Forget what you think you know about electromagnetic field energy. Circuit theory pretends that electric energy is made up of electrons moving in the conductors, where the load instantly responds to the flow of current. This is false. Learn the basic principles of electromagnetic field physics to better understand their behavior so that you can design more robust PCBs with improved EMC performance.

When it comes to high density interconnect (HDI) printed circuits, traditional design features and practices for conventional multilayer boards need to be examined to achieve optimal design. In this presentation, you’ll discover 8 new design features for high density HDI boards that can help lower your cost with smaller sizes and fewer layers.

Altium Designer is packed with helpful features to ease your workflow so that you can design better products, but many of these features go unnoticed by users. We’ll uncover and explain these hidden features as well as best practices to enable you to reach your highest levels of productivity and achieve optimal results.

The days of indecipherable schematics are over. Utilizing features in Altium Designer, it is now possible to create simplified schematics that contain a wealth of information. Modern schematics serve as the single source of truth for an electrical design. Learn to utilize these tools coupled with best practices to create robust PCB layouts.

Making design faster, easier and more accessible has always been a core focus for Altium Designer. And Native 3D™ powered PCB design can be that much faster when you have a few carefully selected gaming devices to power-up your desktop. In this session, we will show you some tips and tricks with shortcuts that will make you lightning fast, along with advice on how to best use 3DConnexion™ Space Navigator and Space Explorers, including using the programmable buttons on these and on gaming keyboards, so you can work comfortably and with increased efficiency. We will discuss free online resources for finding and sharing 3D component models, and close the loop by discussing how to get your PCB design into MCAD and build enclosure prototypes using 3D printing and CAM tools.

Learn how to effectively manage board-to-board connectivity and overcome challenges in system level multi-board design to create electronics that drive the future of technology.

Variants (Randy Clemmons)
Randy has a few undocumented tricks for creating variants. He has created several projects with variants. He would like to present the issues that come with that and the solutions that he developed.

Project Parameters (David Carmody)
Project parameters are not new, but I still see so few of my customers using them. The presentation would cover basic parameters and how to utilize them in order to make the entire project’s documentation bullet proof. Why go through the hassle of modifying the same name or PN in a thousand places? How do you know that there are no typos or that none got missed? Using the Project Parameters would guarantee that all items are 100% every time.

Flex and rigid-flex is a significantly growing portion of the global PCB market. This presentation will begin with a brief look at the advantages of flexible circuitry followed by a discussion of design best practices, cost considerations and cost drivers that designers should be aware of when creating a new design. This information will be filtered with a fabrication perspective and explain the nuances of flexible materials and reasoning behind common manufacturing requests as related to flex design. The presentation will conclude with real-world advice and top tips from industry experts who are regularly designing flex and rigid flex.

Dialexa is a technology research, design, & creation firm, where we design and create custom hardware and software products and platforms. At the heart of every successful IoT product that we have created is a well-designed PCB. Drawing from years of experience of creating IoT products, the head of Dialexa’s hardware department will share his four critical pillars for a successful PCB design:
1) Form factor. E.g. creating small PCBs for consumer products
2) Connectivity. E.g. designing PCBs with good RF performance
3) Cost. E.g. Minimize part and labor costs during production
4) Time to market. E.g. designing for rapid prototyping

Explore how to prepare a complete documentation package that details every aspect of the design to ensure your product is manufactured properly the first time.

We will speak about steps and procedures which help you to design boards that work the first time. You will also learn how to check every connection in your schematic, what to be careful about when you are designing libraries or what to do when you are not sure if your circuit is going to work.

Discover how performing early analysis on your power distribution network can help you avoid power related issues and make the most of your PCB real estate.

Dive into the essentials of PCB design and learn how to optimize your productivity, minimize errors and deliver projects on time using Altium Designer 18.

