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The PCB Design Podcast features conversations on all facets of PCB Design and Hardware Development
Episodes
Wednesday Feb 09, 2022
Wednesday Feb 09, 2022
Welcome to the very first podcast of the year! Altium has been very serious about designing WITH manufacturing, and so our guest for today is Amit Bahl, the director of sales and marketing at Sierra Circuits. We will talk about his passion about promoting the level of sophistication in the PCB manufacturing floor. Watch or listen on the go, this will be fun!
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- Amit first exposure in the PCB industry
- He grew up around printed circuit board (PCB)
- First to install a DFM tool called Valor
- First to install a LDI machine or a laser direct imaging machine
- PCB is the backbone of electronics
- The PCB designer must see a pcb factory. Sierra offers a virtual tour of the PCB factory.
- The PCB manufacturing level of sophistication, and high standards are driven by customers
- PCB designers must push the envelope and to be more courageous with their design, while understanding the maximum capability of their manufacturers to receive better products
- Equipment vendors need more motivation to make improvements
- Sierra Circuits offers PCB Fabrication, Assembly, & Components
- Connecting the dots in technological and logistical standpoint
- Semi-automated Customer portal - a real time feedback to customer on how to improve their designs
- DFA and DFM starts when complete data is on hand
- The most common feedback or mistakes in the PCB manufacturing floor
- Aspect ratio of plating a via - what is the fabricator’s capability?
- Drilling copper - where do you drill? Optimizing the drill to the material movement.
- A good fabricator will know the best material to use
- Getting the available stackup early on - knowledge base of the standard materials on stocks
- Manufacturing tools and resources for designers
- 99% success rate - eliminating nuances
- Impedance tool
- PCB Manufacturing Pro tip: Talk to your fabricator and understand the details - take the time!
- Sierra Circuit’s new website and good knowledge base
- AltiumLive Connect was successful! If you miss it, you can still sign-up to virtually attend the AltiumLive EMEA here
Links and Resources:
Connect with Amit Bahl on Linkedin
Visit Sierra Circuits Website here
Experience Sierra Circuits Virtual Factory Tour
Register to Join AltiumLive Connect EMEA
ALTIMADE Design to Manufacture, Made Easy | Request Access Now
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 Jan 04, 2022
Tuesday Jan 04, 2022
The aerospace industry has driven the high-reliability design in the center focus. Juan Frias, our guest for today, is a very experienced PCB designer who has designed for Aerospace, Military, Industrial, Semiconductor, Communications, Medical, and Automotive; he will be sharing the tips for a successful design for manufacturability. We will also tackle Flex and Rigid-Flex design. This conversation will be fun and insightful, so watch through the end and make sure to check the additional resources below.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- High-Reliability Design WITH Manufacturing, how did the Aerospace industry influence this focus?
- The advantages of working closely with the manufacturing team
- Focus on improving the design process and eliminating back and forth communication and miscommunications
- Understanding what will work BEST for your manufacturer
- Working with flex and rigid-flex designs
- Space savers
- Reliability and stability advantages
- Choosing between flex versus a rigid-flex board, what are the considerations?
- Can you use BGA on Flex?
- How does the manufacturer influence the material selection
- Board-spin on existing design–the systemized process of ordering materials that are running low
- The design preparation process for fabrication
- What do designers need to know about stiffener
- The importance of creating a prototype to save time and money
- PCB Validation, test and Inspections, who does what?
- Typically the customers are the only ones who can do a test with the product because they have the entire system on their end
- PCB designers perform the electrical tests and control impedance lines
- Identifying a good designer to do business with–-local vs. overseas
- See you at the AltiumLive 2022. Register here
Links and Resources:
AltiumLive 2022 Connect: Now open for registration
E-Book: Navigating PCB Manufacturing: Part 1
Three Common PCB Design Mistakes You Can Spot in Your Gerbers
How to Successfully Design a BGA
Connect with Zach Peterson 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 Nexus
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Tuesday Dec 21, 2021
Tuesday Dec 21, 2021
In this episode, Zach chats with Lawrence Romine, Altium’s VP of Marketing. AltiumLive 2022 Virtual Summit is fast approaching, and we wanted to deliver to you some important information and reasons why you should not miss it. Lawrence gives an exciting overview and details about AltiumLive 2022’s new immersive experience!
