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The PCB Design Podcast features conversations on all facets of PCB Design and Hardware Development
Episodes
Monday Dec 16, 2024
Monday Dec 16, 2024
How does Denpaflux simplify EMC testing? In this episode of the Altium OnTrack Podcast, host Zach Peterson interviews Reinhard Neureiter, CEO of Denpaflux, to explore their groundbreaking AI-powered tools for tackling EMI and EMC challenges. Learn why 70% (or maybe more) of designs fail EMC testing and how Denpaflux helps engineers fix critical issues faster, from optimizing board stackups to pinpointing high-priority EMI risks.
Discover how this platform combines human expertise with AI to make EMC consulting accessible, effective, and efficient. Whether you’re a seasoned engineer or just starting out, Denpaflux offers insights and tools to streamline your workflow and reduce costly delays.
Don't miss this deep dive into the future of EMI/EMC solutions and the innovative technologies reshaping PCB design.
Wednesday Aug 10, 2022
Wednesday Aug 10, 2022
We are very delighted to have Dr. Min Zhang in this episode. Min is an independent EMC consultant based in the UK. Today, we'll be talking about EMC, both on board and off the board. It will be a very interesting discussion because we will look a little bit deeper at the system level of the board.
Show Highlights:
- Zach met Min at EMCLive 2021
- Let’s hear more about Min’s background and his early exposure to EMI issues
- Earlier in his career, he worked with big companies as a motor drive engineer and power electronics design engineer for 10 years
- He started his engineering consulting business, Mach One Design EMC Consultants 2 years ago
- His first experience dealing with EMI issues was at the university while doing research for his PhD
- The lack of education in the university in regards to EMI issues is one of the reasons that sparked Min’s interest in EMI
- The university he went to specializes in motor and power converter design, but did not offer any solutions in fixing the EMI issues
- Min recalls being fascinated by his first time seeing an EMI diagnosis kit composed of the spectrum analyzer, lots of ferrites, and cable shooting copper tape in a suitcase
- It was his first time seeing a step-by-step diagnosis and troubleshooting EMI issues - checking the grounding, checking the bonding, and applying ferrites at the right place, performed by his friend’s father who was then a principal engineer in the European Space Agency
- Min’s recommendation to design engineers solving EMI issues is to understand the fundamentals – “only when you understand the fundamentals, understand the basics, and the first principle, then you can really design a system” - Min Zhang
- What happens when EMI problems exist off the board and they interfere with the system or create so much noise that the system is never going to pass EMC?
- Min answers by recommending Rick Hartley's famous YouTube video about grounding
- He continues with his answer with an example involving a three-phase brushless DC motor drive
- How to deal with cables connected to another system that is outside of the shielding?
- Shielding is a good solution, but understanding fundamentals are necessary to avoid increased cost, weight, and also the bending ratio would be affected
- Min shares a recent video he did with Robert Feranec which discusses the topic of EMI troubleshooting on immunity
- 70% of the EMI issues are somehow related to resonance
- For high-speed design, PCB designers really need to understand how the wave propagates
- Ferrite is not a 100% inductive component
- Min recommends the book by Douglas Smith – High Frequency Measurements and Noise in Electronic Circuits which focuses on the test and measurements in terms of high-speed design
- Other experts to learn from in terms of EMI troubleshooting and high speed designs are Eric Bogatin, Steve Sandler and Heidi Barnes
Links and Resources:
Learn more about Min Zhang and his company Mach One Design EMC Consultants
Watch Min’s Keynote at EMCLive 2021
Watch How a Few Components Make a Big Difference in EMC/EMI with Min and Robert Feranec
Read Min Zhang’s article on SI Journal
Great book recommendation: High Frequency Measurements and Noise in Electronic Circuits
Watch Rick Hartley's famous YouTube video about grounding
Watch previous episodes with EMI and High-speed experts:
Eric Bogatin Debunks Common Misconceptions About Transmission Lines
Secrets of PCB Optimization with Rick Hartley
Being Right Matters! When, Why and What to Simulate with Steve Sandler
