PCB Quality System: Certification, Inspection and Traceability PCB fabrication is a long process. Between the cutting of the panel and the dispatch of the finished board there are dozens of operations, and a problem in any one of them can follow the board all the way to the customer. That…

PCB Reflow Carrier Design: Holding Thin Boards Flat Electronics manufacturing has become a discipline of small details. Solder paste volumes, placement accuracy, temperature profiles and inspection limits all add up to the final result. This guide looks at PCB reflow carrier design from the perspective of a PCBA factory floor,…

PCB Component Height Clearance: Fitting Under the Lid Electronics manufacturing has become a discipline of small details. Solder paste volumes, placement accuracy, temperature profiles and inspection limits all add up to the final result. This guide looks at PCB component height clearance from the perspective of a PCBA factory floor,…

Placing 01005 Components: Package Range and Process Control Consumer products keep getting smaller, and the packages on the board keep shrinking with them. The journey from 0805 and 0603 through 0402 to 0201 is familiar, and 01005 is now a routine choice in wearable and compact products rather than an…

PCB Solder Resist Dam Design: Keeping the Pads Separate Modern electronics depend on boards that are assembled correctly the first time. Every product – a phone, a charger, a medical instrument or an industrial controller – relies on thousands of solder joints that must conduct current for years. This article…

Solution Development Across Medical, Automotive and Industrial Products Experience in a domain is not a marketing claim; it changes what the first draft of a schematic looks like. A medical product, an automotive module, an industrial controller and a battery powered sensor share the same basic building blocks, and yet…

PCB Peelable Mask Application: Protecting the Contacts Modern electronics depend on boards that are assembled correctly the first time. Every product – a phone, a charger, a medical instrument or an industrial controller – relies on thousands of solder joints that must conduct current for years. This article explains PCB…

Polarity Component Orientation and Reverse Placement Control A reversed component is almost never the fault of the placement machine. Integrated circuits, diodes, tantalum capacitors and some light emitting diodes all have a defined mounting direction, and when one of them is placed the wrong way round the consequences range from…

PCB Pre-treatment Before Plating: Cleaning the Copper First Modern electronics depend on boards that are assembled correctly the first time. Every product – a phone, a charger, a medical instrument or an industrial controller – relies on thousands of solder joints that must conduct current for years. This article explains…

Smart Home Gateway PCBA Assembly and Module Test A smart home gateway is not an ordinary control board. It has to connect sensors, switches, locks, lighting and other terminals, so the board carries a processor, memory, a communication module, a network connector, the power conversion and an antenna interface at…