Panel Plating vs Pattern Plating: Choosing the Copper Process Every plated through hole board needs copper on the surface and inside the barrel, and there are two established ways to put it there. Panel plating covers the whole panel with copper before the circuit is defined; pattern plating deposits copper…

PCB Router Bits: Depaneling Tool Selection and Cut Quality A PCB router bit is a small carbide end mill, usually between 0.8 mm and 2.4 mm in diameter, that cuts the outline of a circuit out of its panel. It looks like an ordinary cutter and behaves like a precision…

Mica Board for PCB Tooling: High-Temperature Insulation Properties Mica board is one of the few materials that can sit next to a soldering iron, a hot bar or a reflow fixture and remain an insulator. It is built from mica paper bonded with a silicone resin, and it combines a…

PCB V Score Versus Routing: Two Ways to Free the Board 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 v score versus routing from the perspective of…

FPC Copper Thickness: Choosing Ounces for Flex and Current Copper thickness is the single parameter that decides what a flexible circuit can do. It sets the current the traces can carry, the heat they can move, the tightest radius the part will bend to and the number of flex cycles…

Solder Mask Opening: NSMD vs SMD Pad Design A solder mask opening is the deliberate gap left in the protective coating so that copper can be exposed for soldering, probing or heat transfer. Everything else on the board stays covered, which is what stops the coating from interfering with the…

Vehicle Sensor PCB: Technology, Reliability and Manufacturing A vehicle contains more sensors than any other consumer product, and each of them has to survive an environment that is deliberately hostile. Engine bays reach a hundred and fifty degrees, wheels are exposed to water and salt, and every sensor is connected…

Direct Bonded Copper PCB: Structure, Materials and Process Power electronics has been pushing against the limits of ordinary boards for two decades. An insulated gate bipolar transistor module that switches several hundred amps produces heat in a volume smaller than a fingernail, and no laminate with an organic dielectric can…

PCB Vacuum Support for Thin Boards: Pinning a Thin Board Flat 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 vacuum support for thin boards from the perspective…

PCB Edge Clearance for the Conveyor: Space Along the Edges 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…