PCB Solder Mask Gloss: The Shine on the Mask 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 solder mask gloss gives you a practical advantage…

What Actually Drives PCB Cost Cost Is Set in the Design Most of the cost of a board is decided before a purchase order exists, and it is decided by the design rather than by the negotiation. Area, layer count, material, tolerances, finish and the amount of testing all follow…

Quick-Turn Prototyping and Cycle Compression What Quick Turn Really Buys A quick turn service buys calendar time, and calendar time is the resource a development programme is shortest of. The value is not the board itself but the number of design iterations that fit before a deadline, because each iteration…

SMT Component Feeder Pitch: The Spacing the Feeder Takes 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…

PCB Lead Times: What Actually Drives Them The Shape of a Lead Time A quoted lead time is a sum, not a number. It is the engineering review, the material purchase, the fabrication queue, the drilling, plating, imaging and etching steps, the solder mask, the finish, the electrical test, the…

Traceability in Electronics Manufacturing What Traceability Has to Answer Traceability is the ability to answer three questions: what went into this unit, when and where was it made, and what else was made the same way. Those questions are asked after a defect is found, a supplier issues a recall…

PCB Copper Trace Dielectric Spacing: The Space Between the Copper 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 copper trace dielectric spacing gives you a…

First Article Inspection for Assemblies What FAI Is For First article inspection is the structured check of the first unit produced by a new process, a new program or a changed design, and its purpose is to prove that the process can make the drawing before the process makes thousands…

Dry Packing and Component Storage Why Storage Is a Process Components are sensitive to moisture long before they reach the reflow oven. Plastic packages absorb water from the air, and when they are heated quickly that water turns to steam inside the body. The result is internal stress, delamination, wire…

SMT Reflow Solder Joint Crack Detection: Finding the Break 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…