News & Updates

Controlled impedance routing at high frequencies is difficult enough, and it's important to make sure that you stay within your loss budget on long routes or in lossy media. When you have to route a long trace or a long differential pair to a connector or another component, what can you do if you're reaching the end of your loss budget? In this article, we’ll take a look at the skip reference routing method and explain how it can help recover some loss budget in a lossy interconnect.

What most people don’t seem to grasp is that every aspect of the PCB is critical. It all plays a significant part in the operation of the final product. The layer stack is no different. We need to keep in mind materials and the intricacies therein, including thickness, weave, dielectric constants, and more. A proper layer stack is needed for each and every design, so it's important to know how to navigate the layer stack manager and all of its features.

We are pleased to announce that Altium 365 is officially SOC 2 Type 1 certified. System and Organization Controls (SOC) 2 is a widely recognized attestation of security compliance defined by the AICPA and is considered the standard for ensuring data security and operational maturity. A SOC 2 certification provides valuable information for companies to assess the quality of the security provided by a service such as Altium 365.

It’s no secret that component shortages have become more frequent this year. Companies will continue to grapple with supply chain challenges into 2022 and beyond. The impact of manufacturing delays can be substantial if a part is not available. Delays occur and sales plans get put on hold. It can also be very expensive and risky to replace parts from multiple sources. Fortunately, many shortages can be avoided by introducing proactive supply chain practices.

Reliability testing and failure analysis of a PCB/PCBA go hand-in-hand; when designs are stressed to the limit, their failure modes need to be determined through thorough inspection and analysis. To get started on this topic, it’s important to understand the qualification aspects that will govern your bare board design and the PCBA. We’ll look at the various dimensions of PCB/PCBA reliability, as well as some of the standard failure analysis techniques used to identify potential design change requirements.

By now, designers should be aware of some important behavior involved in power delivery to components in a PCB, particularly for digital components. All digital components produce and manipulate wideband signals, where the frequency content theoretically extends up to infinite frequency. As such, some radiation may propagate through your PCB, leading to resonant behavior that is not observed on the power rail.

Supply shortages have become and continue to be a common problem, especially when it comes to the world of electronics. It's hard to get all the different components for our boards. Heck! It's even tough to get the board themselves too! When electronic components become obsolete or out of stock, design and production can suffer lengthy delays. With current supply chain delays and with an average of 15 end-of-life notices issued every day, obtaining the parts you need is a challenge.

Once your board passes through the standard PCB fabrication process, the bare copper in your PCB will be ready for the application of a surface finish. PCB plating is applied to protect any copper in your PCB that would be exposed through the solder mask, whether it’s a pad, via, or other conductive element. In this article, I’ll run over the different PCB plating material options and their advantages in your PCB.

The PCB supply chain encompasses multiple components, raw materials, and the PCB itself. PCBs and PCB assemblies are often the most technically complex components that are purchased for electronic assemblies and products. The complexity of modern PCBs leads to several challenges for a supply chain management team that may be significantly different when compared with other commodities the team manages. In this brief guide, we'll look in-depth at the PCB supply chain, and specifically what falls within the purview of a procurement and supply chain management team.

On interconnects, such as board-to-board connections or cascaded transmission line arrangements, you have an important EMC compliance metric that is sometimes overlooked. This is mode conversion, which can be visualized in an S-parameter measurement for differential and common-mode signal transmission. In this article, we’ll look at a short overview of mode conversion in high-speed design with some examples from common differential standards.

Originally built for software development, Jira has become a popular tool for agile project management across various industries. Our new article explores how hardware teams can leverage core Jira features and adapt agile principles to suit the unique needs of hardware development.

Discover why top electronics companies are replacing spreadsheets with purpose-built BOM management solutions. This whitepaper outlines the risks of outdated methods, offers a readiness checklist, and explores how BOM Portal helps teams cut costs, reduce risk, and speed up development with smarter, data-driven workflows.

Material and process choices play a key role in high-performance PCB design. This article highlights how stack-up configuration, substrate selection, and lamination strategy impact signal integrity, reliability, and manufacturability.

Designing for inspection is key to reliable manufacturing. This article covers practical PCB layout tips to optimize your board for AOI and X-ray inspection helping you reduce defects, false positives, and production delays.

Read our brand-new article where we explore the key areas of an engineering project and the different stages of electronic product development from a project execution perspective. From initiation and planning to design, development, validation, testing, and certification, we walk you through each phase to help you understand how successful electronic products are brought to life.

This article highlights how seemingly minor layout choices like trace spacing, component footprints, or stack-up details can dramatically impact whether a board passes fabrication and assembly the first time.

Designing with supply chain principles in mind helps you avoid delays, reduce costs, and ensure manufacturability. This article outlines practical strategies for component selection, sourcing, and lifecycle management to make your designs more resilient and production-ready.

Learn how proactive component selection helps you avoid supply chain risks, reduce costs, and design more reliably. Our new article outlines key strategies and shows how tools like Altium 365 support smarter part decisions.

Power problems can be hard to spot until it’s too late. See how easy it is to analyze your power nets, check voltage drops, and improve reliability with Power Analyzer by Keysight - all without leaving your design environment.

Signal issues can sneak in early and cost you later. Read our whitepaper to see how Signal Analyzer by Keysight (inside Altium Designer) helps you catch problems fast and design with confidence.

Learn how to enhance part selection by using real-time supply chain data. This article shows how integrating insights like availability and lifecycle status helps you make smarter, risk-aware design choices.

See how the Signal Analyzer by Keysight in Altium Designer lets you run signal integrity checks directly within your design environment. Read our article to learn how to effectively manage impedance, return paths, stackups, and more.

Ensure power and signal integrity with the Keysight Bundle in Altium Designer. Catch issues early, reduce rework, and optimize your PCBs - all within one integrated environment featuring Signal & Power Analyzer.

Final component validation is the last critical check before building a prototype, ensuring all parts are accurate, available, and viable. This article shows how Altium’s integrated tools—like SiliconExpert, Z2Data, Octopart, and BOM Portal—help teams avoid costly surprises and prepare with confidence.

Explore the essential steps and tools for Harness Design in Altium Designer 25, from initial setup to final documentation. The article highlights how the unified design environment streamlines the entire process, improving efficiency and project integration.

Altium Designer is constantly evolving, with powerful new features and updates on the way. Get an exclusive first look at what’s coming next—visit our Coming Soon page to stay up to date with the latest innovations.