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Watch the video, click here.
Show Highlights:
- AltiumLive 2022 connecting the ‘User Community’ (Designers and Engineers)
- 2 Events in the Calendar
- AltiumLive 2022 Connect Americas: Wednesday, January 26th to Friday, January 28th
- AltiumLive 2022 Connect EMEA: Wednesday, February 2nd to Friday, February 4th
- FREE registration and remote accessibility worldwide
- This year’s AltiumLive is in collaboration with Institute for Printed Circuits (IPC), the Association Connecting Electronics Industries
- Adapting the hybrid model (full virtual event) to get the whole world to connect and get involved
- Bringing some of the finer points of the upcoming IPC Apex Expo
- NEXAR Partnerships
- What NEXAR Ecosystem can bring to the participants
- Altium 365, bringing the rest of the industry at large
- Altium’s real focus on the user community and its uniqueness with other CAD companies
- The real mission and purpose of AltiumLive 2022
- A non-commercial event
- All about Learning, Connecting, and Getting inspired
- Industry expert, Eric Bogatin will be one of the speakers at AltiumLive 2022
Links and Resources:
AltiumLive 2022 Connect: Now open for registration
AltiumLive 2022 Connect Americas
IPC, the Association Connecting Electronics Industries
Previous Podcast Episodes with Eric Bogatin
- Signal Integrity Evangelist Eric Bogatin, our Expert Insider to DesignCon 2020
- Why You Should Stop Hanging on to Legacy Design Rules
- Bogatin’s “Practical Guide to” Book Series
- Pathological Design Features
Connect with Lawrence Romine on LinkedIn
Connect with Zach Peterson on LinkedIn
Watch Zach’s latest Altium Academy courses on Youtube
Read Zach’s articles on Altium’s resource hub
Download your Altium Designer Free Trial
Learn More about Altium Nexar
Wednesday Dec 15, 2021
Wednesday Dec 15, 2021
“One of the fundamental things that I'm very passionate about is continuous development.” - Stephen Chavez
We are thrilled to have Stephen Chavez on the podcast again! He is one of the respected Electrical Engineers in the electronics industry. Stephen is the chairman of the Printed Circuit Engineering Association (PCEA) and oversees the design team of a renowned military aerospace company. In this episode, Stephen will generously share his work experience and how he sees the evolution of the electronics industry. This is a not-to-be-missed episode as it will give you enough courage and motivation to keep on learning to become a successful electronics and design engineer of today’s generation!
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- Stephen and Zach’s best advice on how to get on top of things as the electronics industry evolves
- Stephen’s career progress in the electronics industry and his affiliation with PCEA (Printed Circuit Engineering Association)
- The need for cross-collaboration as designing changes and gets complex
- Altium 365 offers seamless collaboration in the cloud
- Digital thread or model-based design
- How’s the process today?
- The evolution of toolsets
- The difference between the tools of today and the past
- Taking advantage of the tool you’re using versus the manual approach
- The importance of tool training
- PCEA’s mission for the next generation engineers
- Secrets of PCB Optimization with Rick Hartley
- What do you need to consider when designing circuit boards
- Designer’s triangle
- Layout solvability
- Performance
- Design for Manufacturing (DFM)
- Intricate details that go into designing a PCB
- What it takes to fabricate and assemble a printed circuit board especially for young engineers
- Mike Creeden on Empowering PCB Engineers through PCEA
- Manufacturing aspect - filtering your suppliers
- Mistakes engineers make when choosing the materials for design
- Balancing success in circuit design
- Engineering learning practices in the past vs today
- MCAD, CAD for tool collaboration
- Autorouting in RF designs
Links and Resources:
Previous Podcast Episodes with Stephen Chavez
- Stephen Chavez Calls on PCB Designers to Get Involved
- Is IPC-CID Certification Really Important to Your Career?
