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What in the world is mechatronics, and what does it have to do with PCB design? Find out in this month's issue of Design007 Magazine!

The July Design007 Magazine: Mechatronics, featuring content from IPC, American Standard Circuits, LLC, Rick Hartley and Barry Olney, Sunstone Circuits, Siemens EDA (Siemens Digital Industries Software) and more, is out now. Download your copy today! https://bit.ly/3V0hcrS Our expert contributors discuss the advent of mechatronics in PCB design, the challenges and opportunities this creates for circuit board designers, and the benefits—to the employee and the company—of becoming a mechatronics engineer.

Be sure to download the latest issue of the Design007 Magazine and get your engineering "spork" on!

Great issue with lots of valuable information. Here is a link.

#Day10 of #100DaysAmplifierDesign: Though progress may have been gradual lately, I'm back with renewed vigor to delve into the intricacies of IC design. SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) emerges as a cornerstone tool, furnishing engineers with versatile circuit simulation capabilities tailored for analog, digital, and mixed-signal circuits. Comprehending SPICE netlist utilization is pivotal, driven by several key reasons: 1. Simulation: SPICE facilitates preemptive circuit performance evaluation, allowing designers to simulate and analyze circuit behavior prior to physical realization.     2. Verification: Acting as a reliable litmus test, SPICE aids in verifying circuit functionality against predetermined design specifications, ensuring alignment with intended goals.     3. Optimization: Leveraging SPICE, designers embark on a journey of fine-tuning, optimizing circuit performance metrics such as power consumption and size for enhanced efficiency.     4. Cost-effectiveness: SPICE's adeptness in early issue identification translates to reduced time and cost overheads, streamlining the design iteration process. The NGSPICE code provided in the attached image further exemplifies its utility: Here, a transient analysis is performed with a simulation time of 100ns and a time step of 10 ns. Additionally, a commented-out line for DC sweep analysis (*.dc) can be activated to understand the circuit's static behavior through voltage variations. Understanding SPICE netlist empowers designers to navigate through circuit complexities, ensuring robust design implementations and efficient circuit optimizations.

𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗯𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀! PCB designers are challenged to perform multiple analyses and simulations, crucial to both the design and signoff phases, while meeting aggressive deadlines. The solution to this might just be Cadence Design Systems Clarity 3D Solver EM simulation tool. Stated that it is specifically created to overcome super complexity of EM challenges that we encounter in 5G, automotive, HPC, and ML applications. 😉🏎️ Full news ⬇️ #CadenceDesignSystems #PCBDesign #EMDesign #Clarity3DSolver #SimulationTool #5G #Automotive #HPC #ML #Electronics #DesignChallenges

Day 10: 100 days amplifier design Hello community, Today I’ll be going through the need for knowing how to use SPICE to design integrated circuits As an IC designer, understanding SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) netlists is 🔑 key to success. SPICE empowers engineers to simulate circuit behavior accurately before fabrication, saving time and resources. 💻 Take the inverter circuit, for example. By crafting a SPICE netlist, we can perform Operating Point Analysis to understand DC behavior and Transient Analysis to observe dynamic responses. This insight helps optimize performance and identify issues early in the design phase. 📈 Operating point analysis and transient analysis are two essential techniques used in SPICE simulations to analyze the behavior of electronic circuits. Here's how they're performed: Operating Point Analysis: Operating point analysis calculates the DC biasing of the circuit, providing information about node voltages and device currents when the circuit is in a steady state. To perform operating point analysis in SPICE: -Define the circuit components and connections in a SPICE netlist. -Specify initial conditions for components if necessary. -Run the simulation using a SPICE simulator. -The simulator computes the operating point of the circuit by solving the circuit equations iteratively until convergence is achieved. -Results include node voltages, device currents, and other relevant parameters. Transient Analysis: Transient analysis simulates the time-domain behavior of the circuit, showing how it responds to varying input signals over time. To perform transient analysis in SPICE: -Define the circuit components and connections in a SPICE netlist. -Specify input signals, such as pulses, step functions, or sinusoids, along with their characteristics (amplitude, frequency, etc.). -Define simulation parameters such as the simulation time duration and time step. -Run the transient simulation using a SPICE simulator. -The simulator calculates the circuit's response over time by solving differential equations that describe the circuit's behavior. -Results typically include waveforms showing how voltages and currents vary over time at different nodes and components in the circuit. Both operating point and transient analyses provide valuable insights into circuit behavior, allowing engineers to optimize performance, verify design specifications, and troubleshoot issues before physical prototyping or fabrication #100daysamplifierdesign #ICDesign #SPICE #Simulation #Innovation #ElectronicsEngineering Tiny Tapeout Mosiso LLC TSMC