Power Integrity and Simulations with Heidi Barnes
Full OnTrack Podcast Library
Altium Website
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Tuesday Mar 29, 2022
Tuesday Mar 29, 2022
EMIStream is now available as an Altium Designer® extension. TechDream CEO Yoshi Fukuwa will tell us how EMIStream can be a lifesaver when addressing EMI issues in your PCB design. Watch through the end, and check out Yoshi’s recent presentation at AltiumLive Connect.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- Yoshi founded his company TechDream in Silicon Valley in 2002. Techdream offers EMC, EDA, and PCB solutions. They also carry EDS simulation tools and PCB materials from Oak-Mitsui technologies
- EMIStream was developed by NEC Solution Innovators in Japan about 25 years ago; they tapped TechDream to sell the technology in the United States to help engineers with their EMI problems
- 150 design rules to solve EMI problems narrowed into 15 most important EMI data and rules implemented in EMIStream
- Yoshi Maruyama from NEC Solution Innnovtor is the main guy developing EMIStream in Japan
- EMIStream’s EMI design rule check and plane resonance analysis are available in the Altium Designer environment
- Yoshi explains the two features in EMIStream
- EMI Design Rule Checker
- Plane Resonance Analyzer
- Field Solver approach vs. SPICE approach
- 3D field solver is very good and accurate, but it takes longer to analyze
- EMIStream’s SPICE approach is 20 times faster than a standard SPICE engine
- What do you need to know about embedded capacitance materials?
- Yoshi reveals the number one problem in PCB design during a survey at AltiumLive
- The benefits of SPICE net format in EMIStream
- Catch Yoshi at DesignCon 2022. He will be joining the FaradFlex booth
Links and Resources:
Connect with Yoshi Fukawa on Linkedin
Watch Yoshi’s AltoiumLive 2022 Connect Presentation: Eliminate EMI Problems at Design Stage, Robust EMI Design Rule Check & Plane Resonance Analysis
Visit TechDream Website
Learn More About EMIStream
Full OnTrack Podcast Library
Altium Website
Download your Altium Designer Free Trial
Learn More about Altium Nexus
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Tuesday Nov 30, 2021
Tuesday Nov 30, 2021
Dr. Eric Bogatin, Dean of Signal Integrity Academy, is back for some awesome discussion about bad PCB design guidelines. How to spot them to avoid ruining your design? This is going to be fun and insightful! Make sure to check the show notes and additional resources below. Watch until the end. Our favorite Dean has some perks for our listeners.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- Eric’s AltiumLive Presentation
- Pathological Design Features
- Demonstration of the 2D Field Solver built-in for free in Altium Designer
- Your intuition + PCB design tool can make or break your PCB design performance
- Most Common Sources of Noise
- Ground bounce as an extreme case of crosstalk
- Design structures that can strongly contribute to EMI failures
- Eric Explains “transparent interconnect”
- Best measurement practice and routing correctly
- Is an Arduino board really for beginners?
- EMI Problems caused by split planes—the trifecta, you get reflection noise, you get crosstalk noise, you get EMI noise out of it
- Eric Bogatin, Steve Sandler, and Larry Smith debunked PCB design myths and legends—the Myth of Three Capacitor Values
- Power integrity becoming Signal Integrity
- What is Rad-hard?
- Reliability concerns in aerospace technology and automotive systems
- Fiber in vehicle and fiber base radar could be the solution
- Eric answers, What do you think about right-angle traces?
- 3 Month Signal Integrity Academy Subscription, use promo code ALT21
- AltiumLive Connect, register now!
Links and Resources:
- Article: The Myth of Three Capacitor Values
- Signal Integrity Journal
- Laboratory for Atmospheric Space Physics
- Should You Worry About 90 Degree Bends in Circuit Board Traces?
- Previous Podcast Episode with Eric Bogatin
- AltiumLive 2022 Connect: Now open for registration
- Connect with Zach Peterson on LinkedIn
- Connect with Eric Bogatin on Linkedin
- Watch Zach’s latest Altium Academy courses on Youtube
- Read Zach’s articles on Altium’s resource hub
Full OnTrack Podcast Library
Altium Website
Download your Altium Designer Free Trial
Learn More about Altium Nexar
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Tuesday Sep 21, 2021
Tuesday Sep 21, 2021
Most PCB Designers wear many hats, and one of them is to solve EMC problems.
