PCB Design with Altium Designer: Hands-on

Overview

PCB Design Layout Using Altium Designer is a practical, industry-focused course designed to build strong, real-world PCB layout skills. PCBs are at the heart of every electronic product, and layout quality directly affects performance, reliability, and manufacturability. This course teaches PCB layout as an engineering process rather than just a software task, using Altium Designer, one of the most widely used professional PCB design tools. It is suitable for students, electronics engineers, hardware designers, and professionals who want to create reliable, production-ready PCB designs. The course begins with PCB design fundamentals, and then moves into core layout skills such as intelligent component placement, routing strategies, grounding and power distribution, and design rules. Advanced topics include design for manufacturing and assembly. Learners also gain hands-on experience generating fabrication and assembly files and performing final design checks. By the end of the course, participants will be able to confidently design clean, professional, and manufacturable PCBs using Altium Designer. This course is ideal for electronics engineering students, recent graduates, electronics technologists, junior to intermediate PCB designers, and hardware engineers who want to strengthen their PCB layout skills. It is especially valuable for learners transitioning from entry-level or free PCB CAD tools to a professional industry-standard platform like Altium Designer, as well as professionals seeking a deeper understanding of multilayer PCB design and manufacturing practices. No prior experience with Altium Designer is required. However, learners should have a basic understanding of schematic capture, common electronic components, standard PCB structure, and introductory routing concepts. Familiarity with any PCB design software will be helpful.

Syllabus

PCB Design Foundations & Data Management (The Digital Workbench)

This module introduces the PCB design process in Altium Designer, covering the software interface, component libraries and footprint management, and essential data management practices to help learners set up and organize PCB projects efficiently.

High-Performance Layout Execution, Routing & Design Rules (The Build)

This section focuses on core PCB layout practices, covering board planning and stackup strategy, effective component placement and routing techniques, and proper power and ground plane management for reliable and manufacturable designs.

Verification, DFM, and Final Output (The Hand-Off)

This section teaches best practices for manufacturing-ready PCB design, including design for manufacturing (DFM), design for assembly (DFA), performing design rule checks, and generating production-ready output files.