In the fast-paced world of electronics manufacturing, innovation is the key to staying ahead of the curve. In this series of posts, we are taking a look at all aspects of innovation in PCB manufacture. Design Innovations Innovations in PCB design software and methodologies are empowering engineers to create more complex and compact electronic devices. From AI-driven design optimisation to modular PCB architectures, design innovations are enabling faster time-to-market and greater design flexibility. AI-Driven Design Optimisation: AI-driven design optimisation tools analyse complex design constraints and performance requirements to generate optimised PCB layouts, minimising signal interference and maximising space utilisation. To read my full blog, please visit: https://lnkd.in/e_pgKvvP If you want to know more or want some assistance, or to discuss your requirements & specific application needs – just drop me a LI message or an email on cliff@roscan.co.uk. #PCBAssembly #PCBDesign #PCBInnovation

Hi connections! Great work on the current mirror circuit analysis using the Cadence tool! 📈🔍 It's impressive to see how precise and detailed parameter analysis can provide insights into device behavior, leading to more robust analog circuit designs. Understanding the current mirrors through simulation allows for optimization in real-world applications. Keep pushing the boundaries of analog engineering! A current mirror is a circuit designed to copy (mirror) the current through one active device by controlling the current in another active device of a circuit, keeping the output current constant regardless of loading. It is commonly used in analog circuits. Specifications: Technology: 180nm GPDK (General Process Design Kit) technology. Transistor Width (W): 2µm for both PMOS and NMOS transistors used in the current mirror. Setup in Cadence: 1. Technology Selection: Choose the 180nm GPDK technology in the Cadence design environment. 2. Current Mirror Circuit: Insert PMOS or NMOS transistors from the GPDK library to form a current mirror. 3. Device Sizing: Set the width of the transistors to 2µm. The length (L) will typically be the minimum allowed by the technology, often 180nm for the 180nm process. 4. Biasing: Reference Current Source: Set up a reference current source to provide a constant current to the reference transistor. Gate Voltage (Vgs for NMOS or Vsg for PMOS): The gate voltage is set by the reference transistor and mirrored by the output transistor. DC Characteristics: The DC characteristics of a current mirror describe how the mirrored current (Iout) varies with changes in the reference current (Iref) and output voltage (Vout). To analyze these characteristics: 1. Set up a DC Sweep Analysis: Iref Sweep: Sweep the reference current to observe how it affects the mirrored current. Vout Sweep: Sweep the output voltage to see the effect on the mirrored current while keeping Iref constant. 2. Simulation: Run the DC sweep simulation in Cadence to obtain the Iout vs. Iref and Iout vs. Vout characteristics. This experiment helps in understanding the performance and behavior of current mirrors, which is crucial for designing reliable analog circuits. #AnalogEngineering #CadenceTool #CurrentMirror #Semiconductor #CircuitDesign #TechInnovation

#100daysamplifierdesign Designing and simulating a two-stage CMOS op-amp requires a detailed understanding of CMOS technology, circuit design principles, and simulation tools. Here's a high-level overview of the design process: Specification: Define the required specifications such as gain, bandwidth, power consumption, input/output impedance, and slew rate. Architecture Selection: Choose a suitable architecture based on the specifications and application requirements. Schematic Design: Design the schematic for each stage of the op-amp, including input differential pair, gain stages, and output stage. Transistor Sizing: Size the transistors to meet the desired gain, bandwidth, and other performance metrics. Simulation: Use SPICE simulation tools like LTspice to simulate the designed circuit. Perform AC, DC, transient simulations to verify the performance across different operating conditions and process variations. Layout Design: Once the schematic is verified, layout design is done to implement the circuit in silicon. Post-layout Simulation: Perform post-layout simulations to validate the circuit's performance based on the extracted layout. This helps ensure that the fabricated chip meets the desired specifications. Matt Venn Tiny Tapeout Kennedy Chinedu Okafor Emmanuel Otabil