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Browse our past newsletters on PCB design and industry information

Announcing the Official Altium Brand Store We've been asked by everyone from customers to AltiumLive attendees to employees for real, branded Altium merchandise for years. We’ve heard your requests and we're overjoyed to announce that the Official Altium Store is live! The new curated Official Altium Store has everything you've been asking for; we'll also be adding new merchandise regularly, including seasonal essentials like tank tops and hoodies. Simply visit brandstore.altium.com and Read Article

AltiumLive 2020 Virtual Summit: Meet the Speakers AltiumLive 2020: Virtual PCB Summit registration is now open...and for the first time, it's both virtual and free! While we're disappointed not to be meeting with you in person, we are very excited about offering AltiumLive in a format that enables everyone to attend without the barriers associated with time-off, cost, and travel. Read on to learn more about the speakers and topics we have in store at this year's event. The backbone of every Read Article

OnTrack Newsletter: Modern Concurrent Collaboration with Your Supply Chain and Your Team, Brain Food - August 2020 OnTrack Newsletter August 2020 VOL. 4 No 2 A New Experience of Digital Collaboration has Positive Impact on Calumet Electronics In this article, we interview Rob Cooke of Calumet Electronics, a US Based PCB Fabricator in Michigan. Cooke shares his recent experience collaborating on a multi-board design with a design engineer and EMS provider using Altium 365. He talks about his impressions and the implications this will have on design engineers Read Article

A New Experience of Digital Collaboration has Positive Impact on Calumet Electronics Judy Warner: Rob, please give us a brief overview of Calumet and your role there. Rob Cooke: I've been with Calumet Electronics for just over a year and a half in the role of Director of Engineering Services. I have responsibility for our CAM/Tooling group that handles new orders. I also oversee our Design Engineering services group and our Software Development team. Calumet Electronics is a 50-year-old company that has been making Printed Read Article

OnTrack Newsletter: AltiumLive Virtual Summit, OSV, Brain Food - July 2020 OnTrack Newsletter July 2020 VOL. 4 No 1 AltiumLive 2020 goes “Virtual” Like most events in 2020, Altium is transitioning our annual flagship conference, AltiumLive, to an online experience this year. We will host our North American event from October 6-8, and our European event from October 20-22, 2020. And the best part is...it’s free to attend! Read Article Watch Video Brain Food Technical Articles to Keep You Sharp How to Design Your PCB Test Read Article

AltiumLive 2020 goes “Virtual” Like most events in 2020, Altium is transitioning our annual flagship conference, AltiumLive, to an online experience this year. We will host our North American event from October 6-8, and our European event from October 20-22, 2020. And the best part is...it’s free to attend! While nothing can duplicate the experience of a live event or being physically together, we are busy planning ways to deliver our unique AltiumLive experience in the first Read Article

OnTrack Newsletter: Microvia Reliability, Ben Jordan Whiteboard, Tech Articles - June 2020 OnTrack Newsletter June 2020 VOL. 3 No 13 Microvia Reliability in Ultra-High Density Interconnect Designs. Earlier this year, while attending the IPC Apex Expo in San Diego, we met with Jim Brown of GreenSource Fabrication. He shared with us how the GreenSource team has been on the frontlines of facing down the highly problematic and pervasive issue of microvia reliability. Through their involvement with tier one companies, IPC, and building out Read Article

Microvia Reliability in Ultra-High Density Interconnect Designs Judy Warner: Early this year, we had the opportunity to meet at IPC Apex in California. In our conversation, you talked about the pervasive issue of microvia reliability. Will you please describe the issue for our readers? Jim Brown: Judy, as the demand for technology has increased, it has trickled down to PCB density. The result is Ultra-HDI, stacked microvias, and sub-75-micron lines. Microvias have been in use for well over a decade but Read Article

