Part 1: An ESD Example Signal Current Flow in a Layer Transition Abstract: Printed circuit board, PCB, signal paths must often change layers in a board stackup. Under some conditions this can cause problems. An ESD example is used to …
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PCB Design
Learn from a Fabricator; Time and Money Saving Design Rules
As a PCB fabricator we’re frequently asked, “What are your basic design rules?” Typically what designers are looking for are some guidelines to follow when designing a PCB layout, though this could mean a variety of things. Over the years …
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ENEPIG Plating – A Guide to the Evolution of PCB Finishes
The evolution of technology manufacturing is always moving towards a higher level of complexity. Newer designs have to be lighter, faster and smaller with every iteration of the next device. Not only do we continue to move towards more complex …
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Picking The Right Trace Width for Your Next PCB Design
A factor to consider when designing single-layer and multi-layer PCBs is trace width. As with other design factors for PCBs, requirements for a good trace width can impact the size and layout of a PCB. Reducing PCB size may reduce costs, but there’s still a need to ensure you have sufficient...
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Secrets of Designing Printed Circuit Boards for Excellence
Designing for excellence requires a disciplined approach of keeping the reliability of the PCB at the forefront of the design process. The performance of the PCB isn’t of much consequence if the board fails prematurely due to low-grade components or unaccounted for peak current...
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Are You Providing Your PCB Manufacturer With the Correct Files?
You’ve completed a PCB design and are ready to send the design to be manufactured. But the file export process isn’t always straightforward, and, depending on the PCB manufacturer, specific requirements may vary. Here are some helpful design file guidelines...
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High Temperature PCB Design Considerations
Printed Circuit Boards are indispensable electronic devices, but sometimes engineers are faced with temperature constraints that force them to think outside the box. In this article, we will be giving a high-level overview of designing a high temperature circuit board, and along the way we will...
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Single-sided or Double-sided PCBs?
Fundamentally, single-sided and double-sided printed circuit boards serve the same purpose. Both serve as catalysts for electrical connections between components, however there are some key differences that set them apart from each other. More specifically, they differ in the costs associated with production and development processes, as well as ampacity differences.
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Resources for Learning Electronic Design
Whether you’re a professional design engineer, an electrical engineering student, or an electronics enthusiast/hobbyist/maker, it pays to never stop learning. Fortunately, this is the information age and there’s no shortage of resources available to learn about electronics design. There are many other great electronics design resources available and we thought we’d share a few of our favorites.
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Building a Successful Multi-Layer Printed Circuit Board
Printed Circuit Boards today face an ever-increasing demand in capabilities including high speed, low weight, higher component density, miniaturization, and more. Multi-layer PCBs can help meet those increased demands. A multi-layer PCB is created from two or more PCBs stacked together, although they are not simply laid one on top of the other.
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So, You’ve Got an Idea and Want To Manufacture a Printed Circuit Board, Eh?
We’ve written extensively on topics related to ensuring that the PCB manufacturing process goes smoothly, but today, we’re going to take a higher-level view of the process, from idea to ready for manufacturing, and offer up our recommendations on steps to follow to ensure the desired outcome is achieved.
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Tips for Including Fonts & Graphics on a PCB
As PCB aesthetics continue to grow in importance, we’re manufacturing more designs with specific fonts and graphics as a part of the PCB’s silkscreen layer. But if you’re not following the process we’re about to describe, don’t be surprised if things don’t turn out quite the way you expect!
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Secrets of a Fabrication Drawing
Essential to the success of any printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing project are the detailed notes included in the fabrication drawing. While the design files (typically Gerber or ODB++) contain the most basic structure and outline of the board design, it is the fabrication drawing that tells the manufacturer the specific details about a board that make it unique.
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Common Problems with Gerber Files and How to Avoid Them
The PCB manufacturing process is complex. The precision of the manufactured PCBs hinges on many things, but none more important than accurate and complete manufacturing or design data, most often Gerber files. A wide variety of PCB design software applications are used to produce manufacturing data, and the complexity of each design can vary significantly.
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Circuit Board Design Tips for Hard or Soft Gold
Due to the specialized nature of hard gold and soft gold surface finishes, many designers never encounter the particular challenges associated with these surface finishes. As a result, the first build for a hard or soft gold PCB can often be cumbersome and even surprising.
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Design Considerations with Heavy Copper
Minimum line width is one of the first questions asked of a PCB manufacturer’s capabilities, but the answer rarely includes “depending on copper weight.” To simplify your design process and avoid problems at the time of manufacturing, we will demonstrate …
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Technical Tip for a Successfully Manufactured PCB – The Netlist
Designing a printed circuit board poses many challenges. It can be exhilarating to complete a design and send it off to manufacturing but later deflating to receive boards and identify a failure that could have been prevented. Was a mistake …
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Advantages of the Gerber X2 Format
In 2014, a new Gerber format was released call Gerber X2 (or version 2) by Ucamco, owners of the Gerber standard. If this is news to you, Ucamco has put together an excellent 5 minute intro video which can be …
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Basic PCB Design Tips & Tricks
Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) are made from fiberglass reinforced plastic with the copper wiring in trace form. All the circuit board components are held in position by soldering the components into place after drilling holes in the demarcated areas on …
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5 Electronics Design Tips for Beginners
The topic of Electronics Design can cover a vast array of technical options. This article will focus on some of the basics. A schematic drawing is only one part of creating a design in electronic engineering. Your schematic should be …
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