Tag Archives: PCB design

Will a Via Fit Between?

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Duane

I don’t know that it would be accurate to say that BGAs have ever been easy, but with 0.4mm pitch being common and 0.3mm pitch showing up, some of the older size, like a WHOLE millimeter pitch seem positively spacious. … Continue reading →

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Beagle CAD Paw Prints

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Duane

Unfortunately, I can’t generically hand out Eagle CAD QFN footprints without knowing the specific part, but I can illustrate the areas I initially had difficulty with. All of the traps that used to get me seem blindingly obvious now, but … Continue reading →

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Why Not Nick?

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Mike

Nick Martin, the founder and, until last week, CEO of Altium, is fighting back against the board that tossed him out. But the real question isn’t whether he will regain his spot atop the CAD tool developer. It’s why the … Continue reading →

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CAD Tool Survey

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Mike

PRINTED CIRCUIT DESIGN & FAB is undertaking a survey of how printed circuit board designers, design engineers and other layout specialists use and think about various CAD tools. Results will be published in an upcoming issue of PCD&F. Please be … Continue reading →

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Bragging Rights

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Mike

I want to call attention today to a great new contest for designers being run by Sunstone Circuits. The contest works like this: From now until Dec. 16, design engineers can share their PCB-related design success stories online at Sunstone’s … Continue reading →

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Heads in the Cloud

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Mike

DigiTimes is reporting that companies like Quanta are working with cloud computing developers to offer turnkey solutions, selling storage space to design and manufacturing customers. What DigiTimes did not report, however, is that such arrangements extend to PCB CAD tool … Continue reading →

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Cadence: All Sync’d Up

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Mike

Cadence today announced the release of point revisions to both Allegro and OrCAD, continuing its tradition of keeping releases of its major platforms in sync. They show significant upgrades in timing speeds and simulation speeds, respectively, as well as better … Continue reading →

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PCB West Next Week

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Mike

As most of you (hopefully) know, PCB West is next week. The annual conference and trade show, now in its 21st year, is the biggest and best event for the electronics design, fabrication and assembly in the Silicon Valley. Here’s … Continue reading →

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Via in Pad X 8

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Duane

Here’s an interesting via in pad case. On the one hand, the footprint is very symmetrical and clean looking. On the other hand, it has open vias in the pads. At first glance, I thought this was a DIP footprint … Continue reading →

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Behind the Sigrity Deal

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Mike

Cadence’s acquisition of Sigrity, announced yesterday, is a big deal for reasons beyond the technology being acquired. Sure, it’s great for Cadence to gets its hands on Sigrity’s power and signal integrity tools. But what this move also underscores is … Continue reading →

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