Sign In

Bill of Materials / BOM

The “Bill of Materials”, commonly referred to as the BOM, is simply a list. In the case of a PCB design, the bill of materials is a list of all the needed in the manufacturing process to build that specific printed circuit board. Follow our resources to learn more about PCB Design and Bill of Materials or check out Altium's BOM Analyzer

Analyze and Optimize your BOM

Altium 365 Getting Started User Guide - Available Now Hi Everyone, A month ago, I announced the release of the Altium Designer Getting Started User Guide. This week we are following up with the release of another helpful guide: Altium 365 Getting Started User Guide. The Altium 365 cloud platform offers the most connected experience for PCB design and realization with direct access from Altium Designer or any web browser. All active subscribers can access Altium 365 to unlock powerful functionality Read Article

Designing to Meet a Target BOM Price and PCB Cost Estimate Creating an accurate PCB cost estimate for design, components, production, assembly, shipping, and even firmware can be challenging tasks for new designers. Even established organizations can have trouble getting it right as it's hard to anticipate every problem that can arise during a design. Manufacturers can help you handle the production and assembly portion of a project, but any time a new design needs to be put into production, components Read Article

BOM Planning for Different Levels of Production There is one really great thing about social media and that is catching up with old friends. I connected with a high school friend who did a lot in his life including some great achievements in the world of Taekwondo. He talks about the different tournaments that he attends, the people that he associates with, and how he has progressed through the different levels of this discipline. There appears to be a lot more to Taekwondo than I would have Read Article

Learn to Manage Your BOM Inventory for Smooth Production Runs I’ve recently gotten into fermenting kombucha (which, I am well aware, is about the most hipster thing I could have said), and I ordered a handful of different-sized mason jars online in order to store it. Mason jars are reliable as ever but with the increasing popularity of home-fermenting and brewing, they’re one part of an industry trying to optimize how we store. During my ordering process alone, I had twelve tabs open of marginally different Read Article

BOM Cost Analysis Shows PCB Design Savings Just Over the Horizon Ever have a rocky day? Or have the wind taken out of your sails? These and many other phrases have some of their roots as nautical expression but have been adapted for everyday use. “Keeping a weather eye,” for example, means to pay attention to the weather regardless of what else you might be doing. Sailors might not have intended to start this linguistic drifting, but at sea, overlooking a rapidly approaching cloud or a brief drop in the wind Read Article

Using Flyback Diodes in Relays Prevents Electrical Noise in Your Circuits Engineers sometimes have the tendency to over complicate a problem instead of focusing on simple logical solutions. For example, my friend’s motorcycle broke down and he spent hours checking on the battery, carburetor and the electrical system. It turns out that this was all done in vain. We were pretty amused to find out that this mayhem was caused by a faulty fuel indicator that let his fuel tank run empty. In electronics, what might seem like Read Article

Using the iPad Pro for Electronic Design Altium Concord Pro® on Altium 365 was updated with a smoother, more feature-full and more intuitive interface for the web design viewer. I want to use this occasion to share with you some of my favourite apps and websites for electronic design. Read Article

Sharing Inside and Outside Your Altium 365 Workspace Forget about sending emails with design data. You can use sharing in Altium 365 to give anyone access to your PCB projects within a web browser. Read Article

How Your Altium 365 Workspace Keeps You Organized If you need to collaborate with multiple users, here’s how to use your Workspace in Altium 365 to organize your projects. Read Article

ISO 13485 Compliance: Tools for PCB Designers and Manufacturers Your Altium 365 workspace and Concord Pro can be used as part of a QMS system for ISO 13485 compliance. Here’s how cloud collaboration helps manufacturers. Read Article

Sharing PCB Data with Manufacturers in the Cloud Once you’ve finished your new project and you’re ready to push it to your manufacturer, you’ll normally be stuck in an endless email chain with an engineer, or you’ll have to share cloud links with each other. Personally, I find the long email chains and long list of links overwhelming, especially when I have plenty of other tasks that require my attention. Sharing PCB data with manufacturers shouldn’t be a headache, it should be a seamless Read Article

PCB Design Review and Collaboration in Altium Concord Pro Remote collaboration tools are everywhere these days, and now designers have access to a convenient collaboration system for electronics design. Whether you’re part of a design team, or you need to quickly execute any design changes recommended by your manufacturer, you need cloud collaboration tools that are immediately accessible within your PCB design application. Now with Altium Concord Pro, you’ll have access to a cloud-driven design Read Article

Integrated Electronics Manufacturing and Design Collaboration Advanced devices require collaboration among multiple team members, both to ensure functionality and manufacturability. With embedded systems, this extends beyond a hardware team to include software developers. If you want your new product to be manufacturable at scale, then at some point, you will need to involve your manufacturer in the collaborative process. This is especially true with high speed digital devices and high speed analog devices Read Article

Reduce PCB Manufacturing Time Through Manufacturer Collaboration In a recent interview with PCB007, Altium VP of Marketing Lawrence Romine recalled a brief conversation with Tara Dunn, who remarked that all designs her company receives for manufacturing get put on hold. If you’re a manufacturer, this probably doesn’t surprise you; some designers can be very cavalier with their design choices. Although these designs may be innovative and useful from a signal integrity and layout perspective, they may not be Read Article

Chris Carlson's Time Saving Tips for PCB Design Chris Carlson, Snr FAE at Altium and accomplished Electrical and Electronic Engineer shares the expertise of his 23-year career in development, documentation, manufacturing, application engineering, and customer support. According to an Aberdeen study, 61% of a designer’s time is spent doing non-direct, design-related activities, such as sourcing components, document control, and so much more. Chris is here to help you improve your efficiency and Read Article

Rigid-Flex PCBs in IoT Devices: ECAD and MCAD Collaboration At a recent PCB manufacturer’s trade show, multiple fabricators informed me they are seeing many more requests for flex and rigid-flex PCBs recently, particularly for smart wearables and small embedded/IoT products. The advantages of flex and rigid-flex PCBs include more efficient use of space in an enclosure, and the ability to adapt to foldable devices. Whether you need a static or dynamic flex/rigid-flex PCB, you’ll need to verify a number of Read Article

How to Hire The Right PCB Designer for Your Project I’ve watched less than 10 hours of TV for the past 5 years. Many claims that staying away from TV is pivotal to success has influenced my decision. I can’t resist catching up on my favorite superhero movies at the cinema, though, or on certain occasions, some random movies to de-stress for the week. There are times when I end up with a dull, two-hour-long screenplay with a predictable storyline. Guess, I should have paid attention to all the Read Article