- Stephen Chavez on Staying out of Your Comfort Zone
- Judy Warner and Stephen Chavez on the Approachability of the Pros
Printed Circuit Engineering Association (PCEA)
AltiumLive 2022 Connect: Now open for registration
Connect with Stephen Chavez on LinkedIn
Connect with Zach Peterson 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 Nexus
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Tuesday Dec 07, 2021
Tuesday Dec 07, 2021
Not all engineers think like hackers, and not all hackers think like engineers. - Joe Grand
Let’s jump into a contemporary engineering topic – security and privacy! Today’s guest is Joe Grand, a computer engineer, inventor, teacher, device security expert, and an AltiumLive alum. I am very excited to be talking about IoT and hardware-level security with an engineering celebrity! Together we will dive into the processes and challenges of building hardware security. There are many details discussed so make sure to watch through the end and check out the additional resources below.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- Jumping from Protel Easytrax to Altium
- Nostalgic coincidence, the beginner's project – first circuit board was an amplifier based board
- OpAmp board -- the first board that Joe created and sold
- Bringing the hackers perspective in the engineering world
- What it means to be a good hacker
- Think ahead, what hackers are going to do to your system?
- What can designers do to implement basic barebones like hardware-level security?
- Understanding the different angles and levels of (hacking) attack
- Joe walks us through his hacking process, the engineer way
- Information gathering is huge, from product documentation, patents, company profile and more
- Tearing up a product and examining the circuitry and component identification
- Using standard engineering tools for hacking
- Looking at chip-to-chip communication
- What is a “threat model”
- Your device’s power supply may be a target for hacking, Joe explains “fault injection”
- Electronic badge for DefCon 27, the world's largest hacker conference Joe created
- Collaborative effort to tighten the device security, Altium 365 offers a secure space for all stakeholders
- Patch Tuesdays and Exploit Wednesdays -- a never-ending cycle to keep the system secured
- Security through obscurity for your PCB, what is it?
- Joe answers, Is there any way to design a device so that if you do try and access it, you actually eliminate all the data or just destroy the critical parts of the device?
Links and Resources:
- Previous Podcast Episodes with Joe Grand: Joe Grand on Hacking, Badgelife and AltiumLive
- Joe Grand Talks About When Hacking and Engineering Collide - AltiumLive Keynote
- Joe Grand’s Altium Customer Success Story
- Meet Joe Grand aka Kingpin - Altium OnTrack Insight
- AltiumLive 2022 Connect: Now open for registration
- Connect with Zach Peterson 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 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 Nov 23, 2021
Tuesday Nov 23, 2021
Zach Peterson, our guest host, interviews Lawrence Romine, Altium’s Vice president of Marketing, about the exciting future of PCB Design. In this episode, Lawrence will share Altium’s mission in creating an ecosystem that helps PCB designers and engineers be the best they can be and give them access to collaboration and sharing tools.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- What makes Altium designer a cutting-edge PCB designer software
- Design challenges and solutions, saving PCB designers 70-90 percent of potential problems
- Design with your manufacturer, addressing extinct manufacturing methods,
- Bringing the primary and secondary stakeholders in the PCB design Industry together through the cloud
- Building a solution that allows anybody with a PCB design background to design
- The benefit of Partnership vs. Acquiring
- For the Designers - accessibility to tools and capabilities where users could select what best fit their needs
- For the partners - allows them to access Altium's user base and make them aware of the design solutions that they would not have known existed
- More about Nexar, users will have access to:
- Frontend engineering tools
- Simulation tools
- Data management features
- Supply chain intelligence
- IHS Markit data
- A brief overview of Lawrence career background and experience before Altium
- NEXAR embed features
Links and Resources:
- Previous Podcast Episode: What is NEXAR?