Ken Wyatt, the EMC expert, talks about his passion for sharing his knowledge on addressing the most common EMC problems with PCB designers. Why is it important to troubleshoot it during the design process, and how can you acquire this skill that is not offered in the university? Watch now or listen on the go!
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- Ken Wyatt’s background and career transitions.
- Ken’s inspiration for writing his books:
- Addressing basic design issues
- Challenges of not having full-time EMC experts
- Focus on PCB designers
- Ken’s book series (available on Amazon):
- Create your Own EMC Troubleshooting Kit
- Workbench Troubleshooting EMC Emissions
- Workbench Troubleshooting EMC Immunity
- What is immunity? The product should not affect the environment and the environment should not affect the product
- Radiated Immunity, one of the biggest issues product designers face when complying with immunity
- The rise of IOT, industry observation.
- Expectations vs Reality when hiring university graduates for EMC-related positions.
- Ken will be a Keynote at IEEE EMC Conference Minneapolis on September 23, 2021
Links and Resources:
EMC Seminars Website
Ken Wyatt’s Author Page on Amazon
Workbench Troubleshooting EMC Immunity (Volume 3)
Ken Wyatt’s LinkedIn Profile
Chasing the Light (Lighthouse Photography) by Ken and Sheila Wyatt
Full OnTrack Podcast Library
Altium Website
Download your Altium Designer Free Trial
Learn More about Altium Nexus
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Tuesday Jun 29, 2021
Tuesday Jun 29, 2021
“Working to reduce risk and provide a better customer experience in electronics manufacturing.” - Chris Church
Macrofab offers a better electronics manufacturing experience for the customer, from PCBA manufacturing to complete product assembly, testing, and fulfillment. Chris Church is here to explain the inspiration behind Macrofab, the solution it offers to design engineers, and the value they add to get your product out fast and efficiently.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Watch the video, click here. [link to website live page]
Show Highlights:
- Chris Introduction and overview of Macrofab (“Pool of Capacity”)
- The how and why of Macrofab’s innovation and the value proposition to the electronics hardware market:
- Macrofab offers seamless solutions to electronics manufacturing challenges
- “AWS” of manufacturing. A fully managed marketplace
- Technological capabilities and faster turnarounds
- Customer demographic and addressable market (North America, Engineering and Purchasing professionals, small to medium enterprise companies in Industrial, IoT, Communications and Robotic markets)
- Meeting the needs of design engineers and purchasing without breaking company policies
- Proactive vs. Reactive--cost drivers and availability
- Providing amazing customer experience
Links and Resources:
Macrofab Website
Macrofab Podcast
Chris Church, LinkedIn Profile
Press Release: Shared Transformation Vision, Altium Investment
Full OnTrack Podcast Library
Altium Website
Download your Altium Designer Free Trial
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Wednesday May 12, 2021
Wednesday May 12, 2021
EMC expert Ken Wyatt joins us in this episode to answer frequently asked EMC questions—a sneak peak to his EMC Book Series.
- EMC book series: Volume I: Create your own EMC Troubleshooting Kit
- What inspired you to write this book and why is this information important to your clients?
- Will you share some examples of common “blindspots” you observe with your design engineering clients relative to EMC?
- Can you share a few specific use cases?
- Volume II: Radiated and Conducted Emissions book will soon be published. What can readers expect to learn in this latest release?
- If you could share 1-2 tips for our listeners about radiated and conducted emissions, what would they be?
- Where can listeners find this book?
- Volume III: Immunity Testing
- What is Immunity Testing and why is it important?
- What are your plans for publication for this book?
- Will you come back again when volume 3 comes out?
- Wrap up.
