Power Module PCBA: Thermal Path and Joint Strength A power module is usually quoted as though it were an ordinary control board, and it is not. The devices are larger, the currents are higher, the heat is real, and a substantial part of the population is inserted through the board…

Automotive PCBA: Planning Test and Reliability Work An automotive PCBA is not necessarily a difficult board to assemble. What distinguishes it is where it ends up: inside a vehicle or a charging installation, where a fault is expensive to diagnose, difficult to reach and impossible to dismiss as a one-off.…

IoT Terminal PCBA: Wireless Module and Programming Control An IoT terminal is a product whose usefulness depends on a radio link that has to work in an environment nobody controls. The board itself may be small and the component count modest, but the function is concentrated: a controller, a wireless…

Medical Measurement PCBA: Data, Material and Inspection Boards that are built into measuring equipment are not necessarily the most complex boards a factory will assemble, and they are frequently among the most demanding. The product exists to produce a number that someone will act on, and the small differences that…

Kit-Based PCBA Delivery for Downstream Assembly For many products the assembly is not the finished article. The board goes on to receive an enclosure, a harness, a display, a keypad, a sensor or a battery, and the efficiency of that second stage is decided by the state in which the…

Wearable PCBA: Micro Placement in Small Batch Runs The difficulty of a wearable PCBA is hidden in the word small. To reduce the size of the product, the design uses 0201 passives, fine pitch QFN devices, miniature connectors and densely packed components, and the pad spacing that results leaves very…

Precision Instrument PCBA: Small Signal Consistency A board that measures something is judged by different criteria from a board that switches something. A control board can work correctly while its measurements drift slightly; an instrument cannot. The quantities it produces are the product, and a small offset that would be…

Outdoor IoT PCBA: Conformal Coating Done Properly Equipment that lives outdoors is judged by a different standard from equipment that lives in a cabinet indoors. A board that passes its factory test and then spends two years in a roadside enclosure, a buried chamber or a coastal installation faces moisture,…

What to Send for an Accurate SMT Assembly Quote Two factories can be asked to quote the same board and return figures that differ for reasons that have nothing to do with their margins. One of them assumed a single-sided build and the other allowed for two passes; one counted…

Turnkey PCBA: From BOM Kitting to Shipment Turnkey PCBA is usually described as a purchasing service, and that description misses most of its value. Buying the parts is the visible part of the work; the part that decides whether the order succeeds is the reconciliation of the bill of materials…