OnTrack: The PCB Design Podcast

Renesas GreenPAK chips are configured, not programmed, and the free Go Configure Software Hub is where you do it. Roman Yankevych, senior product marketing manager at Renesas, walks Zach Peterson through the redesigned hub and the GreenPAK Designer features that most engineers never stumble onto.  Working from the SLG46826 window comparator example, he turns tangled wires into net labels, runs the rules checker, diffs two revisions bit by bit in nonvolatile memory, locks a design into a black box and simulates it before a part is ever programmed. You'll also hear where ForgeFPGA fits, why there's no MCU support yet, and what Renesas is planning for AI. If you've only ever dragged blocks around in GreenPAK, there's a lot more in here. 📚 More from this Episode: - Go Configure Software Hub: https://www.renesas.com/en/software-tool/go-configure-software-hub  - GreenPAK Programmable Mixed-Signal Products: https://www.renesas.com/en/products/programmable-mixed-signal-asic-ip-products/greenpak-programmable-mixed-signal-products  - HVPAK: https://www.renesas.com/en/products/programmable-logic/greenpak-programmable-mixed-signal-products/hvpak  - AnalogPAK: https://www.renesas.com/en/products/programmable-logic/greenpak-programmable-mixed-signal-products/analogpak  - ForgeFPGA: https://www.renesas.com/en/products/programmable-logic/forgefpga-low-density-fpgas  - Renesas Academy: https://academy.renesas.com - SLG46826, the chip used in the demo: https://www.renesas.com/en/products/slg46826  - SLG47011: https://www.renesas.com/en/products/slg47011  - GreenPAK support: [email protected]  💡 Watch Next: Programmable Logic Made Easy: GreenPAK Tutorial with Dima Mymrikov: https://youtu.be/2b4TWE5zlB4 - The Custom Power Chip You Configure Yourself: Power GreenPAK with Sidney Chan: https://youtu.be/5oPQb7JktCM - GreenPAK for Automotive: Reliability, Integration & Real-World Demos: https://youtu.be/ZjqgSIMcCTA - GreenPAK: One Chip, Reprogrammed for Every Product Generation: https://youtube.com/shorts/BcDJJ5JjfhI 💡 Stay Connected: Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more in-depth tutorials and tips from  @AltiumAcademy   Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below! 👉 Subscribe for more: https://www.youtube.com/@AltiumAcademy?sub_confirmation=1 Don't forget to follow us on social to stay up-to-date on the latest Altium Academy content. 👉 Follow Altium on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@altiumdesigner 👉 Follow Altium on Twitter: https://twitter.com/altium 👉 Follow Altium on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/altium/ 👉 Follow Altium on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AltiumOfficial/ The Altium Academy is an online experience created to bring modern education to PCB Designers and Engineers all across the world. Here you can access a vast library of free training and educational content covering everything from basic design to advanced principles and step-by-step walkthroughs. Join industry legends as they share their career knowledge, review real-life design projects, or learn how to leverage one of Altium's leading design tools. No matter your level of experience, the Altium Academy can help you become a better Designer and Engineer! About Altium LLC Altium LLC (ASX:ALU), a global software company based in San Diego, California, is accelerating the pace of innovation through electronics. From individual inventors to multinational corporations, more PCB designers and engineers choose Altium software to design and realize electronics-based products. #altium #greenpak #renesas  

PCB connectors for military, aerospace, and LEO satellite hardware have to survive shock, vibration, humidity, and hundreds of brutal thermal cycles, and Samtec field applications engineer Shane Dabrowski explains how they're proven to do it. Zach Peterson and Shane walk through Samtec's Severe Environment Testing built around VITA 47, lot-based MIL-DTL-55302 testing, and why solder joint fractures, not the pins, are the top failure mode when a connector cycles from −65 °C to 125 °C.  They also cover tin whisker mitigation and custom plating, mezzanine connectors inside VPX boxes, and why test engineers, not deployed hardware, drive mating-cycle requirements. The episode closes on the push to 224G and beyond, combo signal-and-power connectors, and why a column solder joint is replacing the BGA ball on high-speed connector tails. If you design rugged or high-reliability hardware, this is a practical guide to keeping the connector from becoming the weak link. 📚 More from this Episode: - Samtec Severe Environment Testing (SET): https://www.samtec.com/SET  - Samtec Military & Aerospace Interconnects: https://www.samtec.com/industries/mil-aero/  - Connect with Shane: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-dabrowski-b2a66235/?isSelfProfile=false 💡 Watch Next: - High-Speed Interconnects for AI & Physical AI with Samtec: https://youtu.be/zuh6i-EAS_E - High-Reliability PCB Design with Juan Frias: https://youtu.be/XrdVGJ57gKI - How Nvidia and AI Are Forcing New Interconnect MSAs: https://youtu.be/WOskQgjMgtE - How to Place Connections Between Boards in Altium Designer: https://youtu.be/wZy4kLBkj2s 💡 Stay Connected: Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more in-depth tutorials and tips from  @AltiumAcademy   Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below! 👉 Subscribe for more: https://www.youtube.com/@AltiumAcademy?sub_confirmation=1 Don't forget to follow us on social to stay up-to-date on the latest Altium Academy content. 👉 Follow Altium on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@altiumdesigner 👉 Follow Altium on Twitter: https://twitter.com/altium 👉 Follow Altium on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/altium/ 👉 Follow Altium on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AltiumOfficial/ The Altium Academy is an online experience created to bring modern education to PCB Designers and Engineers all across the world. Here you can access a vast library of free training and educational content covering everything from basic design to advanced principles and step-by-step walkthroughs. Join industry legends as they share their career knowledge, review real-life design projects, or learn how to leverage one of Altium's leading design tools. No matter your level of experience, the Altium Academy can help you become a better Designer and Engineer! About Altium LLC Altium LLC (ASX:ALU), a global software company based in San Diego, California, is accelerating the pace of innovation through electronics. From individual inventors to multinational corporations, more PCB designers and engineers choose Altium software to design and realize electronics-based products. #altium #pcbdesign #connectors  

