you to explore the causes of output voltage fluctuation. In this article we provide you insights on how to solve and prevent these issues.
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How to Build Your Own Laser Range Finder
In this article we will show you how to create step by step a digital laser range finder for your own. Everything is based on Raspberry Pi board.
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Nucleo Shields Multi-Board Design
Learn how easy it is to create multi-board projects. This practical project article covers the reasons for breaking larger boards into sub-assemblies and explores the various connection options available between sub-assembly boards.
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Analog Solar Tracker Project
In this article you can learn about light sensors while building an analog solar panel tracking system. This open-source project covers multi-channel design, window comparators, driving motors, and photosensors.
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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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Expert Tips for Safely Powering Up Your New PCB for the First Time
In this blog we will show you the strategies to minimize the risk of damage to circuit boards during the initial power-up process.
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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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MIDs Make a Comeback as Vertical SMD Modules for Your PCB
If you've ever wanted to mount components vertically, but without the expense of a flex section this article is for you. You can use an MID in your PCB.
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Everything You Need to Know about Conformal Coating
Explore the basics of conformal coating with us. Conformal coating is a protective layer applied to electronic circuits to guard against environmental factors such as moisture and dust.
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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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Mechanical and Electrical Design Come Together With Altium’s MCAD CoDesigner
Electronics designers working in small design houses or in large enterprises often encounter a common set of challenges when interfacing with mechanical designers. Continue reading to learn how you can best interface with your mechanical designer to get your projects out the door fast!
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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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