- NEXAR website
- AltiumLive 2022 Connect: Now open for registration
- Connect with Zach Peterson on LinkedIn
- Connect with Lawrence Romine 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 Nexus
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Thursday Nov 11, 2021
Thursday Nov 11, 2021
The OnTrack Podcast team is very excited to have Zach Peterson as a guest host for the next six weeks. Zach is Altium’s Technical Consultant and Expert PCB Design Instructor on the Altium Academy Youtube channel. Today he will share with us some details about what to expect in the coming weeks.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- Judy’s focusing on AltiumLive Planning for the next six weeks
- Zach to take over as the podcast’s guest host
- Update on Zach’s video series and the feedback he’s been receiving, and what’s coming up
- Q&A Sessions
- Discussion on how to work with your manufacturer, ie. RF Design
- Eric Bogatin has been confirmed as a Keynote speaker at AltiumLive
- Will Zach present at AltiumLive?
- Potential guests during Zach’s takeover
- DuPont Acquires Rogers Corporation
- AltiumLive 2022 registration is now open with a 20% early bird discount
- Check out Zach’s Articles on Altium’s Resources hub
Links and Resources:
Altium Academy YouTube Channel (Zach’s videos)
To Ask Zach Questions for upcoming Q&A on YouTube: Submit questions to Youtube@Altium.com
DuPont Acquires Rogers Corporation
AltiumLive Registration is Open. Get a 20% early bird discount by registering now!
Full OnTrack Podcast Library
Altium Website
Download your Altium Designer Free Trial
Learn More about Altium Nexus
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronic
Tuesday Oct 26, 2021
Tuesday Oct 26, 2021
Our guest today is John Coonrod, the Technical Marketing Manager at Rogers Corporation. John will generously share with us today a glimpse of his recent keynote presentation at PCB West 2021, Advancements in Prepreg Enabling New Applications for Millimeter-wave and High-Speed Digital.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- Quick overview of High-Speed Design Overview & relationship to RF designs
- Slide: RF System - overview of insertion loss and return loss
- Slide: Millimeter Wave
- Slide: Sine Waves
- Slide - I diagrams
- Quick RF and MMw overview by John: Loss issues and issues that arise with High-Speed Digital Designs
- The impact of low-loss materials
- Glass weave
- What is Rogers 1200? BISCO® HT-1200
- PPE material
Links and Resources:
Rogers Technology Support Hub
Rogers Advanced Electronics Solutions Website
John Coonrod’s LinkedIn Profile
AltiumLive CONNECT | Registration is now open!
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 Oct 19, 2021
Tuesday Oct 19, 2021
Everything that goes to making a board works against signal integrity...physics screw things up.
-Bill Hargin
Avoid getting your design “skewed”! Today’s guest is Z-Zero’s Founder and CEO, Bill Hargin. Together we will dive into the cause of getting skews in your board. There are many details, and many questions answered, so make sure to watch through the end and check out the additional resources below.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- Introduction, a brief overview of Z-Zero and Bill’s background
- Hardware Manager at Boeing (Electronic cooling and CAD design)
- He became the Director of Sales and Marketing at Hyperlynx
- High-speed marketing and five years in laminate space
- Sharing his deep knowledge of signal integrity - travel around the world doing workshops
- 2018 - full time at Z-Zero, a software company he founded. Z-Zero is an EDA start-up that offers solutions for stackup design, field solver, automation, library
- Bill presents every year at the PCB West on topics of stackup design and material selection
- Bill offers more resources through webinars and blog articles on z-zero.com
- What are Skews, and why is it’s a problem?
- Comprehensive overview and solutions
- Deterministic solutions
- Stochastic Solutions
- Comprehensive overview and solutions
- What is a Glass-weave skew (GWS)?
- Prepreg glass types, what is spread glass?
- Bill’s deterministic solutions to avoid skew
- Angled routing
- Rotating artwork 10 degrees (waste about 15% of the material, higher cost)
Links and Resources:
Bill Hargin on LinkedIn
Z-Zero Website
Who Should Be Concerned about the Fiber-Weave Effect?
