Information

You need more info about NEXTRA®? No Problem.
We love to send you current presentations and informational sheets. E-Mail to info <at> mecadtron <dot> com is fine.


Artice in the magazine PLUS from 8/2021 (in german language)
Creepage and Clearance on Printed Circuit Boards This article by Dirk Müller focuses on the fundamental problems of the emergence of creepage paths and electric flash-over and flash-through on printed circuit boards of high voltage as they are used on electric motors in electric vehicles (EV). To address such problems he discusses the option to identify these situations early in the design process with NEXTRA® to allow avoidence of such before going into production.


Article in elektronikpraxis from March 2021 (in german language)
Creepage and Clearance on pcbs for power applications. In this article (in german language) Dirk Müller adresses the specific requirements for the design of PCBs of power electronics concerning the problem of creepage and clearance. Traces to pins of IGBTs and MOSFETs need to honour  certain minimum clearances to avoid flashthough or flashover or create creepage paths. The analysis for obeying such requirements can esily done with NEXTRA®.


Technical paper on elektronikpraxis.de from November 2018 (in german language)
Expert's advise: PCB design for applications beyond 2000 m above sea level. In this article (in german language) Dirk Müller adresses the specific requirements for the design of PCBs concerning the dimensioning of clearances depending on the application height of power printed circuit assemblies and how such requirements can be met using NEXTRA®.


Online article on powerelectronicsnews.com
In the article Safeguarding Compliance of Creepage and Clearance by 3D Analysis Dr. Thomas Krebs explains the problems and requirements of isolation coordination (here creepage and clearance) and how they can be addressed with the 3D pcb layout system NEXTRA®.

Online article on elektronikpraxis.de from 1/25/2016 (in german language)

Luft- und Kriechstreckenanalyse auf PCBs für Antriebselektronik: In this article (in german language) Dr. Thomas Krebs sketches out the problems analysing creepage and clearance within the design of electromechanical products and ways of solving these by computer aided tools.

Interview with Dirk Müller, CEO of FlowCAD, distributor of NEXTRA® on the trade
fair embedded world 2014 in Nuremberg (in german language)

Video of the Interview on Youtube.


Technical paper in ELEKTRONIKPRAXIS (Issue 3/2014)

"Multidesign - editing multiple pcb designs within a 3d environment"
Cit. (translated from german language): "For the first time it is possible to open up multiple pcb designs from different 2d design systems in one mechanical CAD environment and edit contours, placement and routing of the pcbs.". In this (german language) paper Dirk Müller explaines the NEXTRA® features to edit multiple pcbs from any 2d pcb system together in one application. Here a link to the online paper on the web site of the publisher Vogel Verlag


Technical paper in ELEKTRONIKPRAXIS (Issue 5/2011)
"How rigid flex printed circuit boards improve reliability"
Cit. (translated from german language): "Rigid flex printed circuit boards replace connector lines in drive units and cause for higher reliability of the overall system". In this (german language) paper the NEXTRA® user Wittenstein writes, together with our distributor FlowCAD, how he uses NEXTRA® to design and layout rigid flex printed circuit boards. Here a link to the online paper on the web site of the publisher Vogel Verlag


Technical paper in ElektronikPraxis (issue electronica-Magazine 2010)
"The Great Escape - Current Gone Elsewhere"
Creepage current a serious problem to be controlled in power electronics on printed circuit boards. False manual measurements risk life of humans. Read more


Technical paper in PLUS - Produktion von Leiterplatten und Systemen (issue 12/2008)
"Efficient design of flex boards by computer aided tools."
The role of flex circuitry carriers within a product is twofold: electronic as well as mechanical. Up to now it was necessary to use two different CAD systems to design a flex board because of this twofold nature. Mecadtron CEO Dr. Thomas Krebs shows how this complex task can be efficiently managed within one application by using the tool NEXTRA®. Read more


Technical paper in E&E Elektronik & Entwicklung (issue 11/2007)
"Nearly as simple as Origami. Folding Flex-Boards automatically."
Dirk Müller, CEO of our distributor FlowCAD GmbH, and Norbert Löhr, NEXTRA® application engineer at FlowCAD, induct you into NEXTRAs® extended functions designing Flex-Boards. Read more (Press article in german language only)


Technical paper in ELEKTRONIK (issue 18/September 6, 2005)
"Design-Tools for electronic/mechanical integrated products"
Profound knowledge: Our authors Dr. Thomas Krebs and Dr. Jörg Franke describe the challenges of integrated electro-mechanical design and deliver detailed insights into the layout process with our 3D-ECAD-System NEXTRA®. Read more (Press article in german language only)