The Social Media Net - Marketing for the engineer entrepreneur

I kind of like the phrase “the social media net.” I doubt that I actually coined it, but I can’t think of exactly where I may have first heard it. Regardless, a net is one of the things that comes... Read more

Signal To Noise Ratio - Marketing for the Engineer Entrepreneur

Signal to noise ratio is a pretty important factor in the world of electronics design, especially in Rf and analog design. Strangely enough, it’s also a critical part of marketing. In many parts of the engineering community, the term “Marketing”... Read more

Testing (your electronics?) One, Two, Three

At Screaming Circuits, we’ve designed our systems with the objective of producing 100% yields. It’s a build to quality rather than a test for quality process. That means we don’t, as a standard process, test (or program) boards we build.... Read more

Sometimes, I just want to build it myself

It should (and does) stand to reason that I'm a big fan of professional assembly. When you need it done right, or need a bunch built, there's no better way to get working PC boards than a solid professional assembly... Read more

Ever use a Ti X2SON packaged part?

The name stands for "Extra Small Outline No-lead." It's a newish package from Texas Instruments. In my experience, Ti is one of the better companies where testing and documenting manufactureability is concerned. The datasheet for this device [www.ti.com/lit/an/scea055/scea055.pdf] is no... Read more

Do Bolts go on the Bill of Materials Too?

Yes. If you want us to install it, it must go in the bill of materials. For the most part, we solder thru-hole and surface mount components on the PC boards. As pretty much everyone knows, all of those parts... Read more

Multidisciplinary Trivia

I sometimes spend my Tuesday evenings engaging in pub trivia. It's a thing here in Oregon - maybe in other places too. I do okay, but there always seems to be too many sports and contemporary pop culture questions. I'm... Read more

Enough with the parts issues already!

I really need to get back to writing about techniques and technology, but today, it's parts again. Parts pricing, specifically. We have some tariffs coming up on parts imported from China, starting on July 6th. Specifically, a 25% tariff will... Read more

Top 5 Ways to Mitigate Component Availability Problems

Most of the electronics design world is by now aware that we're in a very serious period of components shortages. The hardest hit seem to be ceramic capacitors, but other passives as well as a variety of connectors and silicon... Read more

Embedded Passives

I recently participated in the Altium pod cast where I discussed the origins of Screaming Circuits, some DFM hints and a few other topics. I was discussing some of the challenges everyone is having these days in procuring components and... Read more