UltraCAD Design, Inc
325 145th PL SE
Bellevue, WA  98007
Click here for map		 phone:   425-641-6831
fax:       425-641-6834
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UltraCAD Design, Inc.'s Homepage

What is Ultracad? UltraCAD Design, Inc is a printed circuit board design service bureau located in the great Pacific Northwest. We specialize in large, complex, fast turn designs common in the video processing and data processing industries. Our customers come from all over the United States --- California to New Hampshire --- with over 95% of our business from repeat, satisfied customers.
   
  * ANNOUNCEMENT *
   
Eric Bogatin's Differential Pair Bootcamp We rarely promote other people's seminars on our web site, but we are making an exception this once. We want to call your attention to Eric Bogatin's upcoming "Bootcamp on Differential Pairs" to be held in Santa Clara on October 4, 2010. This is an especially relevant topic these days, and we have great respect for Eric and his teaching style. You can find out more about the bootcamp on Eric's site here, and can listen to an audio interview Andy Shaughnessy did with Eric about the bootcamp here. UltraCAD will be at the camp (as students, not part of the staff) and we recommend you be there, too.

 * NEWS *
   

Trace Calculator
v. 3.2

Now Incorporates IPC-2152 and skin effect

  
UltraCAD's popular UCADPCB Trace Calculator has been updated to incorporate the new IPC standard IPC-2152. Users now have the ability to select one of five data sources for trace current/temperature calculations. In addition, version 3.2 adds some modifiers, consistent with some adjustments suggested in the Appendix of IPC-2152, to get even more representative results. And, it is now "region aware."

Calculations can be adjusted for skin effects at high frequencies. And The popular "fusing current" capability is still a part of it. Learn more about the calculator here.

 
Skin Effect article We have posted a new article on skin effect. Now you can learn all you wanted to know about this important topic in Doug Brooks' easy, understandable writing style. To learn more about it, click here.
Differential Calculator We have changed the licensing strategy for our popular UCCALC differential calculator. A license dongle is NO LONGER required. Instead users will obtain from us a license FILE, just as with our other calculators. The benefits of this change include: easier license administration, faster license delivery, easier and more flexible usage, and easier and faster support should you lose or misplace a license.
   

PDS Power Distribution System Impedance Calculator

 Calculating the impedance of a power distribution system (i.e. all those parallel bypass capacitors) on a PCB has not been possible without some very high-end (and very expensive) analytical software. We created a tool for our own that greatly simplifies the process and makes it manageable for most engineers and technicians. It is a significant upgrade to our previous, and very popular, ESR Bypass Capacitor Calculator.
   
       * FEATURES *
Articles &
Reprints		 Our president, Doug Brooks, has written several articles and a series of columns for Printed Circuit Design magazine. He has also begun a series of web-based articles for Mentor Graphics.  For a list of the all Brooks' papers and articles, click here.
Book Doug Brooks' book (published by Prentice Hall) is available through bookstores. Click here to learn more about it, for ordering information, and to find a Table of Contents. Don't miss this great resource. (ISBN 0-13-141884-X)

Click here to go to the book's Resource Page

Doug's book Has been translated into Chinese and is now available in Asia.

Calculators
& Tools		 UltraCAD Has developed several freeware calculators (and now four for-license calculators) for PCB designers. Calculator topics include transmission line impedance, crosstalk, relationships between trace current and temperature, and relating trace geometries (width and thickness) to equivalent wire gauge. A fifth calculator helps analyze the combined effects of bypass capacitor capacitance, inductance (and therefore self-resonant frequency) and ESR. A newer calculator does differential impedance and will replace our original calculator, introduced many years ago, that has gained acceptance around the world. Our latest calculator adds the Skin Effect to complex PCB calculations. Check our our calculator page here.
Seminars Check out the Seminars Doug Brooks frequently gives at various conferences (including the PCB Design Conferences East and West.) These can be offered at your site or in support of your organization. Please e-mail Doug Brooks at for details.
   
Simulations Check out our simulations that we are now making available to the public
Humor Sometimes our imagination runs away from us (or maybe there are periods when we simply don't have enough to do.) UltraCAD has contributed several humorous articles to Printed Circuit Design's "Back Page" through the years, including the classic "Flying Electrons." Others included such things as smart electrons and why service bureaus should be paid by the government for NOT designing boards. Read all about it here.
Personnel Look here for résumé's of UltraCAD's personnel.
Guestbook Please sign our guestbook.
Top Gun Our own Dave Graves won the Top Gun competition at PCB West, 2001. Click here to read Mentor Graphic's article about this.
       * Philosophies *
Partnering Our statement on partnering has gathered a long list people who have endorsed it and embodied as their own philosophy, also. Check it out here.
Price We have some opinions about the difference between lowest bid and lowest COST. They are reprinted here.