The BOM in PCBA: Bill of Materials Control That Prevents Delays Every assembly quotation starts with the same request, and it is not the Gerber files. The assembler needs a bill of materials, because that single document defines what has to be bought, how the line has to be set…

PCB Level Shielding: Board Shields, Cans and Faraday Cages Enclosure shielding is the first line of defence against radiated emissions, and on modern products it is increasingly compromised. Ventilation openings, display windows, cable penetrations and connector cut-outs all break the shield, and the degradation is not gradual: a single large…

High-Speed PCB Via Design: Parasitics and Sizing On a fast board, the via is usually the weakest electrical element in the interconnect. It is short, it is cheap, and it is invisible on the schematic, yet it adds capacitance to the trace, inductance to the return path, and a stub…

PCB ECO Change Control: Changing the Design on Purpose 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 ECO change control from the perspective of a PCBA factory…

HDI PCB Technology and Microvia Design Rules A high-density interconnect board is not simply a multilayer board with more layers. It is a board whose interconnect is dense enough that ordinary through-hole vias can no longer serve every connection, so the design moves to smaller holes, finer features and vias…

PCB Last Time Buy Decision: A Practical Manufacturing Guide 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 last time buy decision from the perspective of a PCBA…

PCB Component Obsolescence Plan: Design, Process, and Quality Notes 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 component obsolescence plan from the perspective of a PCBA factory…

PCB Second Source Qualification: Having a Plan B 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…

Analog and Digital Ground Separation in Mixed Designs Once a design contains an ADC beside a switching clock, the question of how to treat analog and digital ground comes up in every review. The conventional answer is to split the two and tie them at one point, but the split…

PCB Aging Test for A Product: Burning It In 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…