Spectrum Analyzer PCB Layout: Shielding, Phase Noise and Spurs A spectrum analyzer is an instrument that measures a signal it is not allowed to disturb. The board therefore carries a receiver with a very wide dynamic range, a synthesizer whose phase noise sets the resolution limit, and enough isolation between…

Ultrasound PCB Design: Beamforming Front Ends and Medical Assembly An ultrasound board is an analog instrument built around a large number of nearly identical channels. A probe array presents 64, 128 or 192 elements, and each element needs its own transmit driver, its own receive path and its own delay,…

PCB Soldering: Tools and Technique for SMD Work Hand soldering still matters. Prototypes, rework, field repairs, and the occasional component that cannot go through reflow all land on a bench with an iron, and the quality of those joints decides whether the assembly works. PCB soldering of surface-mount parts is…

IC Package Types: From DIP to BGA and CSP Every integrated circuit reaches a circuit board through a package, and the package is often chosen long before anyone thinks about soldering it. That is a mistake, because the package sets what the board has to tolerate: how many pins must…

PCB Warpage at High Temperature: Causes and Prevention A board that leaves the fabricator flat can still arrive at the assembly line bowed. PCB warpage at high temperature is the result of internal stress and unequal expansion being released as the panel passes through reflow, and it shows up as…

Standard PCB Service Cost: Materials, Layers and Volume Most projects do not need the fastest board or the most exotic material, and the ones that do usually know it early. For everything else a standard PCB service, built with mainstream materials and mainstream process capability, gives the best combination of…

Crash Survivable Memory and the Board Around It A flight data recorder is built to survive a crash and then to explain it. The board inside a recorder is therefore designed around two requirements that rarely appear together: it must acquire and store data reliably while the aircraft is flying…

Gold Finger PCB: Plating and Fabrication Guide A gold finger is the row of exposed contact strips along the edge of a board that plugs into a slot. The name comes from the plating, which is usually hard gold over nickel, and the reason for that plating is the same…

PCB Copper Weight vs Trace Width: A Current Sizing Guide Copper weight and trace width are two ways of solving the same problem: getting current from one place to another without overheating the conductor or dropping so much voltage that the load misbehaves. Copper weight sets how much metal is…

Automotive Control PCB: Design and Manufacturing Requirements A modern vehicle contains dozens of electronic control modules, and each of them has to work for a decade or more in an environment that would destroy consumer hardware. An automotive control PCB therefore differs from an industrial board not in the circuit…