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.

Duration

Day 1 - PCB Verification

• Detect design faults by rule-based checking for electrical (DFE), manufacturing (DFM), or assembly (DFA) stages:
• PollEx DFE: Launch PollEx DFE and reduce electrical design errors that may be detected later in electrical test processes.
• PollEx DFM: Check possible manufacturing design faults in the early design stage and export results to MS/Excel with an intuitive graphic link to the layout location of each fault.
• PollEx DFA: Based on PollEx PCB design and imported matching 3D package shape, PollEx DFA provides full board 3D model and assembly checking, which is impossible with 2D data.

Day 2 - PCB Analysis - Thermal Analysis

• Understand the benefits of thermal analysis on PCBs.
• Learn thermal constraints, boundary conditions, and thermal model setup.
• Run thermal analysis tool and analyze results.
• Run the Joule Heating tool to see the heat generated by current flow in copper traces.