PCB Manufacturing Specification: What to Include Why a Gerber Set Is Not a Specification A Gerber package describes the shape of each layer. It does not say how thick the board is, what the laminate is, how much copper is on each layer, what finish the pads carry, how tight…

PCB Hand Soldering Iron Tip Care: Making the Tip Last 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…

Safe PCB Temperature: How Hot Is Too Hot? The Question Behind the Question When an engineer asks what a safe board temperature is, the useful answers are three different numbers. There is the temperature the board may reach without damaging itself, the temperature at which the components on it still…

Stacked Microvias: Design Rules and Reliability What a Microvia Is A microvia is a very small plated hole, conventionally defined as no more than 0.15 millimetres in diameter, that connects two adjacent layers of a board. It is produced by laser drilling rather than by mechanical drilling, because a mechanical…

PCB Wave Solder Pallet Design: A Frame That Carries the Board 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.…

Radio PCB: Designing for RF and Wireless Links What a Radio Board Has to Do A radio board takes a signal from a digital interface, converts it to a radio frequency, amplifies it and delivers it to an antenna, and it does the reverse on the way in. Every stage…

PCB Heatsink Attachment Torque: How Tight the Screws Should Be Buyers and engineers often focus on the finished product and forget the production line behind it. In practice, most field failures can be traced back to process decisions made during assembly. Understanding PCB heatsink attachment torque gives you a practical…

Camera Module PCB: Design and Manufacturing The Board Inside a Camera Module A camera module is a stack of precision parts: the lens, the holder, the actuator that moves the lens for focus or stabilisation, the image sensor, the filter and the printed circuit board that carries the sensor and…

PCB Corner Bond for Large Packages: Holding the Edges Down Buyers and engineers often focus on the finished product and forget the production line behind it. In practice, most field failures can be traced back to process decisions made during assembly. Understanding PCB corner bond for large packages gives you…

AI Circuit Board: What Accelerator Hardware Needs What Changes When the Board Carries an Accelerator An artificial intelligence accelerator is a large die that draws a lot of power and moves a lot of data. Neither of those facts is new to board design, but the scale is. A training…