DI Water Quality in PCB Wet Processes: Conductivity and Rinse Deionised water is the rinse medium for almost every step in printed circuit fabrication, from the rinse after etching to the final rinse before the surface finish is applied. Its job is to carry away dissolved salts without leaving anything…

PCB Etch Factor Environment: A Practical Review for Manufacturing Teams 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 etch factor environment from the perspective of a PCBA…

Plating Bath Filtration: Filter Rating and Particle Contamination Plating baths are filtered continuously, and the reason is that particles do not stay in the solution. A speck of dust, a fragment of anode bag, a chip of dried plating salt or a flake of resist all end up deposited on…

Solder Paste Powder Size Selection: Type 3 to Type 6 Solder paste is a suspension of alloy spheres in flux, and the size of those spheres is specified as a type number with a corresponding particle range. The choice looks like a detail, but it decides how the paste behaves…

Solder Wave Height and Contact Time Control Wave height is the depth of solder that stands above the nozzle lip as the board passes over it. Set correctly, the wave touches the underside of the board across its full width and the board floats on the crest with a small,…

Lamination Separator Plates: 6 Rules for a Clean Press Book Lamination separator plates sit between the tooling plate and the panel, and they quietly determine whether a press cycle produces a smooth surface or a marked one. They distribute pressure, carry heat into the stack and keep resin flash from…

Solder Mask Curtain Coating: 6 Settings for Even Thickness Solder mask curtain coating covers one or both panel faces with a falling film of ink, which makes it fast and material efficient compared with screen printing. It also concentrates a great many variables into a single pass. If the curtain…

Plating Jig Maintenance: 6 Checks for Even Current Transfer Plating jig maintenance is the difference between a rack that plates evenly and one that produces panels with thin copper in one area and burns in another. The jig carries current from the busbar to the panel, and every contact in…

PCB Etch Factor Timing: How Long It Takes Etch factor describes how much a copper trace narrows sideways for every unit of thickness removed. A high etch factor gives straighter sidewalls and a trace width closer to the artwork. Timing enters the picture because the etch step must remove a…

Rinse Water Temperature Control: 6 Checks for Cleaner Panels Rinse water temperature is the parameter that decides how much chemistry leaves the panel and how much stays on it. Cold water removes salts slowly, warm water dissolves and carries them away far more effectively, and water that is too hot…