IPC-A-610 and J-STD-001 Acceptance Criteria Compared Two documents govern most electronics assembly work, and they are frequently confused. IPC-A-610 describes what a finished assembly should look like, while J-STD-001 describes how it should be made. One is an inspection standard and the other is a process standard, and knowing which…

Via Plugging and Solder Mask Process Control Two process steps are often considered together because they both concern the way a via is treated after it has been plated. Via plugging fills the barrel with a material so that the surface above it can be used, and solder mask defines…

PPAP and APQP for PCB Assemblies: What the Documents Contain Automotive and medical customers ask for documents that a consumer customer never mentions, and the requests arrive with abbreviated names. Understanding what each document contains makes the difference between a routine submission and a month of rework. What PPAP Is…

In-Circuit Test Fixture Design: Probes, Access and Maintenance A bed of nails fixture connects every net on a board to the tester through a spring probe. The design of that fixture determines whether the test is reliable, maintainable and worth the cost of building it. What the Fixture Must Do…

PCB Oven Verification: Proving the Heat 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 oven verification from the perspective of a PCBA factory floor, covering verifying an…

PCB Component Kitting Accuracy: Getting the Right Parts to the Line 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.…

Pcb Design Software: Preparation, Placement and Process Control Choosing a pcb design software package is a decision that outlives the project it is made for. The tool holds the library, the constraints and the fabrication output, and changing it later means migrating all three. What matters is not the length…

Laser Welding for Server Liquid Cooling Plates A liquid cooling plate for a server has to do three things at once: conduct heat from a cold plate or a die into the coolant, contain that coolant at pressure for the life of the machine, and do it with an internal…

Isolation Amplifier Current Sensing Design Measuring current in a motor drive, a battery system or a mains connected converter means placing a sensing element at a potential that would destroy the controller connected to it. An isolation amplifier solves that problem by transferring the measurement across a barrier, and the…

Fine Pitch SMT Production: Six Problems That Appear At Volume Fine pitch surface mount parts pass every sample build and then fail in volume. The reason is that a sample is assembled with attention and a small number of pieces, while a production run is assembled with the process settings…