News & Updates
Blog
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How to Get 3-port S-parameters From a 2-port VNA Measurement
S-parameters are fundamental quantities in signal integrity, and an ability to understand them from measurement or analysis is very important. If you have a 3-port network, like a power divider or circulator, it may appear that you must use a 3-port VNA to measure these S-parameters. It is always acceptable to measure between two ports, but you need to know what exactly it is you are measuring. In this article, we’ll look at the relationship between the true 3-port S-parameters with a 2-port measurement.
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A Day in the Life of the PCB Manufacturing Process
Before implementing design for manufacturing, it is important to understand the underlying process behind producing a physical PCB. Regardless of the various technologies present in each facility, a large majority of industry-leading manufacturers follow a specific set of steps to turn your design from a drawing in a CAD application into a physical board. In this article, we'll cover the basics that designers need to know as part of our crash course series on PCB manufacturing.
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Addressing Skew Sources in High Speed PCBs
If you compile a list of skew sources, you'll see that fiber weave-induced skew is only one entry on a long list of skew sources. We'll look at this list of possible skew sources below, and we'll see how they affect the operation of your PCB. From the list below, we'll see that some of these issues with skew are not simply solved by paying attention to the fiber weave construction in a PCB substrate.
On-Demand Webinar
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Advanced Topics in High-Speed Design
This track is for the engineer who understands high-speed design requirements and wants to learn design practices to help ensure signal integrity and EMC with fast digital protocols, mixed-signal boards, and high layer counts.
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Should Ground Be Placed Below Inductors in Switching Regulators?
We love answering questions from our readers and YouTube viewers, and one of the recent questions we received relates to EMI from switching elements in a switching regulator is "Should a cutout be placed below the inductor in a switching regulator circuit?". Despite the variations in inductors and their magnetic behavior, there are some general principles that can be used to judge the effects of placing ground near inductors in switching regulator circuits. We’ll look at some of these principles in this article
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Altium Designer 22.6 Update
We are happy to announce that the Altium Designer 22.6 update is now available. Altium Designer 22.6 continues to focus on improving the user experience, as well as performance and stability of the software, based on feedback from our users. Check out the key new features in the What's New section on the left side of this window!
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Join PCB Design Review Competition from Altium
Find 9 mistakes in a PCB design and get added into the lucky draw to win a prize from Altium!
On-Demand Webinar
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What’s New in Altium 365
Now you can assess your library’s health at a glance with the Library Health dashboard, view and share your bill of materials (BOM) and view and download PDF documents, all in your web browser. We improved the existing diff and compare features, and released a new version of MCAD CoDesigner. Register for the webinar to learn more!
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SAP (Semi-Additive PCB Process) – Top 5 Questions Regarding Stack Up
This Semi-Additive Process is an additional tool in the PCB fabricators' toolbox that enables them to provide feature sizes for trace width and spacing that are 25 microns, (1 mil) and below depending on the fabricators' imaging equipment. This provides much more flexibility to breakout out tight BGA areas and the ability to shrink overall circuit size and/ or reduce the number of circuit layers in the design. As the PCB design community embraces the benefits of this new printed circuit board fabrication technique, there are of course many questions to be answered.
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Improving Supply Chain Success with BOM Management
It’s no secret that component shortages have become more frequent this year. In fact, countries around the world are losing billions in revenue due to supply issues. Having the right components on hand is more crucial than ever as availability, obsolescence, counterfeit products and environmental non-compliance risks continue to grow. Fortunately, many shortages can be avoided by introducing proactive supply chain practices.
On-Demand Webinar
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Rapidly Creating New Designs And Reusing Existing Ones
It's no secret that software developers often use completed code fragments from other projects for quick and predictable results. The same can be done for PCB Design, there is no need to spend time rewiring schematics or laying out components on boards you’ve done before. Join us this webinar where we’ll go over how you can use your existing designs to create reusable design blocks, speeding up the design cycle for your future projects.
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What is the Impedance of Length-Tuning Structures?
Do length-tuning structures create an impedance discontinuity? The answer is an unequivocal “yes”, but it might not matter in your design depending on several factors. Applying a length-tuning structure is equivalent to changing the distance between the traces while meandering. Therefore, you will have a change in the odd-mode impedance of a single trace. The question then becomes: does this deviation in trace impedance in a length tuning structure matter?
