Features

How to determine the critical length of a signal.

Ed.: The following is excerpted from the author’s new book titled High-Speed Constraint Values and PCB Layout Methods. The book and accompanying calculator give effective constraint values based on signal edge rate and stackup information. The book and calculator are available as free downloads at https://pcdandf.com/pcdesign/index.php/constraints. This excerpt presents Chapter 3, which describes the best way to determine if a routed signal needs high-speed management. Other chapters in the book describe the layout methods and constraints to prevent signal degradation.

To continue reading, please log in or register using the link in the upper right corner of the page.

 
Read more ...

Despite competing goals of price and reliability, the technology requirements for most products are similar.

Read more ...

Updates in silicon and electronics technology.

Read more ...

Fresh off its latest acquisition, there’s a sense of déjà vu. Is this the next big American fabricator? 

When a pair of West Coast US fabricators called Pacific Circuits and Power Circuits merged more than 30 years ago, probably no one knew the new entity would someday become the largest PCB manufacturer in the world. The deal was financed by two private equity firms, one of which was Thayer Capital Partners. With it came a rebranding to TTM Technologies. The deal was the first in a long series of M&A activities that over the next 15 years eventually rolled up Details, the PCB units of Honeywell and Tyco, Hong Kong’s Meadville PCB, and Viasystems, among others.

So, observers are forgiven then if the narrative developing with Summit Interconnect feels a little familiar.

To continue reading, please log in or register using the link in the upper right corner of the page.


 

Leveraging common fabrication processes to encapsulate transformers.

Like embedded resistors and capacitors, embedded magnetics provide a means for reducing system size and cost. Transformers and inductors used in power and telecommunication applications are often the more expensive devices in a system design. When realizing a power converter or RF module, cost and size reductions can be realized by combining the magnetics and PCB functions. This article provides an overview of embedded magnetics design and construction.

To continue reading, please log in or register using the link in the upper right corner of the page.


The reality of a brittle supply chain could mean harsh consequences for failure to deliver.

A field programmable gate array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit configurable by customers in the field, making such devices desirable for space and defense applications. A fortified version, known as a Radiation Hardened (RadHard) FPGA, can withstand attacks from electromagnetic and particle radiation in outer space.

Columns, rather than solder balls, are a critical subcomponent in the final assembly of FPGA packages. A sudden shortage of mission-critical FPGA devices could result in warfighters not flying and rockets not launching. This is not an exaggeration. But how could this be? Quite simply, makers of ruggedized FPGA devices depend on a single subcontractor to provide services to attach copper-wrapped solder columns.

To continue reading, please log in or register using the link in the upper right corner of the page.


 

 

Page 22 of 81

Subcategories