Read the blogs:
How to Avoid Getting Totally Skewed – Part 1
How to Avoid Getting Totally Skewed, Part 2
How to Avoid Getting Totally Skewed, Part 3
How to Avoid Getting Totally Skewed, Part 4
Watch the Webinars:
Glass-Weave Skew - Part 1 - Who Cares?
Glass-Weave Skew - Part 2 - Mitigation Methods
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 Sep 07, 2021
Tuesday Sep 07, 2021
In this episode, Altium’s Technical Consultant, Zach Peterson will share his insights about the availability and accessibility of education related to PCB design for high school and university students.
Zach will also talk about the inspiration behind “Design Secrets,” his new series available on Altium Academy Youtube Channel.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- Introduction, from academia and Ph.D. in Physics, how did he land in the world of PCB?
- On Altium Academy YouTube channel, Zach offers basic PCB design courses. that are not frequently available, even to professionals.
- Zach’s experience in university: Observations, Knowledge Gaps, what are the main focuses?
- Zach thoughts on why are PCB design courses are not the main focus of education in college and university
- The challenges in semiconductor industry
- Focus on digital and analog design
- Zach’s Industry “awakening”—noticed the “graying of PCB design expertise demographic”
- Industry Problems: De-siloing, systems-based thinking—tools, engineering and the rise of digitization
- Need for the industry to “step up” to help equip and prepare for next-gen engineers
- How can companies educate next-gen design engineers in an ecosystem-based context
- Industry de-siloing leads to educational de-siloing
- Zach and his company’s contribution to these efforts?
- Checkout Zach’s Blogs in Altium’s Resource hub
- What is Upverter education and watch for the future university content
- Altium full-time education team, free licenses, IPC, PCEA
Links and Resources:
Zachariah Peterson Video series on Altium Academy YouTube Channel
Upverter Education Website
Signal Integrity Journal--Zachariah Peterson Articles
How to Achieve Proper Grounding
#PCBeTheChange Design Contest | Upverter Education
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 Aug 24, 2021
Tuesday Aug 24, 2021
AltiumLive 2022 and IPC Apex 2022 are joining forces to bring together all stakeholders in the PCB industry.
We have two executives joining us in this episode. Our very own Chief Ecosystem Officer and head of Altium Nexar, Ted Pawela; and IPC’s Vice President of Standards and Technology, Dave Bergman. They will share with us some exciting news about the most anticipated exhibits in the PCB community.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- Introductions:
- Ted Pawela, the Chief Ecosystem Officer and Head of Cloud (Nexar) Business Unit at Altium
- Dave Bergman, the Vice President Standards and Technology at IPC
- IPC and Altium Live conferences co-locate
- Uniting the stakeholders: PCB Design, PCB Manufacturing, PCB Supply Chain
- IPC leadership role in the industry— providing standards and educational foundation
- Bringing and exposing the PCB Designers to additional valuable education
- Dates of conferences and where overlap opportunities will be offered
- IPC Apex 2022: January 25th - 27th in San Diego with the theme “Digital Transcendence”
- AltiumLive 2022: January 26th - 28th in San Diego with the theme: “Connect”
- The intersection between the 2 conferences
- The relevance and synergies of ecosystems and community engagement
- Education strategies from Altium, IPC, and places of interest to intersect
- Understanding what’s beyond the tools
- Advancing the PCB designers’ careers through education
- IPC serves as a validation of the designers’ skills and talent through CID and CID+ training.
- IPC Foundation
- Why should you attend, what opportunities are there for you?
- User-centric
- Learn from the pure hard work of subject matter experts
- Improve design skills and connect with the people in the community
- Experience the biggest and the best, see you in January 2022
Links and Resources:
AltiumLive 2022 Website
IPC Apex Expo 2022
IPC CID Training (Eptac)
Altium Academy YouTube Channel
IPC Edge Educational Resources
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 Aug 17, 2021
Tuesday Aug 17, 2021
A Silicon Valley rising star advocates higher efficiency in electronics manufacturing.