NEW
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Your Design Data Has Zero Defense
Your design data may be more exposed than you think. This webinar shows how to identify common security gaps and secure engineering workflows with centralized access control and governance.
NEW
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Flex Circuit Coverlay: Design with Lamination Processes In Mind
Your flex PCB may look perfect in CAD but coverlay doesn't stay perfectly still during manufacturing. This article reveals why designing for lamination behavior is one of the most important steps in building reliable flex circuits.
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Integrated PCB Design vs. Legacy Point Tools: What’s the Real Cost?
As hardware development grows more collaborative, disconnected point tools can introduce data inconsistencies, traceability gaps, and costly coordination challenges. This article examines how integrated PCB design environments connect design, mechanical, supply chain, and review workflows to improve efficiency throughout the product lifecycle.
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Make Better Design Decisions with Signal and Power Integrity Insight
Signal integrity and power integrity are closely connected, with problems in one often affecting the other as designs become faster and more complex. This webinar explains how integrated analysis workflows help engineers evaluate PDN performance, identify potential issues early, and improve overall design quality.
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Optimizing Your Electronics Product Design Workflow and Eliminating Bottlenecks
Every manual handoff adds time and risk to the product development process. This article shows how modern design workflows automate routine tasks, improve data visibility, and help engineering teams focus on innovation instead of administration.
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Avoid Cross-Board Signal Integrity Issues in High-Performance Multiboard PCB Designs
Your signal may be perfect on the PCB and fail the moment it crosses a connector. This article explores the hidden SI challenges in multi-board systems and how engineers can eliminate them before they become costly debugging sessions.
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Proto-BOM in Minutes: How BOM Portal Accelerates Component Selection
Still building BOMs the hard way? Discover how modern workflows can help you create a prototype-ready BOM faster while improving visibility into pricing, availability, and risk.
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How to Manage Power Integrity and EMI in Complex Multiboard Systems
This article examines the challenges of maintaining power integrity and controlling EMI in complex multiboard systems. It provides practical strategies for managing return paths, connector transitions, and power distribution across interconnected assemblies.
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Agile Teams: From Design Tool to Product Development Platform
Learn how Agile Teams evolves beyond traditional PCB design workflows to support connected product development. This webinar explores how centralized data, collaboration tools, and governance capabilities help teams accelerate delivery while maintaining control.
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Benefits of Using an Integrated Design Environment for PCB Development
Using separate tools often creates inefficiencies and increases the risk of mistakes. This article explains how integrated design environments streamline workflows by keeping design data connected and accessible.
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Enterprise vs. Midsize PCB Design Software: What Actually Changes at Scale
PCB design challenges change significantly as organizations scale. This article explores the key differences between mid-size and enterprise design environments, from collaboration and governance to data management and workflow automation.
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BOM Portal vs BOM Tool: What Changes When You Upgrade
Not all BOM solutions work the same way. This article explains the key differences between BOM tools and BOM portals, and why real-time data and collaboration are becoming essential for modern electronics development.
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Altium vs KiCAD: Built to Scale From First Board to Full Product
Starting with a simple board today doesn't mean your next project will stay simple. Learn how Altium Designer and KiCAD compare when designs become more complex, teams get larger, and products move toward manufacturing.
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Eliminate the Design-to-Production Gap with Agile Teams + Duro
Learn how Agile Teams and Duro connect design and production workflows through a unified system of record. This webinar shows how structured change management and automated data synchronization help teams reduce errors and accelerate product releases.
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Agile Hardware Development: How to Scale Speed Without Losing Control
Agile hardware development isn’t just about working faster, it’s about working together in real time. This article explores how shared environments for ECAD, MCAD, sourcing, and requirements management eliminate handoff delays and improve decision-making across teams.
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How Reusable Parameters in Requirements Reduce Errors and Speed Up Iterations
Verification becomes much easier when requirements and system performance data stay connected automatically. This article explains how reusable parameters and V&V rules help teams detect violations earlier and validate designs with greater confidence.
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