News & Updates
Blog
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What Target Impedance Should You Use in Your PDN?
A number of us on this blog and in other publications often bring up the concept of target impedance when discussing power integrity in high-speed designs. Some designs will be simple enough that you can take a “set it and forget it” approach to design a functional prototype. For more advanced designs, or if you’re fine-tuning a new board that has existing power integrity problems, target impedance is a real consideration that should be considered in your design.
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An Overview of Dual Power Supply Design
Dual power supplies are circuits that generate two different output voltages from a single input source. The simplest method of generating dual output voltages is to use a transformer with two taps on the output winding. Bespoke transformers can have any voltage ratio depending on the number of windings in each part of the output side of the transformer.
Blog
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Overlapping Planes in Your Mixed-Signal PCB Layout
With digital boards that are nominally running at DC, splitting up a power plane or using multiple power planes is a necessity for routing large currents at standard core/logic levels to digital components. Once you start mixing analog and digital sections into your power layers with multiple nets, it can be difficult to implement clean power in a design if you’re not careful with your layout.
On-Demand Webinar
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ECAD MCAD Capabilities For Today’s Most Demanding Designs
Working between the Electronic and Mechanical design domains brings unique challenges. ECAD and MCAD tools have different design objectives and have evolved down different paths, and so have the way they store and manage their design and project data. To successfully design these products, the designers must fluidly pass design changes back and forth between the ECAD and MCAD domains beyond outdated file exchanges.
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Follow Mixed Signal PCB Design Guidelines With the Best CAD Tools
High-speed digital PCBs are challenging enough to design, but what about mixed-signal boards? Many modern systems contain elements that operate with both digital and analog signaling, and these systems must be designed to ensure signal integrity in both domains. Altium Designer has the layout and signal integrity tools you need to ensure your mixed-signal PCB design does not experience interference and obeys important design standards.
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Get Ready for WiFi 7 under the 802.11be Standard
Just as WiFi 6 and 6E are starting to hit the market and new chipsets become available, WiFi 7 is in the works under the 802.11be standard. While this technology still has not hit the market, I would expect more inquiries for experimental systems, evaluation modules, and surface-mountable modules to come up once the first chipsets become available. Now is the time to start thinking about these systems, especially if you’re developing evaluation products to support WiFi 7.
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What Goes Into Rugged Electronics Design?
Rugged electronics need to take a punch mechanically, but there is more that goes into a rugged system than being able to survive a drop on the pavement. This is as much about enclosure design as it is about component selection and manufacturing choices. Mil-aero designers often use the term “harsh environment” to describe a number of scenarios where an electronic device’s reliability and lifetime will be put to the test. If you want to make your next product truly rugged, it helps to adopt some of their strategies in your PCB layout.
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PCB Testing 101: Important Methods and Metrics
There are many quality checks used to ensure a design will be manufacturable at scale and with high quality, but a lot of this can happen in the background without the designer realizing. No matter what level of testing and inspection you need to perform, it’s important to determine the basic test requirements your design must satisfy and communicate these to your manufacturer. If it’s your first time transitioning from prototyping to high-volume production, read our list of PCB testing requirements so that you’ll know what to expect.
On-Demand Webinar
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Getting Started with Design Rules and Constraints
Getting started with design rules can sometimes be a difficult task, but it doesn’t have to be. Altium Designer has added a new design rules user interface along with a new way to define rules, while not compromising past methods. Now, rules and constraints have a design-centric view rather than a rules-centric view which allows for easier visualization and is less prone to error. Watch this video to learn how you can best utilize the improved Rules 2.0 design rule interface.
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Using SDRAM vs. DDR RAM in Your PCB Design
Embedded computers, vision devices, DAQ modules, and much more will all need some memory, whether it’s a Flash chip or a RAM module. Normally, something like a Flash memory chip or a small eMMC module would not be used for temporary storage as the device requires constant rewrites. Instead, if you happen to need a volatile memory solution, you would go for static (SRAM) or dynamic RAM (DRAM). If you need to decide which type of memory to use in your board, keep reading to see some of the basic design guidelines for SDRAM vs. DDR memory modules.