Altium's acquisition of Duro brings cloud-based PLM software built for hardware startups and small engineering teams into the Altium platform, and in this OnTrack Podcast episode Zach Peterson asks Duro founder and CEO Michael Corr why the deal happened. Michael walks through how the Altium Designer plugin publishes library parts and full projects into Duro with part numbers, revision status, and draft change orders, and how that integration deepens inside Altium 365 while Duro stays available as a standalone product.  He also explains the AI agents Duro is starting to roll out, which act as RF, mechanical DFM, procurement, and supply chain specialists that review change orders for teams that can't hire every one of those roles. You'll hear why Duro builds every feature API-first, with documentation written so AI coding agents can build on it, and what customers are building with that access. Watch if you manage hardware product data and want product lifecycle management that doesn't take an IT team to configure. 📚 More from this Episode: - Get Duro: https://durolabs.co/  - Connect with Michael Corr: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgcorr/ 💡 Watch Next: - AI-Powered PLM: The Future of Hardware Product Lifecycle Management: https://youtu.be/CNmKUVPn3ws - Why AI is Perfect for PLM: Handling Native Data Without Integration: https://youtu.be/ufQY9QmKJfQ - Altium API Deep Dive: Opening PCB Data to Developers: https://youtu.be/BhmRSHCZmEA - Violet Labs: The Integration Hub Solving Hardware Data Chaos: https://youtu.be/or7okfDOyv8 💡 Stay Connected: Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more in-depth tutorials and tips from  @AltiumAcademy   Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below! 👉 Subscribe for more: https://www.youtube.com/@AltiumAcademy?sub_confirmation=1 Don't forget to follow us on social to stay up-to-date on the latest Altium Academy content. 👉 Follow Altium on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@altiumdesigner 👉 Follow Altium on Twitter: https://twitter.com/altium 👉 Follow Altium on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/altium/ 👉 Follow Altium on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AltiumOfficial/ The Altium Academy is an online experience created to bring modern education to PCB Designers and Engineers all across the world. Here you can access a vast library of free training and educational content covering everything from basic design to advanced principles and step-by-step walkthroughs. Join industry legends as they share their career knowledge, review real-life design projects, or learn how to leverage one of Altium's leading design tools. No matter your level of experience, the Altium Academy can help you become a better Designer and Engineer! About Altium LLC Altium LLC (ASX:ALU), a global software company based in San Diego, California, is accelerating the pace of innovation through electronics. From individual inventors to multinational corporations, more PCB designers and engineers choose Altium software to design and realize electronics-based products. #altium #plm #hardwarestartup  

