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Altium 365 GovCloud Why We Chose AWS GovCloud (US) Cover
Blog
4 Reasons Why We Chose AWS GovCloud (US) for Altium 365 GovCloud

In this blog, we explain the reasons behind our decision to operate Altium 365 GovCloud within AWS GovCloud (US). This partnership is guided by a clear vision: to provide our users with a secure, compliant, and reliable platform for sensitive electronics design data.

Embedded thumbnail for Mastering Data Management with Altium Designer 24 - Webinar Recording
New in Altium Designer 24
Mastering Data Management with Altium Designer 24 - Webinar Recording

Explore how Altium Designer 24 empowers you to effectively manage, access, and synchronize your data in our April webinar recording. The full video can be found here: COM April Webinar Recording

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Embedded World 2024
Embedded World 2024 Slideshow

We’re still looking back at Embedded World 2024 in awe of what an adventure it was! Shout out to everyone who swung by our booth, bringing boundless enthusiasm, insights, and energy to the mix—you made this event a resounding success! Check our brand new slideshow from this international event.

Embedded thumbnail for V-Scoring vs. Mouse Bites! PCB Panelization Deep Dive
How-To's
V-Scoring vs. Mouse Bites! PCB Panelization Deep Dive

Dive deep into PCB panel design and manufacturing as we explore the intricacies of V-Scoring and Mouse Bites. This comprehensive video sheds light on these pivotal techniques essential in PCB manufacturing.

Blog
3D MID Design Whitepaper

Dive into a dynamic design experience where you can visualize and edit your circuits in true 3D, offering unparalleled precision. Altium Designer's 3D-MID (Mechatronic Integrated Device) Design tool revolutionizes the design process, providing a fresh perspective. Explore the capabilities and benefits of this feature in our comprehensive guide.

Blog
Types of Wiring Harnesses for Electronics

In today's world, many products utilize multiple PCBs interconnected with each other, often leading to a complex network of cables within an enclosure. The most effective way to manage these wires and cables is by constructing a wiring harness. This article explores the various types of harnesses used in electronics.

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Octopart
Expert Insights on Alternate Parts

Join Philip Salmony in this enlightening series as he unravels the complexities of sourcing alternate parts to enhance your designs. In this episode, watch Phil effortlessly locate a substitute Ceramic Capacitor, backed with invaluable tips, tricks, and strategies that will transform your approach to part sourcing and revolutionize your design process.

Blog
Start Altium Designer 24 Training for Free

Level up your design skills with Altium Designer 24 training! Whether you're looking to brush up on the basics or delve into advanced techniques, our instructor-led or on-demand videos will help you master the latest features.

Blog
PCB Layout Replication Whitepaper

Experience seamless acceleration in your design workflow with Altium Designer® 24's PCB Layout Replication feature. Effortlessly duplicate layouts for recurring circuit blocks and component groups, amplifying efficiency and reducing expenses.

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New Constraint Manager
New Constraint Manager: Physical Constraints, Layout Checks & Constraint Sets

Part IV of our Constraint Manager Series is live! In this episode, we explore essential steps like setting up physical constraints, conducting layout checks, and organizing constraint sets for efficient PCB design management. Follow along to enhance your workflow and optimize your designs.

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Wearable Design Project
Wearable Design Project - Power Supply

Part IV of our Wearable Design Project series is here! Join Piet Callemeyn as he tackles power supply strategy for our wireless heart rate sensor. Learn about battery integration, charging mechanisms, and power gating modes for optimal energy use. Whether you're a novice or expert, this episode provides practical insights into wearable tech design.

Blog
Custom Pad Stack Whitepaper

Explore our manual on the Custom Pad Stack enhanced feature. From thermal connections to pad shapes, every detail matters. Pads are no longer merely points; they demand unique, tailored solutions. With Altium Designer 24, you can customize pad shapes, fine-tune thermal relief, and master rounded/chamfered rectangle pads to meet manufacturing standards, conquer tight spaces, and elevate your design game significantly.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Via current carrying capacity for PCBs
Blog
PCB Via Current-Carrying Capacity: How Hot is Too Hot?

One common question from designers is current-carrying capacity of conductors in a PCB. Trace and via current-carrying capacity are legitimate design points to focus on when designing a new board that will carry high current. The goal is to keep conductor temperatures below some appropriate limit, which then helps keep components on the board cool. Let’s dig into the current state of thermal demands on vias in PCBs and how they compare to internal and external PCB traces.

