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OnTrack: The PCB Design Podcast

OnTrack: The PCB Design Podcast

Altium LLC. 100 Episodes Aug 18, 2026

The PCB Design Podcast covers the latest news, updates, and technology in the electronics design industry. Everything from routing, circuit simulation, to high-speed design, and finding circuit board manufacturers and component parts.

Episodes

Altium Is Coming Home to the Designer | Lawrence Romine on OnTrack
Altium Is Coming Home to the Designer | Lawrence Romine on OnTrack Aug 18, 2026 2224 Altium Develop brings the full Altium Designer experience — plus multi-board and harness design and cloud collaboration — to individual designers and small teams, without paying for enterprise features you'll never use: https://www.altium.com/develop?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=ontrack-podcast&utm_content=altium-is-coming-home-to-the-designer After 40 years as effe
DDR Compliance Simulation in Seconds, Not Days
DDR Compliance Simulation in Seconds, Not Days Jul 28, 2026 2329 On this episode of the Altium OnTrack Podcast, host Zach Peterson talks with Ben Dannan, founder of Signal Edge Solutions and DesignCon Engineer of the Year, and Tyler Huddleston, SI/PI engineer, about a problem every high-speed designer knows too well: DDR compliance simulation that can take 24 hours to several days per interface. They walk through why the traditional Keysight ADS Memory Designer
Mayan-on-Chip: Training Mexico's Next Semiconductor Engineers
Mayan-on-Chip: Training Mexico's Next Semiconductor Engineers Jul 14, 2026 2240 How does a region build a semiconductor and electronics workforce from the ground up? In this episode of the Altium OnTrack Podcast, host Zach Peterson sits down with Nasska Medrano, Global Program Manager at Altium Education, and Professor Johan Estrada of the Autonomous University of Yucatán (UADY) to unpack the Mayan-on-Chip initiative—a collaborative workforce development program training high
Altium API Deep Dive: Opening PCB Data to Developers
Altium API Deep Dive: Opening PCB Data to Developers Jul 7, 2026 2817 In this episode of the Altium OnTrack Podcast, host Zach Peterson sits down with Rob Barton, Head of Platform API at Altium, for a deep dive into how programmatic access is transforming PCB design and electronics development. Rob traces the evolution of Altium's API—from the early disconnected SDKs and the launch of Nexar, through Octopart supply data, all the way to the new Platform API that expo
Code-Based PCB Design with AI: Inside atopile
Code-Based PCB Design with AI: Inside atopile Jun 23, 2026 2673 Code-based PCB design is reshaping how engineers build hardware, and in this OnTrack Podcast episode, host Zach Peterson sits down with Ioannis Papamanoglou and Narayan Powderly, co-founders of atopile, to explore their code-first, AI-driven approach to PCB design. Drawing on backgrounds at Tesla and across the electronics industry, the founders explain why hardware has lagged behind software tool
EMC Testing in the Age of AI: Why Respins Aren't Going Away
EMC Testing in the Age of AI: Why Respins Aren't Going Away Jun 16, 2026 2821 EMC testing is one of the toughest hurdles in PCB design, with industry pass rates often falling below 50% and every failure triggering expensive respins. In this OnTrack Podcast episode, host Zach Peterson sits down with Andy Eadie—owner of EMC FastPass and founder of Engentica—to unpack why so many products fail electromagnetic compatibility testing on the first attempt, and what designers can d
70% of PCBs FAIL EMC Testing (And AI Is Making It Worse)
70% of PCBs FAIL EMC Testing (And AI Is Making It Worse) Jun 15, 2026 2631 Altium Develop unites your design, sourcing, and manufacturing teams in one cloud platform so EMC and layout problems get caught long before your board ever reaches the test house: https://www.altium.com/develop?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=ontrack-podcast&utm_content=70-of-pcbs-fail-emc-testing-and-ai-is-making-it-worse EMC testing failure rates are climbing toward
The Signal Integrity Tool Every Engineer Is Missing
The Signal Integrity Tool Every Engineer Is Missing May 19, 2026 2838 Signal integrity engineers working on high-speed serial links, Ethernet, USB, PCI Express, and DDR memory interfaces need powerful simulation tools, but commercial software licenses can be cost-prohibitive. In this episode of the Altium OnTrack Podcast, host Zach Peterson sits down with David Banas, Solutions Engineer at Keysight, to explore three open-source Python packages that are transforming
Drones, Robots & the Low-Altitude Economy: A New Industry Is Born
Drones, Robots & the Low-Altitude Economy: A New Industry Is Born May 12, 2026 2558 In this episode of the OnTrack Podcast, Zach Peterson sits down with Gabriel Guglielmi, VP of Global Product Management at Infinite Electronics, to explore one of the most disruptive shifts in electronics today: the rise of unmanned systems. From group one commercial drones to group five collaborative combat aircraft, Gabriel breaks down how the same revolution that transformed the space industry
PCB Metrology Gap: How SCAN Labs Is Automating Microsectioning
PCB Metrology Gap: How SCAN Labs Is Automating Microsectioning May 5, 2026 3070 The PCB industry has long relied on manual microsectioning to verify board quality — but as densities increase and skilled labor becomes harder to retain, that process is breaking down. In this episode of the Altium OnTrack Podcast, host Zach Peterson welcomes back Geoffrey Leeds, founder of SCAN Labs, for his third appearance on the show. Geoffrey breaks down what he calls the "metrology gap" — t
High-Speed Interconnects for AI & Physical AI with Samtec
High-Speed Interconnects for AI & Physical AI with Samtec Apr 28, 2026 2376 What does it take to design interconnects for AI data centers pushing 112G, 224G, and even 448G? In this episode of the Altium OnTrack Podcast, host Zach Peterson sits down with Matt Burns, Director of Technical Marketing at Samtec, to unpack how connector technology has evolved to meet the demands of modern high-speed systems. From co-packaged copper and optics to near-package interconnects, Matt
Altium File Parsing, AI Design Reviews & PCB Viz Tools
Altium File Parsing, AI Design Reviews & PCB Viz Tools Apr 21, 2026 2987 What if you could parse your Altium project files from the command line, generate a full BOM in seconds, extract net lists as AI-readable JSON, and spin up a 3D HTML viewer with zero dependencies — all without ever opening Altium? In this episode of the OnTrack Podcast, host Zach Peterson sits down with Eli Hughes, principal at Wavenumber LLC, to dig into a suite of open-source tools he's built ar

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