Case Study: STMicroelectronics achieves faster, error-free ASIC verification and PCB development with Altium Designer

STMicroelectronics - Customer Case Study

STMicroelectronics’ Santa Clara team designs ASICs for hard-disk drives and must produce a custom development board for each chip. With just two engineers delivering 11 boards in a year, they faced tight schedules, extensive tasks (library maintenance, schematic capture, simulation, PCB layout and manufacturing files) and difficult mechanical clearance checks against a non‑uniform drive assembly—limitations compounded by an older tool (ProTel 99 SE) that lacked required resolution and modern features.

They moved to Altium Designer’s unified environment, using its integrated device library, automatic design‑rule checking and trace adjustment, 3D clearance checking via SolidWorks import, BOM/supplier linking, and reuse features like “sheet as an object” and design variations. The switch eased file conversion, reduced rework, enabled near first‑pass error‑free boards, and dramatically raised productivity so the two engineers could deliver frequent, reliable prototypes more quickly.

STMIcroelectronics

Vincent Himpe

Systems Development Engineer