Tools Archives - EE-Training

Free IBIS Simulator: KiCAD 8?

March 24, 2024 by Rolf Ostergaard

A long time ago I did a series of posts about Altium for signal integrity (part I, part II, part III). That did not go well for Altium. Ever since then, I have been on the lookout for a free or cheaper alternative to the kings of the mountain of signal integrity simulation: Hyperlynx and… Read more

Minimum Footprint Debug Connector

March 17, 2013 by Rolf Ostergaard

This is a great little product solving a number of problems – smallest or minimum footprint debug connector. The board space required for debug/programming connectors is sometimes not really there. Or the height. Or the cost of maintaining two variants of the BOM with and without the connector. Tag-Connect fixes all this. Put a super… Read more

Cheap Cool Logic Analyzer

February 25, 2013 by Rolf Ostergaard

The days of logic analyzers are not quite over yet. But due to signaling speeds going up, LA’s tend to be used a lot less these days. The issues are a combination of physical probing and speed. Traditional LA clip-on probes have very few places to attach on a modern high speed board with BGA’s… Read more

Really funky PCB layouts

February 19, 2013 by Rolf Ostergaard

Not sure why I like this funky PCB layout, but the kids I showed it to loved it (girls 🙂 ). Hope you like it too. If you want 100% freedom in your PCB designs, you should try out the tool Saar Drimer is developing over at boldport.com I think it shows a very interesting… Read more

PDN optimizer as a free webtool

January 21, 2013 by Rolf Ostergaard

An automatic PDN optimizer? For free? Yes – find the right number and types of decoupling/bypass capacitors quickly. This is exactly what this new free web tool does right in your browser. No install. No download. And you get to try it out first… (almost)… Figuring out how to design a solid bypass and power… Read more

Cheap 5GHz SMA Calibration Kit

January 3, 2013 by Rolf Ostergaard

How to buy a cheap calibration kit. When using a VNA or network analyzer, you will need a “cal kit” (calibration kit) to calibrate away any effects of cables, connectors, etc. that are not part of what you are trying to measure. For some odd reason, official calibration kits are fairly expensive. But the guys… Read more

Altium Signal Integrity Tool – Part III

September 10, 2012 by Rolf Ostergaard

As part of a series of real-life simulations on a very simple part of a circuit I try to figure out just how Altium vs Cadence (SigXplorer) compares. The Altium price is right, but is it up to the job? Last time I looked at input voltage waveforms and realized we needed a termination scheme… Read more

Altium Signal Integrity Tool – Part II

September 3, 2012 by Rolf Ostergaard

In part I of this series of comparisons I started my quest to figure out if Altium is any good for SI analysis. It’s clearly one of the cheapest tools out there that allows you to do IBIS model-based simulations. Forgetting the price, can it get the job done? Last time I did a very… Read more

Altium Signal Integrity Tool – Part I

August 27, 2012 by Rolf Ostergaard

How good is Altium for signal integrity? This is a question I get asked a lot. The price is right – you basically get the SI simulator for free as part of the schematic/layout/mechanical etc. package. With cheap comes natural skepticism. We are used to fairly expensive dedicated SI tools from the big players like… Read more