The SKA (Square Kilometre Array) is an international project to build the world’s largest radio telescope, comprising a total area of 1 sq km across two continents (Africa and Australia) with collaborators from around the world. Altium is the tool of choice for designing some of the high-tech boards used in this project. From the FPGA processing board used to digitize the incoming sky signals to the Hybrid Memory Cube mezzanine card used for data storage, the SKA project utilizes numerous features and components powered by Altium. This presentation will cover an intro to the SKA, the basics of radio telescopes, and further details on the designs done in Altium together with some of the challenges faced and solutions implemented using Altium.

These days it is becoming increasingly important to provide access to data at an enterprise level early and often in a design cycle. More and more, extended team members such as component engineering, procurement, product management, test, marketing etc. want the ability to work in parallel with the design team rather than serially. Up until fairly recently, the process was to wait for everything to be done before sending off for review or to send marked-up PDF's during the process. This impacted time-to-market and the inability to find potential issues before the design was complete. Now however, we have the ability to securely expose that data to assigned team members, share annotable design Viewable's, automate the electromechanical BOM creation (no more spreadsheets), compare, cross-probe and conduct online design reviews including electronic sign-off, all through an integrated, streamlined, Work-in-Progress process!

Examine advanced routing techniques that will help you address high-speed concerns, fulfill routing requirements, and improve productivity and quality for complex designs.

This module will cover tips and tricks for cabling in Altium using the draftsman documentation package.

1. Examine the importance of knowing how to set up and maintain a top notch Altium Vault system
2. How to successfully setup a Vault system across multiple business entities, user platforms, and PLM systems
3. Procedure of creating components in the Vault and using them in designs
4. How to verify and maintain the highest quality PCB designs by using the Item Manager

Managing all the different components of a prototype PCB design while transitioning the design smoothly into production is no small task. If implemented correctly, a “Revision Control & Lifecycle Management System” is a tool that greatly simplifies the transition of a design from prototype to production. The focus of this talk is to discuss how to implement the “Revision Control & Lifecycle Management System” correctly.

There are some great benefits to using grid systems in PCB designs. They can help with the symmetry of placing parts, and keeping them in alignment so that the parts don’t encroach into routing lanes. Using a gridded pattern for through hole and HDI fanout vias helps get signals out and away from large parts including BGAs, and can help set up the return path as well. And a good routing via grid can set up routing channels to get the maximum number of signals through the open areas between parts and even help with some manufacturability issues. In this presentation we will talk about each of these grid systems and more, and show ways to implement them.

In the DOME project, a cooperation between IBM Research Laboratory Zurich and ASTRON, several technologies were developed. One part of the project is the microserver concept: by exploiting highly energy efficient System-on-Chip devices for the mobile world, a compact, cost and energy efficient parallel compute cluster can be built. Learn about the 21 different PCBs developed for the project, some of which have a record density of high-speed signals.

Electronics designers often think they are familiar with JTAG, but many don’t realize that designing with JTAG in mind will save them time by speeding up the debugging of prototypes and preventing mistakes that would require a board respin to rectify. This presentation will discuss how using JTAG to add testability can help improve the outcomes of all pre-production stages in the design process including time spent and predictability of delivery dates.

Thirty years ago, the IPC listed more than 1,200 printed circuit fabricators in the United States. In 2016, there were less
than 200. What happened? Will the number of designers and fabricators continue to decline? This presentation will take a close look at the changes that have occurred in our industry over the last 30 years, what caused them, and what changes are likely to occur in the next few years.

Having trouble with your design? Submit your design and we will interactively point out the problems that cause the
failures. We’ll focus on layer setup, ground layer design, high-speed routing and impedance control, switching voltage
regulator design, and “clean” signals.

Learn how to effectively manage board-to-board connectivity and overcome challenges in system level multi-board design to create electronics that drive the future of technology.

Examine advanced routing techniques that will help you address high-speed concerns, fulfill routing requirements, and improve productivity and quality for complex designs.

Explore how to prepare a complete documentation package that details every aspect of the design to ensure your product is manufactured properly the first time.

Discover how performing early analysis on your power distribution network can help you avoid power related issues and make the most of your PCB real estate.

As designers move to lower loss laminates, the key driver for insertion loss becomes the roughness of the conductor itself. This presentation describes the methods available for modeling, and the considerations a designer needs to take when specifying multi GHz PCBs with ultra-high speed differential signalling.