Links and Resources:
Wyatt Technical Services (EMC Seminars)
Ken Wyatt’s author page on Amazon.com
Other EMC Articles and Resources from Altium
DesignCon 2021
IEEE EMC Society
Henry Ott’s Amazon Author Page (EMC Expert)
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Monday Apr 12, 2021
Monday Apr 12, 2021
Listen to this episode with Gerry Partida.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- Introduction to Gerry Partida and Summit Interconnect
- Why knowing and following IPC standards are critical for Design Engineers
- AABUS: What is it, and when to use it (Edge clearances)
- Removing non-functional pads
- Watch for 3.5 mil minimum dielectric rule IPC 2221. Work around
- How to access standards, talk to your fabricator: IPC Expertise
- CTA: Follow Gerry on LinkedIn for tips and tricks
- Summit Interconnect Website
- IPC website
Links and Resources:
Gerry’s LinkedIn Profile
Summit Interconnect Website
IPC Website
DFM Article: PCB Front-End Engineering
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Monday Mar 29, 2021
Monday Mar 29, 2021
“Don't get your ground plane, there's never really a good reason to do that.” - Dr. Todd Hubing
Dr. Todd Hubing debunks the EMC myth. Dr. Hubing has authored or co-authored over 200 papers and presentations on electromagnetic modeling, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), and the design of reliable electronic systems. In this episode he shares with us 30 years worth of knowledge, tested and proven facts about EMC.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- Introduction. Get to know Dr. Todd Hubing.
- Learn EMC, Resources and Courses
- EMC question of the week from 2017 - 2020 compiled in a book, available now.
- EMC design guidelines: Top 4
- Solid ground planes should be gapped between analog and digital circuits.
- The decoupling capacitor should be located as close as physically possible to the IC’s power pin.
- On multi-layer boards, the best stack-up is ...
- To suppress common-mode noise, the power input on a circuit board should have a common-mode choke.
Links and Resources:
- Learn EMC Website (Resources and courses)
- EMC Resource Page on the Learn EMC Website
- Book: EMC question of the week: March 2017-December 2020. Now available.
- EMC Design Guideline Collection (including the top 4, with over 30 years worth of wisdom here!)
- Find Learn EMC and Dr. Todd Hubing on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Tuesday Apr 14, 2020
Tuesday Apr 14, 2020
The OnTrack Podcast is pleased to welcome Ken Wyatt (also known as the ‘EMC Doctor’). Ken began his career as a designer in the aerospace industry, and later worked for Hewlett Packard, where he found that his background in RF and Microwave engineering helped prepare him for his role as an Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Engineer. His work has since taken him all over the world, where he develops and provides in-house training and delivers presentations and live demonstration; definitely unique among presenters!
Retiring early in 2008, Ken has since become a prolific author, co-authoring three books, including his latest, in which he identifies why products fail to meet EMI/EMC regulatory standards: ‘EMI Troubleshooting Cookbook for Product Designers’.
Ken currently provides seminars on a variety of EMC related topics—touching on subjects not often taught at the university level. He also provides EMC consultation, EMC compliance and precompliance testing, design reviews, and training services for commercial, military/aerospace, scientific, consumer, and computing industry sectors.
See What's New in Altium Designer
Show Highlights
- Ken lays out his career path, from his beginnings in the aerospace industry, to his current role as a consultant.
- ‘EMI Troubleshooting Cookbook for Product Designers’—a quick look at the book Ken co-authored with Patrick G. André.
- Addressing the prevailing trends in stackups and board design in general.
- Old habits die hard: Why the PCB is the heart of most EMI and EMC issues today, and pitfalls to avoid to move past these issues.
- Signals as the flow of electrons in copper traces and wires: How our education may have left out the whole story with respect to high frequency design.
- How simultaneous trends toward diminishing device size and the Internet of Things contributes to desensing and other issues on PCBs.
- Staying “in the know”: Keeping up with our evolving understanding of the physics of PC boards and signal propagation is always challenging. Ken lays out some ways designers can stay up to speed.
- Why Electromagnetic Compability programs at the university level are few and far between, and how Missouri University of Science and Technology stands out among them.
- Case Studies: The trouble with dog trackers and blood transfusion machines. Ken discusses some challenges he’s come across in the field.
Resources:
Short video on the book with co-author Patrick André
Ken Wyatt on Twitter: @emc_guru
See What's New in Altium Designer