PCB Defect Pareto Risks: What Could Go Wrong 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 Defect Pareto Plan: Laying It Out First 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 defect pareto plan from the perspective of a PCBA factory floor,…

Fume Extraction: Preparation, Placement and Process Control Fume extraction on a reflow oven removes the flux vapour that the paste releases as it heats, together with the condensate that forms when that vapour cools. Without extraction the vapour condenses on the coolest surfaces inside the oven, which are usually the…

Pot Skimming: Preparation, Placement and Process Control Pot skimming is the removal of the oxide layer that forms on the surface of a molten solder bath, and it is the task that decides how much dross the wave carries onto the boards and how much alloy is lost in a…

Dispensing Needle: Preparation, Placement and Process Control A dispensing needle is the last few millimetres of the solder paste path, and it is where most dispensing problems start. The paste has to pass through a bore that is only a few hundred micrometres across, and the behaviour of that passage…

Drill Accuracy on a PCB Line: 6 Checks Before a Tight Job Drill accuracy is the ability of a machine to place a hole where the program says it should be, and to do it the same way on every panel. It is not one property but the sum of…

Line Changeover: Preparation, Placement and Process Control Line changeover is the interval between the last good board of one product and the first good board of the next, and it is one of the largest hidden costs on an SMT line. It is not only the machine time; it is…

Mask Window: Preparation, Placement and Process Control A mask window is the opening in the solder mask that exposes the copper pad, and its size decides how much bare metal the process leaves around the joint. Too small a window and solder cannot wet the full pad; too large a…

Impedance Coupon Design: 6 Rules for a Coupon You Can Trust An impedance coupon is a set of test traces built into the panel border that lets the fabricator and the customer measure the controlled impedance the process actually produced. A well built test coupon is the only practical way…

Skipped Deposits: Preparation, Placement and Process Control Skipped deposits are apertures that receive no paste at all, leaving a bare pad after the print. The defect is different from a deposit that is short or thin, because the failure is complete rather than partial, and the cause is usually a…