On-Site Design Engineers at the Customer Facility An internal layout team can be busy with several projects and short of hands during a peak, and hiring takes longer than the peak lasts. A complex board may need experience the team has not built up yet. A project may be sensitive…

PCB Stencil Step Design: Thicker Paste in Places 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 stencil step design gives you a practical advantage when…

Half-Hole and Stamp Hole PCB Manufacturing A module board that has to be soldered flat onto a mother board needs a connection that takes little space and carries the current without a connector in the way. The half-hole process is the usual answer. Two boards are joined by a row…

Flying Probe Test on a Portable Oscilloscope Acquisition Board A portable oscilloscope acquisition board carries converters, a processor, memory, analog switches, operational amplifiers and input protection, and the power check that follows assembly says very little about any of them. A board can start normally while one supply net, one…

PCB Via in Pad Design: Holes Under the Pads 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 QFN Pad Geometry: Key Process and Quality Checks 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 QFN pad geometry from the perspective of a PCBA factory…

Double-Sided SMT Assembly for a Smart Thermostat Board A thermostat board carries the controller, the temperature sensing interface, the display connector, the power management devices and the relay driver circuit, and it is usually built as a two sided assembly. The board that is populated first passes through the reflow…

PCB Connector Footprint Design: Practical Process Controls 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…

Consumer Electronics SMT Assembly for Smart Hardware and Appliances Consumer products change quickly, their volumes move up and down, and the boards inside them keep shrinking. A manufacturer that can place a chip resistor measuring four hundred micrometres and then change the line over to a different product the same…

PCB Press Fit Connector Design: From Design to Repeatable 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 press fit connector design gives you a…