In this episode, Andrew Scheuermann, CEO, and Co-founder of Arch, shares his company’s mission to drive digitization and sustainable innovation in electronics manufacturing. He will discuss Surface Mount Technology machine optimization and how factories can benefit from advanced analytics.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Watch the video, click here. [link to website live page]
Show Highlights:
- Introduction to Andrew and the founding of Arch Systems
- Understanding the founders, Andrew Scheuermann and Tim Burke’s experimentalist and theoretical personas, respectively
- The key to finding their niche
- Starting Startx - top 5 startup in the world
- Platform mindset - software and hardware technology that could be deployed to any kind of machine
- Become a world expert in Surface Mount Technology (SMT) machines
- Industrial Automation, how does software makes the world go round?
- Opportunity identified for SMT industrial control automation and useable, meaningful data
- Data-driven, smart manufacturing
- In-depth analytics-getting data out of legacy machines
- Digital Proof of concept, why is this valuable?
- 20 - 40 or even 60 percent improvement in manufacturing efficiency
- Predicted quality, 99% OK what do you do with the 1%?
- How do you get data out of the machine and translate them into meaningful solutions?
- Universal translation, aggregation, data security
- Andrew explains ArchFX broker being deployed on-premise
- The benefits of advanced analytics - Improved Quality, reliability, speed, better-increased margins, Informed CapX spend
Arch Systems Website
Arch Systems Overview Video
The ArchFX Platform: The Proven Fast Track to Transformation
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 Aug 10, 2021
Tuesday Aug 10, 2021
The dean is in!
In this episode, Eric Bogatin, the Dean of Signal Integrity Academy is here to talk about empowering PCB designers to become their own experts. Eric shares the inspiration behind his new book, PLUS you may have a say in what he will be writing next.
Watch now or listen on the go, and make sure to drop a comment on our YouTube channel here, to vote on which topic Eric should tackle in his next book.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Watch the video, click here.
Show Highlights:
- Out of this world (literally) storytime, Eric shares facts about the Crab Nebula Supernova
- Two Books from Artech, the inspiration behind Eric Bogatins “Practical Guide To...”
- Bogatin’s Practical Guide to Transmission Line Design and Characterization for Signal Integrity Applications
- Bogatin's Practical Guide to Prototype Breadboard and PCB Design
- What does it take to successfully build a prototype
- The important focus in Eric’s classes and books
- the introduction to the signal integrity of switching noise
- how do you design circuit boards for connectivity
- “I don’t like throwing rules” - Eric Bogatin
- Quick Poll, which book do you want Eric to write?
- Compilation of All Eric's Rules of Thumb
- Hacking interconnects using S-parameters
- How to Use an Oscilloscope
- Check out more resources authored by Eric on Signal Integrity Academy and Signal Integrity Journal
- What is a Turbo Encabulator?
- OnTrack Virtual Bookclub
- News about AltiumLive 2021
Links and Resources:
Bogatin’s Practical Guide to Transmission Line Design and Characterization for Signal Integrity Applications
New Book (Pre-order): Bogatin's Practical Guide to Prototype Breadboard and PCB Design
Join our “Virtual” OnTrack community Book Club on Amazon!
