Depanelising and Routing Quality Depanelising is the last mechanical operation before a board becomes a product, and it is one of the few remaining processes where a good board can be destroyed by technique. Routers, v-score breakers, tab cutters and laser systems all separate panels, and each of them introduces…

Stencil Aperture Design for Mixed Technology Boards A mixed technology board carries a fine pitch surface mount population and a set of through hole parts, and the two need different paste volumes from the same stencil. Meeting both on one sheet of metal is the problem the stencil design has…

Board Level Shielding Design With Cans and Fences A board level shield is a metal enclosure soldered over a circuit to keep electromagnetic energy in or out. It is a mechanical part, a thermal part and an electrical part at the same time, and the design has to satisfy all…

Solder Wick and Rework Tools: Selection and Control Solder wick is a braid of fine copper strands that removes molten solder from a joint by capillary action. It is the simplest desoldering tool in a rework station and the one that causes the most damage when it is used badly,…

Assembly Traceability Data Structure and Retention Traceability is a data structure rather than a mark. The mark identifies the unit, and the structure decides what can be asked of it afterwards, which is the part that determines whether a field problem can be narrowed to a day or to a…

PCB Traceability Plan: From Prototype to Volume Production 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 traceability plan from the perspective of a PCBA factory floor, covering…

PCB Traceability Setup: What Matters on the Production 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. This article…

PCB Traceability Limits: What Matters on the Production Line 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 traceability limits from the perspective of a PCBA factory floor,…

PCB Traceability Review: From Prototype to Volume Production Buyers and engineers often focus on the finished product and forget the production line behind it. In practice, most field failures can be traced back to process decisions made during assembly. Understanding PCB traceability review gives you a practical advantage when you…

Automatic Optical Inspection Programming in Production An automatic optical inspection system is only as good as the program it runs, and the program is built from CAD data, a component library and a set of thresholds that decide what is acceptable. Programming is therefore where the inspection yield, the false…