PCB Shield
Blog
Phalanx, not Failure: PCB Shielding to Protect Your Design

A combination of good printed circuit board design and good shielding mitigates EMI. Good PCB design for EMI shielding revolves around the layout, the placement of filters, and ground planes. A well-designed PCB minimizes parasitic capacitance and ground loops. Keep reading to learn more about PCB shielding.

Man working in Altium Designer
Blog
Best Practices in Hardware Version Control Systems

Any project can get very complex, and the PCB design team needs to track revisions throughout a project. Why worry about tracking revisions? In the event you ever receive changes to product functional requirements, major changes are made to your product’s architecture, or you’re ready to finalize the design and prepare for fabrication, it’s best to clone a project at its current state and begin working on a new version. Keeping track of all these design changes in a PCB design project takes the type of hardware version control tools you’ll find in Altium 365™.

Copper pour and via stitching
Blog
Copper Pour and Via Stitching: Do You Need Them in a PCB Layout?

To pour or not to pour, to stitch or not to stitch… Over many years, some common “rules of thumb” have become very popular and, ultimately, taken a bit out of context. Rules of thumb are not always wrong, but taking PCB design recommendations out of context helps justify bad design practices, and it can even affect the producibility of your board. Like many aspects of a physical PCB layout, via stitching and copper pour can be like acid: quite useful if implemented properly, but also dangerous if used indiscriminately.

MOSFET Components
Blog
Should You Use Power MOSFETs in Series?

Power MOSFETs enable a huge range of electronic systems, specifically in situations where BJTs are not useful or efficient. MOSFETs can be used in high current systems in parallel arrangements, but what about their use in series? Both arrangements of MOSFETs have their pitfalls that designers should consider. Let’s look at MOSFETs in series as they are quite useful in certain systems, but be careful to design your circuits and your PCB for reliability.

MLCC controlled ESR capacitor
Blog
Controlled ESR Capacitors: Should You Use Them for Power Integrity?

I can’t think of a single product I’ve built that doesn’t require capacitors. We often talk a lot about effective series inductance (ESL) in capacitors and its effects on power integrity. What about effective series resistance (ESR)? Is there a technique you can use to determine the appropriate level of resistance, and can you use ESR to your advantage?

Ground Pour, Impedance and Losses
Blog
Microstrip Ground Clearance Part 2: How Clearance Affects Losses

If your goal is to hit a target impedance, and you’re worried about how nearby pour might affect impedance, you can get closer than the limits set by the 3W rule. But what are the effects on losses? If the reason for this question isn’t obvious, or if you’re not up-to-date on the finer points of transmission line design, then keep reading to see how nearby ground pour can affect losses in impedance-controlled interconnects.

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NEW
Embedded thumbnail for Signal Integrity Made Simple - Recording Preview
How-To's
Signal Integrity Made Simple - Recording Preview

Catch up on our “Signal Integrity Made Simple” webinar to explore essential techniques for ensuring high-speed design integrity. Watch the recording to gain practical insights, and don’t miss our upcoming November webinar showcasing the latest Altium Designer release, featuring the powerful Signal Analyzer by Keysight and additional tools to optimize your projects.

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Kickstart Your Rigid-Flex Journey
Kickstart Your Rigid-Flex Journey: Part III - PCB Layout

In this third installment of our series, Piet Callemeyn demonstrates PCB layout creation from scratch for a rigid-flex project, covering key techniques like bend lines and split lines. A must-see for any PCB designer!

Embedded thumbnail for Beyond PCB Design with Altium Designer - Recording Preview
New in Altium Designer 24
Beyond PCB Design with Altium Designer - Recording Preview

We invite you to watch this webinar recording, where you'll discover how to streamline your entire PCB development workflow. Learn how to go beyond design to optimize documentation, outputs, and design specifications using Altium Designer. Check the recording here: COM September Webinar.

Embedded thumbnail for Advanced Wire Bonding Techniques in Altium Designer - Demo
New in Altium Designer 24
Advanced Wire Bonding Techniques in Altium Designer - Demo

Check out our brand-new demo of the Wire Bonding tool in Altium Designer! Learn step-by-step how to define die chips, create footprints, route bond wires, and set up a proper PCB layout with rules and constraints.

