OEMs Must Own the Stackup
Bill Hargin of Z-zero: “A lot of people think of impedance and stackups as kind of a monolithic concept, but they’re pretty nuanced, in fact.” Who owns the stackup design process? Is it the OEM’s design team, which is familiar with all the electrical requirements of the PCB, or the fabricator, who knows far more […]
Addressing the Issue of Mischaracterized Materials
Engineers who use laminate materials for printed circuit boards need to be aware that the manufacturers’ numbers describing those materials may not always be correct, experts will tell attendees at the upcoming DesignCon 2019 conference. “The buyer needs to be aware,” Bill Hargin, director of everything for Z-zero, LP, told Design News. “If the laminate manufacturer is giving you […]
Resistive Loss is Only Skin Deep
Mitigating skin effect’s impact on high-speed signals.WRITTEN BY: BILL HARGIN I’ve spent much of the past seven years dealing with insertion loss as it relates to PCB dielectrics, as well as losses due to copper roughness. During that period, there’s been comparatively little discussion regarding “skin effect,” a significant contributor to signal attenuation that in […]
Why We Simulate
When I was cutting my teeth in high-speed PCB design some 25 years ago, speeds were slow, layer counts were low, dielectric constants and loss tangents were high, design margins were wide, copper roughness didn’t matter, and glass-weave styles didn’t matter. We called dielectrics “FR-4” and their properties didn’t matter much. A fast PCI bus […]
Winning the War against Analysis Paralysis
The “founder” of TMI asks, How much is more analysis worth? Just because something can be done doesn’t mean that it should be done. A few customer encounters this past month caused an issue to ricochet around in my mind like a 1970s pinball machine. I’m referring to a trap we’ve all fallen into: analysis paralysis. Three interrelated definitions […]
Addressing the Issue of Mischaracterized Materials
Interview with Bill Hargin as published in DesignNews: Two engineers have advice for engineers who need more accurate characterization of PCB laminate materials: Make your own measurements. Engineers who use laminate materials for printed circuit boards need to be aware that the manufacturers’ numbers describing those materials may not always be correct. “The buyer needs […]
Z-zero collaborates with Mentor on the industry’s first ODB++Design data exchange for material-based stackups between designers and fabricators
Redmond, Washington, September 30, 2020 – Z-zero announces that it has collaborated with Mentor, a Siemens business, to develop the electronic manufacturing industry’s first comprehensive, bidirectional software solution that bridges the gap between designers and fabricators for the exchange of material-based stackups. Based on Siemens’ ODB++Design open data structure, the new solution helps customers transfer printed […]
Z-zero Debuts Z-planner Enterprise 2019.2
Redmond, Washington, December 31, 2019 – Z-zero announces the release of Z-planner EnterpriseTM, a field-solver based stackup planning and material selection software that is optimized for front-to-back PCB design and signal-integrity flow. About Z-planner Enterprise Z-planner Enterprise is an all-in-one solution that enables hardware design teams to design and validate PCB stackups. With interfaces to the most common […]
Z-zero Launches v2019.1 of Z-planner and Z-solver
Redmond, Washington, April 30, 2019 – Z-zero announced today the third major release of its PCB stackup planning software products: Z-planner, for PCB stackup design and materials selection; and Z-solver, for quick, accurate impedance and insertion loss results. New PCB Stackup Features in 2019.1 Z-planner’s patent-pending automated material matching utility—new with 2019.1—allows hardware designers to match […]
Z-zero Launches v2018.1 of Z-planner and Z-solver
Redmond, Washington, December 31, 2018 – Z-zero announced today the second major release of its PCB stackup planning software products—Z-planner, for PCB stackup design and materials selection; and Z-solver, for quick, accurate impedance and insertion loss results. “Survival in the world of high-speed design requires accurate prediction of electrical performance based on design and material properties. […]