PCB Dielectric Constant and Loss: How the Material Behaves 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…

PCB Resin Content Control: How Much Glue Is in the Glass 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 Copper Thickness Selection: Choosing the Weight 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 Tg and Td Meaning: Two Numbers on a Data Sheet 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 Tg and Td meaning from the perspective of…

FR-2 PCB: Where Phenolic Laminate Still Makes Sense Most discussions of laminate assume a glass fibre substrate, and for good reason: it covers the overwhelming majority of boards built today. There is still a large category of products, though, where a paper-based phenolic material is the right answer and a…

Design Review: Checks Before a PCB Layout Is Released The last stage before a layout is released is a design review that compares the board against the documents it was built from. It is the cheapest point at which an error can be found, and the checks are the same…

Stencil Manufacturing Methods Compared: Laser, Etching and Electroforming The stencil is the one tool in the SMT process that directly sets the volume of solder paste on every pad. Three methods dominate its manufacture, and they differ in how the aperture walls are formed, which is what ultimately decides how…

Component Placement: The Decisions That Matter Most Placement is the most leveraged decision in a layout. Once the large parts and the connectors are fixed, the routing options are largely determined: the length of the critical nets, the size of the loops, the thermal path from the power stage and…

SMT Prototype Quality Control: Process Checks That Prevent Defects Small batch SMT is judged by a different standard than volume production. There is no long run over which variation averages out, so a single setup error becomes a defect rate that looks alarming on a small sample. The countermeasure is…

Automotive Sensor PCB: Materials, EMC and Reliability A sensor board inside a vehicle is a small circuit in a hostile place. It sits on the engine, in the wheel arch, behind a bumper or inside a seat, and it has to produce the same reading after fifteen years and two…