Embedded thumbnail for Use Cases with Dave Young: Harness Design
New in Altium Designer 24
Use Cases with Dave Young: Harness Design

Join Dave Young in this Use Cases video as he walks you through Harness Design in Altium Designer 24. From starting a new harness project to utilizing wires and taps, you’ll discover how easy it is to replace standard schematic views with detailed mechanical drawings. Don't miss this hands-on tutorial and elevate your design expertise!

Embedded thumbnail for Make Smarter Design Decisions - Signal Analyzer Demo
How-To's
Make Smarter Design Decisions - Signal Analyzer Demo

Master the Signal Analyzer by Keysight in this demo! Learn to analyze and fix net classes for impedance, delay, and return loss to optimize your designs. Watch now and take your PCB designs to the next level.

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Altium Stories
Engineering Aerial Intelligence with Quantum Systems

Quantum Systems specializes in engineering advanced drone solutions that deliver critical aerial intelligence to various industries. Watch the new Altium Stories episode to see how Altium Designer and Altium 365 help Quantum Systems streamline their electronics engineering processes, ensuring seamless collaboration across teams.

Embedded thumbnail for Crover Uses Altium to Develop Subterranean Grain Swimming Robots
Altium Stories
Crover Uses Altium to Develop Subterranean Grain Swimming Robots

Discover how, through Altium's Launchpad program, Crover leveraged Altium Designer and Altium 365 to accelerate iteration and collaborate seamlessly across teams, including their mechanical engineering division. With intelligent part data readily available, they were able to make informed part choices with confidence.

Embedded thumbnail for Use Cases with Dave Young: Multiboard and Harness
New in Altium Designer 24
Use Cases with Dave Young: Multiboard and Harness

In this video, Dave Young demonstrates the use of MultiBoard and Harness in Altium Designer 24, using a custom quadcopter motor part as an example. Learn how these advanced tools can optimize your design workflow.

Embedded thumbnail for Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials - Verifying Changes and Finalizing the Design
Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials
Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials - Verifying Changes and Finalizing the Design

In this final installment of our tutorial series on the upcoming extension – Signal Analyzer by Keysight – we will guide you through the process of ensuring that your design meets all necessary performance standards. 

Embedded thumbnail for Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials - Analyzing Simulation Results and Correcting Violation
Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials
Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials - Analyzing Simulation Results and Correcting Violation

We invite you to join the third chapter of the Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials. In this installment, we’ll show you how to analyze simulation results and correct violations to ensure your PCB design aligns with performance standards.

Embedded thumbnail for LDO Regulator Essentials: From Basics to Advanced. Part IV: Step Response
LDO Regulator Essentials
LDO Regulator Essentials: From Basics to Advanced. Part IV: Step Response

In this new chapter of the LDO Essentials series, Rafał Stępień explores the Step Response of LDO regulators using Altium Designer's Mixed Simulation. Discover how to optimize your designs for enhanced stability and efficiency!

Embedded thumbnail for Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials - Setting Up and Running Simulations
Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials
Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials - Setting Up and Running Simulations

We are continuing our tutorial series on the Signal Analyzer by Keysight extension, diving deeper into its setup. We'll guide you through the configuration process and demonstrate how to run simulations using this powerful tool.

Embedded thumbnail for Kickstart Your Rigid-Flex Journey: Part II - Altium Designer Setup for Rigid-Flex
Kickstart Your Rigid-Flex Journey
Kickstart Your Rigid-Flex Journey: Part II - Altium Designer Setup for Rigid-Flex

Learn how to set up Altium Designer for Rigid-Flex PCB projects with step-by-step guidance from Piet Callemeyn. Master both manual and automatic layer stack configuration in just a few minutes!

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Altium Stories
Subterranean Robots Secure Our Global Food Future

After discovering the Crover effect, Lorenzo Conti developed a groundbreaking grain-swimming robot to monitor and protect stored cereals. Using Altium-powered design, this innovative technology gathers critical data beneath bulk storage surfaces, reducing waste and enhancing food security. Join us as we explore how these robots are shaping a sustainable future and safeguarding our global food supply.

Embedded thumbnail for Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials - Initial Setup
Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials
Signal Analyzer by Keysight Tutorials - Initial Setup

In our new tutorial series, we will explore how the upcoming Signal Analyzer by Keysight enhances signal analysis in your PCB designs. In this first part, we'll guide you through a step-by-step installation process, ensuring the extension is properly set up in your Altium Designer environment.

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