VIPPO PCB: Via-in-Pad Plated Over Explained What VIPPO Actually Means The acronym stands for via-in-pad plated over, and each part of the phrase describes a step. A via is placed inside a component pad rather than beside it. The hole is filled with solid copper by electroplating, not with resin.…

Microvia PCB: HDI Structures, Design Rules and Cost What Makes a Via a Microvia The definition is dimensional, not descriptive. A microvia is a small via formed by laser rather than mechanical drilling, and it connects one layer to the layer immediately below it. The recognised thresholds are a diameter…

Halogen Free PCB: Materials, Standards and Trade-offs Why the Halogen Content Is Specified at All Flame retardancy in a conventional laminate is achieved with brominated epoxy resin. Bromine is effective, cheap and well understood, and that combination made it the default for decades. The problem appears when the material burns…

Microwave PCB Materials: Choosing a Substrate Above 1 GHz Where the Material Becomes the Circuit Microwave boards cover roughly 1 to 30 GHz, and in that range the laminate is not a passive carrier. Its dielectric constant sets the impedance and the propagation velocity, its dissipation factor converts signal into…

PCB Etching Cost: What Drives the Price of Every Trace The Step That Defines the Circuit Etching is where the circuit stops being an image and becomes copper. After the pattern has been exposed and developed onto the resist, the etchant removes the copper that is not protected, and what…

Wireless Charging PCB Design, Lead Time and Cost A Board That Is Partly an Antenna A wireless charging board is unusual because part of it is not a circuit at all. The spiral coil that couples energy magnetically is etched into the same copper as the driver electronics, and its…

ENIG Surface Finish: Process, Thickness and Defects A Thin Stack That Decides Assembly Yield Bare copper oxidises, and an oxidised pad does not solder. The surface finish exists to keep the copper clean until the assembly line reaches it, and to do so without changing the shape of the pad.…

Isola PCB Materials: Dielectric, Tg and Reliability A Materials Family, Not a Single Product Isola is a laminate and prepreg supplier, and the name covers a range of materials from standard FR-4 through to low loss laminates intended for high speed serial links. Speaking about an Isola board without naming…

Low Cost PCB From China: Cost Structure and Ordering Low Cost Is Not the Same as Cheap The two words get used interchangeably and they describe opposite things. A cheap board is one where the price was lowered by removing something: thinner plating, a lower grade laminate, less inspection, a…

LED Lighting PCB Guide: Materials and Thermal Design The Board Decides How Long the Light Lasts An LED is a temperature sensitive device. Its efficiency, its colour and its operating life all degrade as the junction temperature rises, and the board it is mounted on is the first stage of…