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How to Effectively Use Jira for Hardware Development Projects

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.

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How-To's
How to Draw Antipads - Complete Tutorial

Discover how to draw and define antipads in Altium with this complete tutorial. Learn three different methods for creating antipads around vias. From simple design rules to advanced polygon cutouts for both basic and complex PCB designs.

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How-To's
Do PCB Manufacturers Actually Look at Fabrication Drawings?

Explore this in-depth tutorial featuring real fabrication drawings, stackup specifications, and drill tables - all created using Altium Designer’s Draftsman tool. Learn essential insights into PCB data management and manufacturing requirements from an industry perspective.

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How-To's
Compensating Transmission Line Losses in a PCB Calculator

This tutorial uncovers the key difference between ideal, lossless impedance calculations and real-world signal behavior giving you practical techniques to design controlled impedance PCBs that deliver reliable performance.

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How to Make Your PCB Layout AOI and X-Ray Friendly

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.

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How-To's
How Close Can You Bring a Reference Plane?

Explore our in-depth investigation into practical simulations using both Altium Designer and Polar Si9000. We demonstrate impedance sensitivity analysis and reveal the real limitations of optimizing reference plane proximity for improved signal shielding.

Blog
Understanding Systems Engineering

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.

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How-To's
Do PCB Thermal Vias Actually Work?

Are thermal vias really helping your PCB’s heat management? Tech Consultant Zach Peterson dives into simulation data, research, and a controversial article to uncover the truth. Learn why via count and spacing matter more than sheer quantity.

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How-To's
Stripline Routing Deep Dive: How Close Is Too Close?

In this video, Zach Peterson takes a deep dive into what happens when reference layers are incorrectly set in a PCB stackup and how that affects impedance, signal integrity, and EMC. He also shares valuable insights into stripline routing proximity issues and best practices for assigning reference planes.

Blog
Power Integrity Issues?

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.

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New in Altium Designer 25
Coming Soon: Solder Mask Zero Expansion

Solder Mask Zero Expansion marks a move toward industry alignment, specifically with IPC-7351B and IPC-2581B standards. It changes the default solder mask expansion value from 4 mil to 0 mil. Discover more upcoming updates on our Coming Soon Page.

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How-To's
Analog Supply without a Ferrite: Proper Isolation Techniques Explained

In our new tutorial, you'll learn why ferrite beads may not be the best choice for isolating analog and digital supply pins on integrated circuits. Zach Peterson debunks common misconceptions about ferrite bead isolation and introduces better alternatives, including dedicated LDOs, precision voltage references, and effective filtering techniques to help you achieve cleaner analog signals in your designs.

Blog
Signal Mistakes Are Expensive

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.

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Blog
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.

Introduction to Open Source Laptop Project
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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
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.

Blog
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
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
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
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.

High-Speed PCB Stackup Design
Blog
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.

stitching vias
Blog
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.

PCB Stackup Basics
Blog
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.

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NEW
Embedded thumbnail for Create Clearance Rules Faster and with Less Effort
New in Altium's Software
Create Clearance Rules Faster and with Less Effort

Setting up clearance rules is now more intuitive in the Constraint Manager. Choose the Simple view for faster configuration with grouped object types, or the Advanced view when you need detailed, matrix-based clearance control.

NEW
Embedded thumbnail for Mastering HDI Design Rules in Altium Designer
How-To's
Mastering HDI Design Rules in Altium Designer

In our latest Altium Academy tutorial, we guide you through configuring the essential HDI PCB design rules in Altium's software. You'll learn how to use your manufacturer's fabrication capabilities to create accurate design rules and constraints for your PCB.

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New in Altium's Software
Search, Filter, and Navigate PCB Designs Faster

The Web Viewer now features a redesigned search experience for faster access to PCB design data across supported CAD formats. A lightweight, intuitive interface lets you begin with simple search terms and progressively refine results using contextual suggestions.

Embedded thumbnail for Gain Better Control Over Wire Bond Visibility
New in Altium's Software
Gain Better Control Over Wire Bond Visibility

New bond wire visibility controls give you greater flexibility when working with wire-bonded boards and footprints, making it easier to focus on the details that matter most.

