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Power Integrity

Browse our library of resources to learn more about pcb design and power integrity.

Why Startup Transition is a Concern for Embedded Systems Do you have a morning ritual? I can barely function without mine. My brain has a hard time operating without a big breakfast, some piping hot coffee, and five minutes browsing through my inbox even when there are zero unread emails. Having a morning ritual for your embedded system is helpful too. While you don’t need to serve any coffee to your PCB’s microcontroller, you do need to ensure that it efficiently handles the transitional state during Read Article

How an Electrolytic Capacitor PDN Issue Almost Brought Down a Building I recently came across an interesting story that involves the tale of a boiler system that failed to start under the close supervision of a TDK-Lambda rep, only to be solved by none other than the building maintenance technician. The story starts by the shutdown of an aging boiler in the dead of winter a British winter that required replacement of the seven-year-old radiators. After the repair and replacements took place, the boiler was switched Read Article

Voltage Regulators and How to Plan Your Power Budget with PDN Analysis With my first buck regulator design, I had been given a power budget for the circuit block and I had to take into consideration what it was supplying and what topology I’d use. I considered efficiency to remove heat from the enclosure and I wanted to avoid using a heat sink. I also wanted a robust engine, a regulator to keep on working when the CPU, memory, and other utility circuits were exercising their might. I decided on the buck regulator Read Article

Isolated vs Non-Isolated Power Supplies: The Right Choice Without Fail There may come a time in your career as a PCB designer when you must adhere to regulatory requirements. Whether it be medical, automotive, military, or anything of the sorts, your design will certainly be scrutinized and held to very high standards.Oftentimes, when these regulations are in effect, power isolation (or lack thereof) is a very popular topic. What is power isolation, and what is an isolated power supply? Power isolation is Read Article

Universal Language: PCB Design to Minimize EMI in Communications Systems Can you imagine what a world without lines would be like? At first, it seems wonderful to not have to wait around anymore, trusting that people will figure their business out. Disneyland, happiest place on Earth, receives about 44,000 people per day. Imagine a thousand people all rushing to get on the next available log flume. No longer just a tower of terror, but a whole theme park. When designing PCBs, your traces are the lines and each has a Read Article

Be the Expert When it Comes to Designing Your Power Distribution PCB Editorial credit: Paolo Bona / Shutterstock.com Around my house, we seem to undergo a transformation to obscure-sport experts every four years, and coincidentally it occurs at the same time that the Winter Olympics is taking place. Yes, I’m talking about the sport of curling. We have all become subject matter experts in the “button,” the “hammer,” the “house,” “sweeping,” and of course the “curl.” Rest assured, by next month we will have Read Article

History of Wave Soldering: Developing the Wave Soldering Process It is often said that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Of course, Copernicus long ago dispelled this misinterpretation. Even so, when I am on the road early in the day and the horizon is continually getting brighter I always get a sense of excitement coupled with uncertainty as to what the day will bring. With the speed at which technology changes today, what the future will bring is a constant concern for engineers and designers Read Article

To Wave or Not To Wave: Wave Soldering Advantages and Disadvantages One evening when there were no good games on TV I let my girlfriend talk me into going to see a play. It was written by some famous guy and I reluctantly went. The part that stayed with me was when a young guy, the star, was asking himself, “To be or not to be…” Apparently, he was undecided about taking action and was wondering what would happen after he did. This prompted me to consider if I could be a better PCB if I knew more about what Read Article

For Your DC Power Application, Which Switching Power Supply Topology is Right? We often have our old-timer pioneers to thank for laying down the groundwork for our continued success and future growth. These old-school designers had nothing more than theory and confidence to drive their designs, or more specifically, to drive their failures. But as stated by a multitude of wise individuals, each failure is nothing more than a discovery of how not to do something. However, with the discoveries of failures also come Read Article

Practice Makes Perfect: How to Test Electronic Components during PCB Design When I was younger, well much younger, I had dreams of one day being a pro athlete. I wanted to be the guy who scored the winning touchdown, knocked in the winning run or hit the buzzer-beater. Although I never made to the professional level, I did have some success and I learned a lot. The most important thing was the results you achieved were strictly tied to your preparation. In other words, if I wanted to do well in the game I had to test Read Article

High Current PCB Design and its Real World Applications With the rise of PCB applications stretching far and wide, designs are being created for applications that extend past simple signal integrity solutions. Advancements in material technology, PCB manufacturing capabilities, and the rising demand for PCB design is opening up the floor for many industries that otherwise have been dormant in the PCB world. Many limitations that were not present a handful of years ago are beginning to loosen. Of Read Article

Designing Your PDN to Work Within Your PCB Layout Guidelines I enjoy watching the occasional episode of Star Trek here and there, and I get a kick out of noting the inconsistencies in their technology. In one episode they may be firing all of their energy weapons at the bad guys, moving at warp 3-billion to time travel and showing no regard as to where their power was coming from. In the next episode though, someone will plug in a space toaster to warm up their breakfast in the galley, and the whole ship Read Article

See Where You are Going with Your PCB Power Distribution Network Design For those of you who have only experienced the brilliant high power of LED, Xenon, or Halogen headlights in today’s modern cars, you may not realize how fortunate you are. My first car was old enough that its headlights could have been candles. One year I received Halogen fog lights for my birthday, and the difference at night was amazing. Not only could I now see what was next to the car in the dark but the fog lights almost out-distanced the Read Article

Learning Current Density: Don’t Pop the Balloon One area of PCB design that probably does not get the attention that it deserves is current density. Current density in a PCB trace is much like the pressure in a balloon. You want to squeeze as much air into the balloon as you can, but if you put too much: boom! The same is true of PCB traces many times. We want the traces to be as small as possible yet carry the most current possible, and if the trace carries too much: boom! For PCBs, that boom Read Article

Riding the Wave: When Wave Soldering is the Best PCB Soldering Process Everybody loves the beach and I am no different. Sitting on the edge of the ocean being mesmerized by the ebb and flow of the water is a favorite pastime of mine. This is especially true when there are surfers riding the waves. It is awesome to watch a huge wave appear intent on engulfing them only to see them emerge upright on their boards having ridden the wave towards the shore. However, when too many surfers are bunched together they are Read Article

Don’t Just Resolve Your New Year, (PCB) Design It History contains many valuable lessons to learn, but this is the time of year when many people consider the future. You deserve some congratulations for going through your 2017: you learned new designs, tackled challenges, and did everything in your power to make 2017 your most successful year yet. The only thing left for 2018 is reaching higher and accomplishing even more. Don’t let yesteryear’s success limit your current ambition; keep pushing Read Article

Order Up! Finding Your Chef Voice in Mixed Voltage PCB Design I was watching a cooking program on television the other day when I noticed how chefs always seem to be yelling whenever they need something or are demanding another kitchen staff to do something. It started to dawn on me how much of a mixture a kitchen has to be: there have to be all sorts of people who are both capable of being quiet and listening, and being loud and giving orders when something needs to get done. When you stop to consider all Read Article