Signal Generator PCB: Design for Phase Noise and Stability The Board Sets the Noise Floor A signal generator is an instrument, and its specification is a set of numbers: frequency accuracy, long term stability, phase noise, harmonic and spurious content, and output flatness. Those numbers are determined partly by the…

ABS Control Module PCB Assembly: Safety Critical Build The Electronics Behind an Active Safety System An anti lock braking system watches wheel speed, calculates slip in real time, and modulates hydraulic pressure at each wheel to prevent lock up. The control module is the unit that does the calculating, and…

Microwave Transmitter PCB: Materials, Stackup and Thermal A Board Operating at the Limit of Its Materials A microwave transmitter runs continuously at high frequency and often at high power. That combination puts the board under simultaneous electrical and thermal stress, and it removes most of the margin that ordinary RF…

Glucose Meter PCB: Low Noise Design for Accurate Readings Why the Board Decides the Reading A blood glucose meter measures an electrochemical reaction. The test strip produces a current or a voltage that varies with the glucose concentration, and that signal is small, slow and easily corrupted. The meter converts…

Implantable Medical Device PCB: Design and Manufacturing The Most Demanding Category of Board An implantable device is placed inside a human body and expected to operate continuously for five to fifteen years. Pacemakers, implantable defibrillators, neurostimulators, cochlear implants and internal sensors all share that requirement, and the board inside them…

PCB Sample Boards: Types, Materials and Ordering Guide What a PCB Sample Is For A sample board is a small quantity of boards built to engineering requirements before any production commitment is made. Quantities are typically between one and twenty pieces, and the important detail is that they are fabricated…

Bare Board PCB Manufacturing: Process, Lead Time and Cost What a Bare Board Is A bare board is the printed circuit board before any component is placed on it. It contains the copper conductors and pads, the laminated substrate, the vias and holes, and the surface finish, and nothing else.…

Data Acquisition PCB: Low Noise Design for Industrial DAQ The Job the Board Has to Do A data acquisition system converts physical quantities into numbers that a control system can act on. Temperature, pressure, current, vibration, strain, all of them arrive as small analogue signals that have to be conditioned,…

High Power PCB: Design, Copper Weight and Prototyping What Counts as a High Power Board The working definition is a board designed to carry ten amps or more continuously while maintaining stable thermal and electrical behaviour. That number is a threshold rather than a rule, because the same ten amps…

Low Cost PCB Price Guide: What Drives the Number Low Cost Does Not Mean Lowest Price The phrase gets used as though it describes a price. It does not. A genuinely low cost board is one that delivers the required reliability at the lowest total cost, and those two objectives…