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New in Altium's Software
Coming Soon: Selectable Harness Source Within Multi-board Design

Selectable Harness Source Within Multi-board Design enables harness projects to drive system connectivity while maintaining bidirectional synchronization between multi-board schematics and harness wiring diagrams for improved accuracy and easier design management.

Embedded thumbnail for Choose the Simbeor Version for Your PCB Calculations
New in Altium's Software
Choose the Simbeor Version for Your PCB Calculations

The PCB Editor now lets you choose the Simbeor version used for delay and impedance calculations, giving you more flexibility and consistency across your design workflows.

Embedded thumbnail for Improve PCB Editor Performance with Via Instancing
New in Altium's Software
Improve PCB Editor Performance with Via Instancing

The PCB Editor now uses via instancing to generate geometry for each via individually, providing greater flexibility and a more advanced approach to managing vias in PCB designs.

Embedded thumbnail for GSSG Stackup Deep Dive: Routing, Impedance, and HDI
How-To's
GSSG Stackup Deep Dive: Routing, Impedance, and HDI

A ground-signal-signal-ground (GSSG) stackup rethinks the traditional four-layer PCB structure by moving the ground planes to the outer layers and routing signals on the two inner layers. In this Altium Academy deep dive, we review a real one-minute design review submission and demonstrate how to configure a GSSG stackup properly using the Layer Stack Manager.

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New in Altium's Software
Generate IPC-7351B Compliant Footprints with More Control

The IPC Compliant Footprint Wizard has been updated to improve IPC-7351B compliance across supported package types. Enhancements include footprint calculations, package outlines, silkscreen and courtyard generation, layer mapping, density table behavior, and new pad trimming controls for gullwing packages, with support added to the batch generator Excel template.

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New in Altium's Software
Add Unit-Aware Temperature Coefficient Parameters

Component templates in a connected Workspace on the Altium Platform now include support for Temperature Coefficient (ppm/°C) as a unit-aware user parameter type. This makes it possible to define temperature coefficient values directly within the template using the appropriate units.

Embedded thumbnail for When to Add Part Numbers to SMD Passives
How-To's
When to Add Part Numbers to SMD Passives

Check out our new video covering essential electronics fundamentals, with a focus on why including part numbers for SMD passive components, such as SMD resistors, directly on schematics is so important. We also explore whether relying only on the Bill of Materials (BOM) is enough for effective electronic component management.

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New in Altium's Software
Present Large Harness Tables More Clearly

Harness Draftsman now supports splitting connection tables across multiple pages in *.HarDwf documents. With the new page height limit setting, you can easily control how much of the table appears on each page.

Embedded thumbnail for Innovate Beyond - The Future of Electronics Development in Automotive
How-To's
Innovate Beyond - The Future of Electronics Development in Automotive

Discover how the future of automotive electronics is being shaped by a more connected development approach that unifies teams, data, requirements, design, collaboration, and manufacturing. Recorded at BMW Welt and the BMW Museum during Altium’s "The Future of Electronics Development in Automotive" event, this video explores the key challenges and innovations driving the next generation of automotive design.

Embedded thumbnail for Coming Soon: Design Rule Sets
New in Altium's Software
Coming Soon: Design Rule Sets

Soon, PCB design rules in Altium will be organized into reusable Rule Sets within the PCB Rules and Constraints Editor. These rule sets can be created, duplicated, enabled or disabled, renamed, deleted, imported, and exported, making it easier to manage rules for specific interfaces, manufacturing requirements, or unique design constraints.

Embedded thumbnail for Decoupling Capacitor Routing: When to Use Vias vs Traces
How-To's
Decoupling Capacitor Routing: When to Use Vias vs Traces

Check out this video, a follow-up to the decoupling capacitor placement series, exploring the inductance tradeoffs between trace routing and via connections. Using real component examples from an Ethernet switch design in Altium, the video demonstrates how different routing choices can impact overall performance.

Embedded thumbnail for Coming Soon: Interactive Dynamic Phase Tuning
New in Altium's Software
Coming Soon: Interactive Dynamic Phase Tuning

The Interactive Length Tuning tool allows you to manually tune a single net in a differential pair while maintaining equal pair length and phase alignment across the entire route. This enables more efficient differential signal transmission, greater control during manual tuning, and faster pattern creation within defined phase tolerance limits.

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