ICD User Guide2014

2ICD USER GUIDE 2014www.altium.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Installation 3

2. Transferring a Stackup from Altium Designer 4

3. Transferring a Stackup and Design Rules to Altium Designer 6

4. Transferring a Stackup to Altium Designer without a template file 8

3ICD USER GUIDE 2014www.altium.com

ICD provides a centralized, shared, impedance planning environment that connects

materials, PDN analysis, stackup planning, signal integrity, PCB design and fabrication

consolidating the impedance control from schematic to fabrication. The impedance, of

multiple differential pairs, is planned pre-layout and flows through the design process

to fabrication.

The ICD Stackup Planner features a precision 2D Boundary Element Method (BEM)

Field Solver, providing Altium customers with the accuracy and simulation speed they

need for high-speed PCB Design. Bi-directional integration with the Altium Designer

14, Layer Stack Manager, allows the transfer of substrate materials for the correct trace

impedance and automatic creation of Design Rules for differential pairs and high-speed

trace routing.

1. Installation

A. Download the ICD Stackup Planner software from: www.icd.com.au/demo/ICD_Stackup_Planner_v2013.zip

B. Open Altium Designer 14 and select DXP -> Extensions and Updates from the main menu.

C. Install the ICD Stackup Planner Extension.

D. Select View -> Toolbars -> ICD Stackup Planner Tools. This will place the Stackup Planner icon on your Desktop (top left corner). Drag the floating menu to the Altium Designer icon bar.

4ICD USER GUIDE 2014www.altium.com

E. Launch the ICD Stackup Planner from this icon or from Tools -> ICD Stackup Planner.

2. Transferring a Stackup from Altium Designer

A. Open the Altium Layer Stack Manager.

B. Load a stackup or create a new stackup and Save. Example of an 8 layer PCB.

5ICD USER GUIDE 2014www.altium.com

C. In the ICD Stackup Planner select Import -> EDA Translators -> Altium Designer 14 and then select the .stackup file that you just saved.

D. This will load all stackups (if multiple stackups are used). Example of an 8 layer rigid (master stack), 4 layer flex and an 8 layer rigid combined.

E. Open the Via Span dialog and add any PTH vias, Blind or Buried microvias to the stackup.

F. Edit the dielectric materials, and adjust the trace with and clearance to give the desired impedance for each differential pair. Please see t h e Stackup Planner Help for details of how to do this.

Please note that if you have multiple stacks then you should only edit the Master Stack which is called the “Board Layer Stack”. The changes to the stackup will then be effected when transferred back to Altium Designer.

6ICD USER GUIDE 2014www.altium.com

3. Transferring a Stackup and Design Rules to Altium Designer

A. Select Export -> EDA Translators -> Altium Designer 14

B. In Stackup Selector, check the stacks that are part of the build.

Please note that the original imported .stackup file should be used as a template as this contains all the layer specific information that Altium Designer requires. The “Template”.stackup name will automatically be added as the template file.

The export from the Stackup Planner contains two files:

• “filename”.stackup – to be read into the Altium, Layer Stack Manager.

• “filename”.rul – to be imported into the Altium, Design Rules dialog.

C. In the Altium, Layer Stack Manager, Load the modified .stackup. You will note that the dielectric thickness and materials have changed to match the Stackup Planner for controlled impedance.

7ICD USER GUIDE 2014www.altium.com

D. Next open the Altium Design -> Rules dialog and import the design rules that you created for differential pairs in the Stackup Planner.

E. Hold down the Shift Key and click on the bottom line of text in the Rule Type dialog. This will allow the rules created in the Stackup Planner to be imported. Previously created rules will not be modified as the new rules will have an ICD Stackup Planner suffix.

8ICD USER GUIDE 2014www.altium.com

F. Next browse to the location of the .rul file that was created by the Stackup Planner.

This will be in the same folder as the modified .stackup file.

G. Design rules for Trace Clearance, Trace width, Via Spans and all defined Differential

Pairs are imported into the Design Rules dialog ready for routing.

4. Transferring a Stackup to Altium Designer without a template file

An alternative to the above, by somewhat less desirable, is to

create the stackup in the ICD Stackup Planner and then export it

to Altium Designer. This is not the best method as it does not use

layer information created in Altium Designer. Ideally all stackups

and changes to the build – new signal and plane layers and

dielectrics should originate from Altium Designer.

A. Create the stackup in the Stackup Planner.

B. Select Export -> EDA Translators -> Altium Designer 14

C. In Stackup Selector, check the stackup that you created but do

not fill in the Template file field.

9ICD USER GUIDE 2014www.altium.com

D. Load the .stackup file into the Altium, Layer Stack Manager. You will note that the

dielectric thickness and materials have changed to match the Stackup Planner.

E. Import the Design Rules into the Altium, Design Rules dialog as described previously.