Course Outline:

This is an introductory course to Altair PollEx. Participants will learn how to import and explore ECAD design data and set up an in-depth review, verification, and analysis of Printed Circuit Boards (PCB). A combination of lectures and exercises of analysis of PCB will lead participants through the PollEx environment, the process to perform analysis and verification of PCBs, and the workflow through the various tools available in PollEx.

Prerequisites:

• Basic understanding of Printed Circuit Boards.

• Altair PollEx software downloaded and installed.

• PollEx license configured to run analysis and verification tools.

Content:

Session 1: PCB Modeler

• Tools to import various PCB design data (Schematic, Layout, Gerber, BOM)

• PollEx Modeler – Visualize, search, measure, red-mark, compare, and share PCB design data

Session 2: PCB Verification

• PCB Verification - Detect design faults by rule-based checking for electrical (DFE), manufacturing (DFM), or assembly (DFA) stages

• PollEx DFE

• PollEx DFM

• PollEx DFA

Session 3: PCB Analysis - Signal Integrity

• PCB Analysis & Simulation (Setup, analyze and Post-processing)

• Signal integrity (SI features, DDR wizard, Crosstalk, Network & Net Topology Analysis)

Session 4: PCB Analysis - Power Integrity

• PCB Analysis & Simulation (Setup, analyze and Post-processing)

• Power integrity (PDN Analysis, IR Drop Analysis, Decoupling Caps, Noise…etc)

Session 5: PCB Analysis - Thermal Analysis

• Why do thermal analysis of PCBs

• Thermal constraints, boundary conditions and model setup

• Thermal analysis and analysis results

• Joule heating (heat generated by current flow in copper traces)