As part of this process, the placement of bypass and decoupling capacitors is critical.

You must also consider the distribution of power over the board - referred to as the Power Distribution Network (PDN) - and plan where those critical return paths for the high-speed signals will flow. Now you must consider the separation of noisy nets, such as clocks, from quiet nets, such as data lines. If the design includes high speed nets, then the component placement becomes even more critical. If the autorouter can complete more than 80% of the nets, then you should be able to interactively route it with that number of layers. Keep in mind that you may need to tune the placement as you route too, perhaps running a test autoroute on a dense area first to see if it is route-able. While you could argue about the percentage of each, it is generally accepted that good component placement is the most important aspect to good board design.

There is a saying that PCB design is 90% placement and 10% routing. Use this article as a checklist to help you work out if your board is ready, then refer to the lower-level articles to learn more about the various approaches to routing. If your design has a high net count, you might like to explore the topological autorouter, which produces results like that of a board designer.īefore you commence routing, it is important that the board is ready. It also includes a differential pair router, and interactive length tuning of both single-sided and differential routes. Altium Designer includes a number of intuitive interactive routing features to help you efficiently and accurately route your board, from a simple double sided board all the way through to a high density, high speed, multi-layer board. Working in harmony with the component placement, the routing is the other key factor in the success of your PCB design.

Displaying Connection Lines in Single Layer Mode.Displaying Connection Lines using the Layer Colors.

Using the PCB Panel to Identify the Net.

Altium designer 15.1