Eric’s Author page on Amazon.com
Subscribe to Signal Integrity Journal
Full OnTrack Podcast Library
Altium Website
Download your Altium Designer Free Trial
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Tuesday Aug 03, 2021
Tuesday Aug 03, 2021
“Software guys, stop blaming the hardware guys for messing up the boards” - Ari Mahpour
What is Hardware-in-the-loop testing and how it can save you time and resources when designing your board? In this episode, our guest Ari Mahpour, an engineer with broad experience in designing, manufacturing, testing, and integrating electrical, mechanical, and software systems. He will talk about how you can perform automated hardware testing in the comfort of your home without using any expensive or complex test equipment.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- Introduction and Ari’s background in the military and aerospace industry
- What is a Hardware-in-the-Loop testing and the inspiration behind it
- Taking a costly testing infrastructure to the comfort of your home lab
- Headstart up to 75% of your board testing
- The problem around the prevailing way of designing and testing—retesting every step of the way using expensive testing equipment, and takes more time for your design engineer, plus the back and forth can blow up your cost quickly
- The importance of designing and testing simultaneously and proactively—design engineers have to be part of the test process
- The impact of Covid-19 on product development and testing
- The need for software-based approach to the hardware development design
- Maker movement and hobbyist around the world contributes to less expensive and accessible test solutions (plug-and-play)
- Design board, prototype, and watch it fail
- Rework the board
- Run test in 3 minutes in couple hundreds of bucks
- Ari explains how the software in the embedded system works
- Ari shares complete details of automated low-cost testing in his article: Low-Cost Solutions for Automated Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing
- The concept is to use a simple device that can drive analog signals, read analog signals, generate various protocol serial streams, and analyze waveforms.
Links and Resources:
Ari’s article on Low-Cost Solutions for Automated Hardware in the Loop Testing
Read all Ari’s Industry Expert articles on Altium Resource Page
Book: Test-Driven Development for Embedded C
Ari Mahpour on LinkedIn
Email Ari Mahpour
Full OnTrack Podcast Library
Altium Website
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Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Tuesday Jul 27, 2021
Tuesday Jul 27, 2021
“Engage your suppliers early on the design process” - Ed Becze
Everyone wants a lower price, and often the “real cost” is not realized until it’s too late. In this episode, Ed Becze of Pegmatis, a highly experienced R&D company with end-to-end product development capabilities, joins us to help start-ups and design engineers like you avoid electronic product development failures.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Watch the video, click here.
Show Highlights:
- Introduction and the interesting origin of Pegmatis’s company name
- Ed explains the foundation of a good product development process
- A thoughtful development plan mitigates risk early on—engage vendors and suppliers early on the design process (understand parts, availability, vendor capabilities aligned with your product)
- Holistic understanding of electronic product development: strategy, cost, and your design team’s experience level
- Start-up challenges, how to prevent failures:
- Understanding the risk of “development by demo”
- Address the lack of system-level design experience (use external expertise if needed)
- Don’t trust the data sheets—only 5% of chipset providers give adequate design rules to follow. The rest, you are on your own.
- Manufacturing test is absolutely critical—test equipment and test development are often overlooked
- Engage early on the design process. Ed stresses the benefits of nurturing your relationships with your vendors and manufacturers.
- Successful product development relies exclusively on your network—find capable vendors
- Supply chain intelligence, plan ahead when coping with supply challenges
- Cost reduction—do it, but follow the process that is within the constraints of what you intended to create.
- What are the costs of NOT thoughtfully designing? It’s huge! Money and time. Delays inTime to market are extremely expensive.
Links and Resources:
Pegmatis Website
Ed Becze on LinkedIn
Full OnTrack Podcast Library
Altium Website
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Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Tuesday Jul 20, 2021
Tuesday Jul 20, 2021
Copper roughness has an impact on high-speed digital designs. Choose your copper wisely!
In this episode, circuit materials expert John Coonrod of Rogers Corporation shares his extensive knowledge on copper roughness. Watch this episode or listen on the go; it will help a PCB designer make a sound decision about picking the most suitable copper to use on your next design.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Watch the video, click here.
