PCB ENIG Finish Maintenance: Keeping It Working 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…

PCB ENIG Finish Plan: Laying It Out 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…

Stencil Aperture Home Plate Design for Fine Pitch Printing A stencil aperture is a hole through which paste is pushed, and its shape decides how much paste is deposited and how cleanly the deposit releases from the walls. For most components the aperture is a straightforward rectangle slightly smaller than…

Glass Fabric Effect on PCB Properties A glass reinforced laminate is a composite of glass fabric and resin, and the fabric is not a passive filler. The style of the weave, the thickness of the yarn and the proportion of resin determine the dielectric constant, the mechanical stiffness, the drilling…

Low Loss Laminate Selection A low loss laminate is chosen when the insertion loss of a channel has become the limit on the design. The loss comes from the dielectric and from the copper, and the two contributions have different frequency behaviour and different remedies. Selecting a material without separating…

Rogers Material Guide for High Frequency Boards Rogers is a brand name that has become a shorthand for the family of laminates used in high frequency and microwave work. The family covers several chemistries, from a soft polytetrafluoroethylene to a ceramic filled composite and a thermoset material, and they are…

PCB ENIG Finish Setup: Getting Ready 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 ENIG…

PCB ENIG Finish Defects: What Goes Wrong 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 ENIG finish defects from the perspective of a PCBA factory floor, covering…

PCB Silkscreen Selection: Choosing What Fits 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 silkscreen selection from the perspective of a PCBA factory floor, covering selecting silkscreen…

Halogen Free Laminate Guide A halogen free laminate avoids the brominated flame retardant that has been the standard in glass reinforced epoxy for decades. The change was made for environmental and regulatory reasons, and it is not a cosmetic substitution: a different chemistry is used to achieve the same flame…