PADS 9.5 is now available for download on SupportNet at http://supportnet.mentor.com/downloads/index.cfm?id=201206070&product=C115-S153-G192-P10548&redirected=true&reason=0
PADS 9.5 includes the following new features:
Virtual pin support
Bottom View (Mentor Idea D254)
Automation interface enhancements (Mentor Ideas D2749, D3246, D3247, D3248)
Placement Keepouts in Decals (Mentor … Read More
I was browsing the television guide on Sunday morning looking for something interesting, and noticed “Space Jump” was on the Discovery channel. Hoping this was the rescheduled jump for daredevil Felix Baumgartner, I switched to the channel at the right time, just as the helium balloon was being inflated for lift off. I ended up watching most of the event, in part because, “you don’t see this everyday”, … Read More
Released this week is the DxDesigner 7.9.4 highlights Virtual Lab that walks you through all of the new features in Mentor Graphics’ DxDesigner 7.9.4. Instead of downloading large installation files, setting up the software on your own computer, getting a license, and then creating a demonstration design, we can now deliver the software preinstalled on a virtual machine in the cloud with demonstration … Read More
In previous blogs, I have discussed the importance of an uninterrupted, intact reference plane for signals. But, what if you have two reference planes for your signal? This is probably true of most signals in any board over 6 layers – a great deal of routing exists on the inner layers.
In a symmetrical stripline, the return current is shared equally between both planes. So, both planes need … Read More
NO.
Okay, well, I guess you could say “it depends”, but in general, no, it is not okay to cross a plane split.
Why not?
Basically, you are creating a break in the current return path for the signal. That turns your trace/plane combination into more of an antenna than a transmission line. And if you are radiating energy, that means you are not transmitting energy to your receiver. So, … Read More
Many electromagnetic interference (EMI) problems on PCBs happen when antennas are unintentionally created on the board. How can this be avoided? By making sure currents, especially high-frequency currents, travel in a loop. On high-speed lines, that loop is made up of a PCB trace AND the reference plane below it. Put a break in either one, and you’ve created an antenna. Obviously you would … Read More
As I drove home last night from the office, the spectacular fall colors were on display in Colorado. The views on the rolling foothills were stunning; deep green manicured grass, orange and red non-native trees, and the brilliant yellow of the native Aspen trees all placed against a sky filled with clouds of dark blue grays, and muted yellows of dry grasses. Mentor Graphics’ DxDesigner has long … Read More
With the new DxDesigner 7.9.4 release, a primary focus of the release was improving the ‘ease of use.’ The project navigator is a powerful tool and is extremely configurable per user, and also has the ability to show component names, reference designators, page numbers, net names, blocks, and other helpful functions.
But as the old saying goes, pictures are worth a thousand words and that is the driver … Read More
Welcome! I am Gary Lameris Technical Marketing Engineer for Mentor Graphics. I’ve worked with DxDesigner since 1988 and have watched it grow from the independent Unix/Dos tool called PowerView and Viewdraw to a powerful multi-user schematic drafting program tightly integrated into the Expedition Enterprise and PADS layout tools today.
Four years ago I moved to Colorado to join Mentor Graphics and the … Read More
With PADS 9.4.1, the user was given new controls during the creation and editing of drafting shapes. You can now control how and where the cursor will snap to an oject, including corners, midpoints, centers of arcs and circles, intersections of lines and circle quadrants, component origin, pin, and via.
Bill Tkachuk, an AE for CSD, has created Technote MG579477 which includes a video “how to” … Read More
I’ve been presenting at a bunch of seminars throughout the world over the past few months. One of the presentations has been about passing data from PCB design to manufacturing. I make the point that over 90% of the time, your fabricator will edit the Gerber files to improve their yield, and most of the time, you don’t know what they change. The attendees have shared several of their own “horror” … Read More
PADS – deservedly so – has the reputation of a powerful, easy to use tool. The menus and dialog boxes are engineered to be intuitive, and easy for new users to navigate through. Sometimes though, the task you are trying to perform can be done quicker by using Modeless commands – a “short cut” you can use rather than pulling down menus or opening a dialog box. Many users have told me how much more … Read More
For SERDES channel designs, board/system designers are told to remove stubs and non-functional pads (NFP) of vias on channels to ensure signal quality at the receiver ends. What confuses them the most is when to consider these effects: does one have to remove all NFPs and stubs in any channel carrying signals with data rates over 1Gbps? Can a design still work even if via stubs are kept?
The actual … Read More
Designers dealing with SERDES channels pay more and more attention to signal via effects. Many literatures and guidelines talk about the approaches to correctly configure vias so that via effects on signals can be minimized. Such methods require detailed analysis of single via or differential via pair. With the help of accurate 3D field solvers, vias can be designed to have controlled noise in channels … Read More
It’s easy to output a file from PADS Layout for use during manufacturing by the pick and place machines. Customers in some cases want to customize the file format. This is easily done!
A VB script is provided with PADS Layout to output the part placement. Variations of this script are available if you require centroid versus component origin XY coordinates. Another version will generate a report … Read More