By Suresh Patel, Sales Engineer, Mer-Mar Electronics One of the mega tech trends revolutionizing today’s digital world is the ubiquitous Internet of Things (IoT). The significant factors pushing the IoT market are the decreased cost of CPU memory and storage, abundant availability of sensor devices, and accessibility of expandable repositories for storing data (like cloud […]
PCB Design
PCB development trends for 2022 and beyond
By Suresh Patel, Sales Engineer, Mer-Mar Electronics With recent technologies like 5G, IoT, and AI impacting the electronics world tremendously, there are a lot of developments in the PCB manufacturing industry now. New trends are catching up swiftly in the PCB development process. The estimated global PCB market in 2023 is around 70-75 billion dollars. […]
40-GHz-bandwidth sockets handle BGA121 chip packages
A new high-performance elastomer socket for 0.5-mm-pitch BGA packages, called the CG25-BGA-2002, is designed for a 6×6-mm package size and operates at bandwidths up to 40 GHz with less than 1 dB of insertion loss (GSSG configuration). The contact resistance is typically 20 mΩ/pin. Network analyzer reflection measurements for the G-S-S-G case were taken with […]
Universal development board enables MCU, peripheral “try out”
MikroElektronika has released UNI-DS v8, a universal development board that is ideal for rapid prototyping, which includes everything engineers might need for their new project. It is equipped with a range of features and global standard interfaces that enable complex projects to be created quickly, efficiently and elegantly. The UNI-DS v8 development board includes a SiBRAIN socket that enables […]
Breadboards evolve to meet 21st-century design needs, Part 3: The present and near future
The classic wooden breadboard is obsolete, but its name refers to a vital engineering tool that has changed to meet today’s component and design realities. Wooden breadboards are obsolete as platforms for circuits using modern components, of course, and so-called solderless breadboards are also of very limited usefulness. At the same time, the way designers […]
Breadboards evolve to meet 21st-century design needs, Part 2: Recent past and present
The classic wooden breadboard is obsolete, but its name continues to refer to a vital engineering tool that has changed to meet today’s component and design realities. As leaded components such as discrete transistors and low-pin-count ICs in DIP packages came into use in the late 1960s and 1970s, breadboarding technology evolved as well. Among […]
Breadboards evolve to meet 21st-century design needs, Part 1: The “Ancient” Past
The classic wooden breadboard is obsolete, but its name continues to refer to a vital engineering tool that has changed to meet today’s component and design realities. Breadboards have a special place and multiple meanings in the engineering lexicon. So, what is a breadboard? It can be a crude try-out version of a subcircuit to […]
Stamped-spring pin sockets handle BGA289 chip packages
A new socket addresses high-performance requirements for testing BGA289-packaged ICs.The contactor on the SBT-BGA-6577 socket is a stamped-spring pin with a 31-gm actuation force per ball and cycle life of 125,000 insertions. The self-inductance of the contactor is 0.88 nH, insertion loss is less than 1 dB at 15.7 GHz, and capacitance is 0.097 pF. […]
Elastomer sockets handle high-bandwidth 0.508-mm pitch 132QFP packages
A new high-performance QFP socket for 0.508-mm pitch 132-pin QFP packages called the SG-QFE-7025 socket is designed for a 19.39×19.39×4.22-mm package size with 24.79×24.79-mm lead tip-to-tip and operates at bandwidths up to 30 GHz with less than 1 dB of insertion loss. The contact resistance is typically 20 mΩ per I/O. The socket connects all […]
Five considerations for mixed-signal PCB layouts
Printed circuit board (PCB) layout is an important activity when developing mixed-signal applications. A lot can go wrong, and everything needs to be correct for a successful design. Impedance control is an obvious consideration, but it needs to include trace resistance as well as parasitic inductances and capacitances. Maintaining signal integrity can be challenging. This […]