Show Highlights:
- Introduction, John Coonrod’s role, expertise, and experience in the Rogers lab
- How the two basic types of copper are made (Rolled and ED) electric deposit (check out the slide)
- Copper overview
- Surface Roughness, the rougher the copper, the more the bond area
- Copper Treatments
- What is a reverse treat? The benefits, thermal properties, and adhesion
- IPC classifications of Low Profile (LP), Very Low Profile (VLP)
- Surface roughness for different types of copper and different types of surface roughness measurement units (check out the slides)
- Best practices when selecting a material
- Normal variations of copper for thickness, roughness, and etching differences
- Copper roughness impact on high-speed digital designs
- Copper roughness impact on RF concerns
- Future MMW 9 micron copper
Links and Resources:
Rogers Advanced Connectivity Solutions Website
Rogers (Free) Technology Support Hub
DesignCon 2021 August 17-19, San Jose, CA
PCB West 2021 October 5-8, Santa Clara, CA
Copper Foils for High-Frequency Circuit Materials
Different Copper Foils for Different Reasons
Choosing Copper Foils for High-Frequency PCBs
Materials for High Speed Interconnects: Physics & Chemistry of Copper Clad Laminates
How Copper Properties Impact PCB RF and High-Speed Digital Performance
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Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Tuesday Jul 13, 2021
Tuesday Jul 13, 2021
High-density designs, simplified. Averatek offers a disruptive solution for complex electronic design.
We are very fortunate to have the powerhouse executive team from Averatek Corporation, a company that develops and licenses advanced manufacturing processes for a variety of electronic products including very high density printed circuit boards, semiconductor packaging, and RF and millimeter-wave electronics.
Haris Basit, Averatek’s CEO together with Mike Vinson the COO, and Tara Dunn the VP of Business Development and Marketing will share with us some exciting breakthroughs in miniaturization technology.
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- Introductions, and Averatek Technology Overview
- Founded out of SRI in Silicon Valley
- PCB Industry in North America is ripe for disruption
- Definitions: MSAP, ASAP and Subtractive processes
- ASAP is Averatek semi-additive process and is achieved with a liquid metal ink catalyst and plated up from the seed layer
- PCB design benefits of Averatek technology
- Simplify the design
- Reduction in number of layers and lamination cycles
- Increased density and miniaturization
- Signal integrity improvements
- Applications are military, medical and communications
- Material suitable for ASAP high-performance design:
- Epoxy-based substrates
- High-frequency materials (including Teflon)
- High-speed materials
- Some flex materials
- Thin materials
- Shorten the learning curve for PCB designers with Tomas Chester design project in partnership with Averatek coming soon on Altium Resource Hub
- Example design optimization:
- Smaller footprint, increased panel usage
- 12 layer board became 8 layer board
- 3 lamination cycle to 1 lamination cycle
- Simplified design, increased reliability, significantly lower costs
Links and Resources:
Averatek Website
Fabricators offering Averatek:
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Wednesday Jul 07, 2021
Wednesday Jul 07, 2021
Octopart, the premier data platform for electronic components, handles at least 5 million unique searches every month. In this episode, together with Daniel Schoenfelder, head of Octopart, we will dive into the importance of having reliable access to electronic part data.
We specialize in democratizing electronic component data and helping engineers, designers, and buyers make better decisions faster. - Daniel Schoenfelder, head of Octopart
Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics
Show Highlights:
- Introduction. The impact of the pandemic on Octopart
- Octopart’s vision: “Democratization of Information”
- New features: BOM tool in Octopart and Altium 365
- Embeddable Experience
- Global Price and Availability
- Inventory alerts
- Comprehensive Part Data - Core User Experience
- Lifecycle on Octopart.com
- CAD Models
- Lead time
- How Octopart fits into NEXAR—underpinnings of what’s available in the supply domain
- Shortages, State of Industry—saturation and duration
- Search Volume: 20 million unique users’ search on Octopart
- Learn more about Nexar—Octopart is a core component of Nexar
- What is on the horizon?
- Centralized community—very curated and engaged user community
- Solving industry-wide problems
- Octopart.com a destination for CAD
Links and Resources:
Dan’s LinkedIn Profile
Octopart.com
EDS Show August 2021 in Las Vegas at the Mirage
Semiconductor Industry Association Website (SIA)
Podcast: What is Nexar?
Nexar Website
Full OnTrack Podcast Library
Altium Website
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