PCB grounding mistakes rarely start with the designer; they start in the datasheet, the app note, and the reference design that gets copied straight into production. On this episode of the Altium OnTrack Podcast, Zach Peterson talks with Dan Beeker, president of System Solution Specialists, about split grounds, mislabeled ground pins, and leftover ferrites that turn evaluation-board shortcuts into EMC failures.  Drawing on a 45-year career across Motorola, Freescale, and NXP, Dan explains why field-based design, which treats the dielectric rather than the copper as the place energy travels, makes signal integrity and EMC compliance predictable. You'll also hear why the kitchen-sink approach to a failed emissions test rarely works, what critical switching-speed and geometry details datasheets leave out, and how to build a proper Z-axis transmission line through HDI vias. Dan also previews his three PCB West 2026 classes, running September 29 to October 2 in Santa Clara. 📚 More from this Episode: - System Solution Specialists (Dan Beeker): https://systemsolutionspecialists.com/  - Dan Beeker on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielbeeker/  - PCB West 2026, Sept 29 – Oct 2, Santa Clara: https://pcbwest.com/ - Dan Beeker's articles on Altium Resources: https://resources.altium.com/experts/daniel-beeker 💡 Watch Next: - Why 90% of Electronics Fail EMC Tests and How to Fix It: https://youtu.be/XG1gHjPkXyY - EMC Expert Debunks Common PCB Grounding Myths: https://youtu.be/7PJGPDiA31Q - Bridging Grounds with Ferrites? TERRIBLE IDEA!!!: https://youtu.be/dZ_ogEydnFM - Remove the Ferrites! 1 Min PCB Design Review: https://youtu.be/qC0_UzjPDC0 - PCB Assembly Mistakes Designers Keep Making: PCB West 2026 Preview: https://youtu.be/NfpMqeP6JnA 💡 Stay Connected: Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more in-depth tutorials and tips from  @AltiumAcademy   Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below! 👉 Subscribe for more: https://www.youtube.com/@AltiumAcademy?sub_confirmation=1 Don't forget to follow us on social to stay up-to-date on the latest Altium Academy content. 👉 Follow Altium on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@altiumdesigner 👉 Follow Altium on Twitter: https://twitter.com/altium 👉 Follow Altium on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/altium/ 👉 Follow Altium on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AltiumOfficial/ The Altium Academy is an online experience created to bring modern education to PCB Designers and Engineers all across the world. Here you can access a vast library of free training and educational content covering everything from basic design to advanced principles and step-by-step walkthroughs. Join industry legends as they share their career knowledge, review real-life design projects, or learn how to leverage one of Altium's leading design tools. No matter your level of experience, the Altium Academy can help you become a better Designer and Engineer! About Altium LLC Altium LLC (ASX:ALU), a global software company based in San Diego, California, is accelerating the pace of innovation through electronics. From individual inventors to multinational corporations, more PCB designers and engineers choose Altium software to design and realize electronics-based products. #altium #pcbdesign #emc

AI PCB routing only works when the tool understands your design intent, and in this OnTrack Podcast episode Zach Peterson sits down with Alain-Sam Cohen and Nabil Chouba of InstaDeep's DeepPCB to find out what that actually takes. They explain why classic autorouters fail on configuration rather than on routing, how a reinforcement-learning routing engine paired with Cooper, a natural-language orchestrator, detects net classes, decoupling caps, reference planes, and USB impedance problems before a single trace is drawn, and where LLM-driven PCB-as-code tools fit alongside placement and routing.  Then they open one of Zach's own boards live, let Cooper flag what the design file left unspecified, and compare it with a run they let converge before the show. If you've watched a one-line AI prompt produce an epic hardware fail, this is the case for task-based AI in PCB design and the design knowledge you still need to bring to it. 📚 More from this Episode: - DeepPCB: https://deeppcb.ai  - InstaDeep: https://instadeep.com 💡 Watch Next: - AI PCB Autorouting: What's Real and What's Hype: https://youtu.be/YJTbsoxPg7E - AI PCB Layout vs. Human Design: The Honest Truth: https://youtu.be/qX29OWSYTmI - The Black Box Problem With AI PCB Layout Tools: https://youtu.be/JiR10b7f41g - Code-Based PCB Design with AI: Inside atopile: https://youtu.be/J1Dl5bUvm6E - When to Use an Autorouter in PCB Design: https://youtu.be/Hgl7DttRaoo 💡 Stay Connected: Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more in-depth tutorials and tips from  @AltiumAcademy   Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below! 👉 Subscribe for more: https://www.youtube.com/@AltiumAcademy?sub_confirmation=1 Don't forget to follow us on social to stay up-to-date on the latest Altium Academy content. 👉 Follow Altium on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@altiumdesigner 👉 Follow Altium on Twitter: https://twitter.com/altium 👉 Follow Altium on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/altium/ 👉 Follow Altium on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AltiumOfficial/ The Altium Academy is an online experience created to bring modern education to PCB Designers and Engineers all across the world. Here you can access a vast library of free training and educational content covering everything from basic design to advanced principles and step-by-step walkthroughs. Join industry legends as they share their career knowledge, review real-life design projects, or learn how to leverage one of Altium's leading design tools. No matter your level of experience, the Altium Academy can help you become a better Designer and Engineer! About Altium LLC Altium LLC (ASX:ALU), a global software company based in San Diego, California, is accelerating the pace of innovation through electronics. From individual inventors to multinational corporations, more PCB designers and engineers choose Altium software to design and realize electronics-based products. #altium #pcbdesign #pcbrouting