PCB Thread Locker Use: Keeping Screws In 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 thread locker use gives you a practical advantage when you…

PCB Fan and Airflow: Moving the Air 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…

Solder Mask Sliver: Preparation, Placement and Process Control Solder mask is a coating, not a structural material. Where it has to sit between two closely spaced pads or between a pad and a trace, it forms a narrow strip that has to survive printing, placement, reflow and often cleaning. If…

Prototype Order: PCB Prototype Checklist Before the Order Is Placed A prototype order is small, quick and usually urgent, which is exactly why the details are skipped and the boards come back wrong. Working through a short checklist before the data is released costs minutes and prevents a second cycle.…

RF Power Amplifier Layout Guide An RF power amplifier converts direct current into radio frequency power, and the layout decides how much of that power reaches the antenna and how much becomes heat. Every millimetre of the ground return and every nanohenry in the matching network changes the result. What…

Solder Pot Maintenance and Wave Quality The solder in a wave machine is a working alloy, and it changes with use. Copper, gold, nickel and iron dissolve into it from the boards and the components that pass through, the tin oxidises at the surface, and the flux chemistry leaves organic…

Test Point Design And Coverage For In Circuit Test A test point is the surface where a spring loaded probe touches the board, and it is the only interface between the product and an in circuit tester. Its size, its spacing, and its position decide whether a fixture can be…

PCB Antenna Keepout Design Guide An antenna printed on a circuit board is sensitive to everything placed near it, and the keepout is the space that has to be left empty. A design that ignores it produces a radio that works on the bench and fails in the enclosure, with…

PCB Fabrication Cycle Time and How Quick Turns Work A standard double sided board takes about a day of machine time to build, yet the advertised delivery is often much shorter. Understanding the cycle time of each step explains what a quick turn can achieve and where the compression has…

Salt Spray Testing and Corrosion Resistance of PCB Finishes A salt spray chamber is one of the oldest tools in corrosion testing, and it remains one of the most requested by customers. It produces a repeatable, visually striking result in a short time, which makes it attractive for specification. It…