When using large FPGA’s on a PCB, making sure that the FPGA pins are connected to the correct signals is a cumbersome and time-consuming task. FPGA devices are very flexible, but connectivity errors can take a lot of time to find or (worse) require a board re-spin. In my presentation I will show how to easily verify your FPGA pin-out in various stages of the design independent of your design flow.

Dive into the essentials of PCB design and learn how to optimize your productivity, minimize errors and deliver projects on time using Altium Designer 18.

This presentation will highlight the benefit of using the 3D feature in Altium Designer to enable Multi system PCB design.
A Staaker drone design case will be used to give insight into how and why 3D models will enable "right the first time" in
complex product developments.

The challenges of moving a hardware product into production and putting it on the market as a Startup are significant. This presentation covers some of the ways judicious use of Altium Designer can significantly reduce the workload and ensure a smooth transition into an EMS/CEM. Topics covered include maximizing the effectiveness of libraries to automatically manage the supply chain and create a comprehensive manufacturing package. Making the most of the 3D support to reduce electrical and mechanical integration risk. This is all based upon the personal experience in a number of startups for New Product Introduction (NPI) of Altium based designs with CEMs in the Europe, Southeast Asia and the U.K.

When a designer selects components for their circuits, mostly it’s done on functional performance, sometimes cost is also a predominant factor. However, there are choices you can make on some components that can help improve the basic EMC performance of the whole circuit. Unfortunately the parameters often required are not so obvious in the datasheet, but they are often there if you know what to look for. This presentation will highlight how to identify these parameters, what they mean to EMC performance and in some cases how you can reduce the overall BoM by using common components for certain generic circuit functions and for input-output protection areas.

Surprisingly, in many cases the best EMC performance may come at a lower cost than you expect and can significantly simplify some circuit functions. Some of the design concepts can also be used to prepare “what if” scenarios when the choice of actual part might be nonchangeable, but there may be mitigating elements that can be added to counter potential EMC issues should they occur. The content is based on 30+ years of circuit design and component selection, and making mistakes that have led to helping identify crucial EMC performance parameters in datasheets. This has been augmented by several years of designing and characterising board level components for EMC performance and explicitly for radio transmission performance.

A novel thermal analysis tool for Altium Designer is introduced using the Altium DXP Developer, required data exchanged between Altium Designer and the thermal analysis tool. The computation of a thermal map is based on both power dissipation values of components and some simplifications. During component placement, the thermal map is computed and presented to the user simultaneously. Thus, significant PCB hot spots can be detected immediately and timeconsuming re-designs can be avoided.

In many presentations in which I see other people using Altium Designer, I observe many using the mouse to go to drop down menus and select a certain design function in a very long and complicated way. Instead, I would like to showcase the most useful keyboard shortcuts in Altium Designer that I use every day. These shortcuts increase my design speed and efficiency dramatically and I wouldn't want to live without them. To complement an efficient design flow and best use of our time, I will also touch on the topic of templates. After a short introduction on the slides, I will go directly into the tool to show the magic live and in action.

As an Altium user you drive the Mercedes amongst CAD-packages. But driving a Mercedes doesn’t make you Nico Rosberg. It’s knowledge and training that makes you do the right things to create the best possible output for production and your CADpackage will help you to do this better, faster and with the highest efficiency. In this session we will browse through a number of pitfalls created by designer colleagues that have led to production hiccups or even scrap boards. We will also briefly present you with our free online tools, PCB Visualizer and PCBA Visualizer, as a possible double DRC/DFM check for your PCBA-data before you send them anywhere for production.

The embedding of components into Printed Circuit Boards offers a great potential for miniaturization in the world of electronics. The question is: how do I take advantage of this potential or how do I get there to use this potential? This presentation shows the advantages of this novel technology, the available Printed Circuit Board processes, the procedures in project planning for board with embedded components, and includes a live demonstration of design and layout processes in Altium Designer flavored with tips and tricks for such boards.