News & Updates
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Blog
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PCB Design Variants: Managing Multiple PCBA Versions
Product variations often require different component populations, alternate parts, or configuration settings while keeping the underlying PCB design unchanged. This article explains how structured variant management keeps these differences organized and ensures each configuration has the correct BOM and manufacturing outputs.
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8 Common DFM Problems PCB Design Rules Catch Before Fab
Preventing DFM problems starts before fabrication not during the fab review. This article covers eight common PCB manufacturing issues and the design rules that help engineers identify and resolve them early.
Blog
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What is a Multi-CAD Environment? Advantages and Best Practices
Different CAD tools shouldn't mean disconnected teams. Learn how Multi-CAD workflows help engineers review designs, collaborate across disciplines, and catch mechanical or sourcing issues before they become costly redesigns.
Blog
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Deliver Production-Ready Multiboard PCBs Faster with Manufacturing-Driven Design
This article explores how manufacturing-driven design can help teams validate multiboard products before they reach the factory. It highlights how early checks of interconnects, harnesses, mechanical fit, sourcing, and manufacturing data can reduce late-stage changes and accelerate production readiness.
Blog
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Stop Chasing Signatures: How Automated Design Sign-offs Accelerate Release Cycles
Automated design sign-offs can eliminate much of the administrative friction surrounding hardware approvals. This article explores how in-context reviews, structured workflows, and automated traceability help teams accelerate release cycles while maintaining control.
Blog
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Flexible Circuits in Assembly: What PCB Designers Don’t See Until It’s Too Late
Flexible circuits introduce unique assembly challenges that aren't always visible during PCB design, from panel instability and component movement to thermal distortion during reflow. This article explains how design decisions around stiffeners, placement, panelization, and materials can improve assembly yield and reduce costly rework.
Blog
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Requirements Management Lessons Learned: The S-80 Submarine Program
Fixing one design problem can sometimes create another you didn't see coming. This article uses the S-80 submarine program to show how better requirements traceability can help teams spot hidden impacts before they turn into expensive rework.
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Trust Your BOM: Ensuring Design Data Integrity in Fast-Paced Hardware Projects
A BOM is only valuable if everyone can trust the data it contains. This article shows how connected BOM management helps teams eliminate errors, improve collaboration, and keep fast-moving hardware projects on schedule.
Blog
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The Best PCB Design Rules System Keeps Your Board Error Free
PCB design rules are the foundation of every successful layout. This article explores how defining and managing constraints helps engineers improve design accuracy, simplify verification, and deliver manufacturing-ready PCBs with confidence.
Blog
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Why Modern Electronics Teams Are Moving to a Cloud ECAD Platform
Great products are built by connected teams, not disconnected tools. This article shows how cloud ECAD platforms enable real-time co-design, structured design reviews, and seamless collaboration across engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain teams.
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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.
Blog
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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.
Blog
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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.
Blog
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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.
Blog
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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!
Blog
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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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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?
Blog
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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.
Blog
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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?
Blog
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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.
Blog
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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.
Blog
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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.
Blog
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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.
Blog
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Multi-board and Harness Design Capability in Altium Designer 23
Altium’s VP of marketing Lawrence Romine discusses the multi-board and harness design capabilities coming in Altium Designer 23.
Blog
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Controlled ESR Capacitors: Should You Use Them for Power Integrity?
Controlled ESR capacitors are important for power integrity in your design as they can help smooth out the PDN impedance spectrum in your high speed PCB.
Blog
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How Does the Package PDN Impact Power Integrity?
Whenever we say something to the effect of “components can’t work without a correctly designed PCB,” we only have to look at component packaging for evidence. It is true that component packages come with parasitics that affect signal integrity, but there is one area that we don’t often look at in terms of component packaging: power integrity.
On-Demand Webinar
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Juni 12, 2025
Proactive Lifecycle Management: Preventing Obsolescence Before It Hits
On-Demand Webinar
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Apr. 23, 2025
Collaborative Design Review: Ensuring Quality from Schematics to Supply Chain
On-Demand Webinar
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Apr. 22, 2025
From Prototype to Production: Optimizing BOM Costs Without Compromising Quality with Part Analytics
On-Demand Webinar
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Apr. 9, 2025
Component Selection in Altium Designer: Making Data-Driven Decisions with Data Integrations
On-Demand Webinar
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März 25, 2025
Unlocking the full potential of your design team with Altium's enterprise solution
On-Demand Webinar
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Jan. 24, 2024
Discover How Altium Designer 24 Revolutionizes Team Dynamics in PCB Design
