Advanced PCB Engineering (APE) [Fall 2025]

Lecture: 8-10PM Tu, Cory 125
Enrollment

Week	Topic	Helpful Links	Lab	Lab Checkoff Due	Project Checkpoint
1 9/2	Intro to Altium Intro to the class, Altium, and key tools and plugins required for the class content.	Slides	Altium Access Instructions Introduction to Altium Keybind Cheatsheet		Project Logistics BOM Template
2 9/9	Part Selection, Intro to Advanced Schematics - Filters and Basic Analog Design Covering considerations for part selection beyond the base electrical rules. Exploration of analog design fundamentals within schematic creation.	Slides	Continue Introduction to Altium
3 9/16	Advanced Schematics, Digital Design, Data Buses and Protocols Exploring information is encoded, translated, and transported at high speeds and the key issues of high-speed transmissions.	Slides	Digital Communication and Signal Integrity	Introduction to Altium
4 9/23	Advanced Schematics, High Power Circuit Design Understanding key principles to develop systems designed to accomodate high power draws.	Slides	Continue Digital Communication and Signal Integrity		Project Groups Due (2 people minimum)
5 9/30	Advanced Schematic to Layout: High Power design and Thermal Management Designing layouts optimized for high-voltage and high-current applications. Develop understanding of thermal implications of high-power designs and best practices to mitigate them.	Slides	High Power Design and Thermal Management	Digital Communication and Signal Integrity	Project Proposal Due
6 10/7	Advanced Layout Digital Layout: and Via Management How to route high-speed signals, differential pairs, and implications of vias, board parasitics, and other physical factors on signal integrity.	Slides	Continue High Power Design and Thermal Management		Proposal Review
7 10/14	Advanced Layout + RF Design 1 Introduction to transmission line theory, differential pairs, impedance matching and other key topics.	Slides	EMI Considerations and RF Design	High Power Design and Thermal Management	Project BOM & Schematic Due [TBD]
8 10/21	Advanced Layout + RF Design 2 Exploration of practical RF design.	Slides	Continue EMI Considerations and RF Design		Project Work Session
9 10/28	Design Reviews In-class review of APE student projects.		Project Design Review in Class Design Review Requirements {}	EMI Considerations and RF Design	Layout Due [TBD]
10 11/4	Advanced Mechanical Design and Integration Exploring PCB design in constrained environments and PCBs as mechanical and structural elements.	Slides	Project Worksession		FINAL PCB files due [11/4] (Tuesday)
11 11/11	No Class (Administrative Holiday)
12 11/18	Fun Topics Exploring other advanced design topics, such as Altium AutoRoute, Ethernet, RS485, PCB Antenna Design, DDR Memory, Flex PCB Design, and kW Power Designs	Slides	Constraint-Based Mechanical Design	Constraint-Based Mechanical Design	Project Assembly
13 12/9	Project Presentations