OnTrack Newsletter: At Last...Engineering in the Cloud, RF Power Dividers and Brain Food - May 2020 OnTrack Newsletter May 2020 VOL. 3 No 12 Open Source Ventilator: Schematic to Fully-Functional in Thirty Days with Altium 365 ® On May 1, 2020, Altium 365 was released to the public, marking a historic day which represents an unprecedented shift in how electronics are designed and realized. With this cloud-based platform, design engineers can work from anywhere and connect with anyone--including all primary and secondary stakeholders. During the Read Article

Schematic to Fully-Functional in Thirty Days with Altium 365 Judy Warner: Dugan, you've been running Altium Designer on Altium 365 at Velocity Research for a while now as part of our Beta group. We recently also sponsored your efforts with the Open Source Ventilator project by giving your team access to licenses for Altium Designer 20.1, and Altium Concord Pro running on the Altium 365 platform. What’s been your early impressions and key takeaways after working in the Altium 365 environment? Dugan Karnazes Read Article

OnTrack Newsletter: COVID-19, Virtual Education, and Blogs - April 2020 OnTrack Newsletter April 2020 VOL. 3 No 11 What Impact will the Coronavirus have on Your Designs? Around the world, we’ve all felt the sting of COVID-19 on safety, health, travel, global markets and our workplace. Wondering what impact this may have on design engineers, we reached out to Mike Buetow, the Editor-In-Chief for PCD&F (Printed Circuit Design and Fabrication) and Circuits Assembly magazines to learn about his viewpoint on what Read Article

OnTrack Newsletter: Rogers Corp Growth, RF Design and Brain Food - March 2020 OnTrack Newsletter March 2020 VOL. 3 No 10 Rogers Corporation: The Company Behind Top Performing Laminates If you design PCBs for high-speed digital, RF, Microwave or Millimeter Wave applications, you’re probably very familiar with Rogers laminates. However, did you know Rogers Corp has doubled in size in the past 10 years? Recently, while I was at IPC APEX Expo, I had the opportunity to interview Tony Mattingly, Sr. Product Manager and learn Read Article

OnTrack Newsletter: Engineering Stories, RF Design and Brain Food OnTrack Newsletter February 2020 VOL. 3 No 9 New Engineering Mini-Documentary Series: Altium Stories Too often, in the pursuit of healthy success and growth, it’s tempting for companies to talk about its products or services too much, and their customer’s success too little. While Altium may certainly fall into this all-too-common trap at times, we truly draw our greatest inspiration from innovative engineers like you, who are impacting the world Read Article

What Impact will the Coronavirus have on Your Designs? Judy Warner: Mike, we are hearing and watching the tough impact of the coronavirus on the world stage. From your perspective as a globally-focused editor, what are you seeing and hearing that is immediately impacting the electronics industry? Mike Buetow: There is clearly disruption in the supply chain at several levels. Taiwanese-owned factories make up the leading share of bare boards worldwide, at about 34%. About 63% of the output value of Read Article

Rogers Corporation: The Company Behind Top Performing Laminates If you design PCBs for high-speed digital, RF, Microwave or Millimeter Wave applications, you’re probably very familiar with Roger’s laminates. However, did you know Rogers Corp has doubled in size in the past 10 years? Recently, while I was at IPC APEX Expo, I had the opportunity to interview Tony Mattingly, Sr. Product Manager and learn more about the company behind some of the world’s top-performing advanced circuit materials. Judy Warner Read Article

New Engineering Mini-Documentary Series: Altium Stories Too often, in the pursuit of healthy success and growth, it’s tempting for companies to talk about its products or services too much, and their customer’s success too little. While Altium may certainly fall into this all-too-common trap at times, we truly draw our greatest inspiration from innovative engineers like you, who are impacting the world everyday. For this reason, we have decided instead of telling our story, we are going to start Read Article

Chris Carlson's Time Saving Tips for PCB Design Chris Carlson, Snr FAE at Altium and accomplished Electrical and Electronic Engineer shares the expertise of his 23-year career in development, documentation, manufacturing, application engineering, and customer support. According to an Aberdeen study, 61% of a designer’s time is spent doing non-direct, design-related activities, such as sourcing components, document control, and so much more. Chris is here to help you improve your efficiency and Read Article