Conformal Coating Application: Masking, Jetting and Coverage Conformal coating protects an assembly from moisture, contamination and corrosion, and it does so only where it covers the surface completely. The application method determines whether the coverage is complete, and the masking determines whether the parts that should not be coated remain…

Power Sequencing and Rail Tracking Design A board with several supply rails is not powered up by connecting a supply to it. Each rail has to reach its nominal value in the right order and within a defined time, or the devices that span two rails can be damaged, latch…

PCB Moisture Log: Recording the Time Out of the Bag 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…

PCB Torque Tool Calibration: Making Sure It Is Right 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 torque tool calibration gives you a practical advantage…

PCB Profiler Calibration: Trusting the Thermocouple 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 profiler calibration from the perspective of a PCBA factory floor, covering calibrating a…

PCB Ionic Tester Calibration: Trusting the Cleanliness Number 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 ionic tester calibration gives you a practical advantage when…

Battery Fuel Gauge and Coulomb Counting Design A fuel gauge answers a simple question that is surprisingly difficult to measure: how much energy is left in the battery. The cell voltage moves with load and temperature, the capacity changes as the battery ages, and the current that has to be…

Via in Pad Design and Paste Escape for Thermal Pads Via in pad means placing a plated hole directly inside a surface mount land so that the pad serves both as a solder site and as a vertical connection, and it is the standard way to move heat out of…

Hand Soldering A QFN: Step By Step A QFN package has no leads to solder. Its connections are flat pads on the underside of the body, arranged around the perimeter, with a large exposed pad in the centre that serves as both the thermal path and, usually, the ground connection.…

PCB Design Key Points: Routing, Ground and Decoupling Most of the problems that appear in a finished board trace back to a small number of pcb design decisions taken early: how the signal flows, where the ground reference is, how the supply is decoupled and how much space the routing…