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PCB Ground Plane Best Practices in Your Multilayer Stackup
Using a PCB ground plane in a stackup is the first step towards ensuring power and signal integrity, as well as keeping EMI low. However, there are some bad myths about ground planes that seem to persist, and I’ve seen highly experienced designers make some simple mistakes when defining grounds in their PCB layouts. If you’re interested in preventing excess emissions and ensuring signal integrity in your layout, follow these simple guidelines for implementing a PCB ground plane in your next board.
NEW
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Eliminate Your Design Friction with Agile Teams
Design friction from scattered data and disconnected tools slows down PCB development and leads to rework. This webinar shows how Agile Teams streamlines collaboration, aligns domains, and helps teams deliver faster with fewer errors.
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What Is an Integrated Design Environment for Electronics?
Using multiple disconnected tools slows down PCB development and increases the risk of errors. This article shows how an integrated environment keeps all design data connected, enabling faster workflows and fewer late-stage issues.
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What is the Best Cloud PCB Design Software?
Not all cloud PCB tools are created equal, especially when design complexity increases. This article breaks down key differences between cloud-native and hybrid solutions, helping engineers choose the right approach for performance and scalability.
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From Rework to Revenue: Digital PCB DFMA
This article explores how traditional, manual DFMA workflows lead to costly rework, delays, and poor collaboration across engineering teams. It shows how a connected, digital approach enables better data integrity, faster design cycles, and improved manufacturing outcomes.
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Introducing Octopart Discover: From Part Search to Solutions Discovery
Octopart has announced Octopart Discover, a new platform that shifts electronic component search toward system-level solution discovery. The tool connects design intent with relevant options, enabling engineers to evaluate tradeoffs and identify the best-fit solutions more efficiently.
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How to Choose the Right Components for Your BOM
A strong BOM can make the difference between smooth production and costly delays. Discover a practical approach to choosing components that stay available, meet compliance requirements, and keep your project on schedule.
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From Scattered Requirements to Confident Product Development
See how the Requirements Portal transforms disconnected requirements into a single, live source of truth that engineers can trust at every stage of a project! Real customer stories in the article prove it’s already helping teams cut down on rework and bring products to market faster.
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What is the Best PCB Design Tool For Students?
Students need PCB software that’s intuitive, affordable, and useful for building real skills. This article compares the strengths and weaknesses of leading design tools, from hobbyist platforms to industry-standard software.
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What Is Collaborative Engineering?
Collaborative engineering is all about breaking down silos so electrical, mechanical, and sourcing teams can work as one with shared data and real-time updates. This article shows how that approach helps you spot issues early, reduce rework, and get products out the door with fewer surprises.
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Bend Reliability: How Trace Geometry and Materials Impact Flex Lifespan
Focused on durability under repeated mechanical stress, this piece details how routing strategy, copper thickness, adhesive systems, and bend radius selection determine flex lifespan. Engineers will find actionable recommendations for reducing strain concentration and improving long-term performance in high-cycle applications.
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PCB Design Process: The EDA Design Approach
Dive into how a modern EDA workflow transforms PCB design by linking electrical, mechanical, and manufacturing requirements from idea to final release. With constraint‑driven integration, you can cut down on respins and bring better boards to market faster.
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Getting Started for Mechanical Engineers
Explore our collection of MCAD Collaboration walkthroughs, where you’ll discover how to synchronize mechanical constraints and keepouts, maintain traceability with advanced history and revision control, and streamline electromechanical connectivity through harness synchronization. These topics and many more are covered in this article.
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Are Your ECAD Tools Holding Back Engineers’ Productivity?
The article highlights that productivity issues often stem from tool limitations rather than engineer effort, especially as project complexity grows. ECAD tools that offer clear version control, cross-discipline integration, and workflow awareness are key to sustaining efficiency.
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How Integrated PCB Design Cuts Development Time for Complex Electronics
Fewer tool handoffs, fewer errors, and smoother collaboration that’s the power of integrated PCB design. Learn how unifying your design environment can cut development time and help you deliver complex electronics faster.
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Registration Challenges in UHDI: Why Fabrication Tolerances Matter in Your Layout
As UHDI structures shrink, achieving accurate layer-to-layer registration becomes less forgiving than ever. Learn why fabrication tolerances matter so much in ultra-fine geometries and how to design with registration limits in mind from the start.
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How Engineering Project Management Tools Are Changing Engineering Teams’ Productivity
Engineering project management tools play a critical role in managing timelines, resources, and cross-disciplinary coordination. This article breaks down the most impactful systems for improving execution and team performance.
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