Why Hardware Design Is Not a Short Course Advertisements promising a hardware engineer in ninety days or a complete designer in three months are attractive for an obvious reason: the alternative is slow. The difficulty is that the slow path is the one that produces an engineer whose work survives…

PCB Breakaway Tab Design: A Factory-Floor Review 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 breakaway tab design from the perspective of a PCBA factory floor, covering…

PCB Panelization Tab Routing: How the Boards Are Held 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 panelization tab routing from the perspective of a PCBA factory…

Choosing a Circuit Design Partner for a New Product The failure modes of a product development project are predictable enough to be listed: the schedule slips, the design has to be redone after the prototype, and the finished design cannot be manufactured at the cost the business case assumed. All…

PCB Via Reliability Under Thermal Cycling: From Design to Repeatable 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 via reliability under thermal cycling from the perspective…

Is That PCB Factory Reliable? Signals Worth Checking Every buyer of boards wants the same three things: the board that arrives matches the data that was sent, the date that was promised is the date that is met, and any problem is reported rather than discovered. Whether a particular shop…

PCB Layer Registration Accuracy: What Buyers and Engineers Should Check 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 layer registration accuracy gives you a practical…

Screening a Contract Assembler: A Purchasing and Engineering Checklist Screening a contract assembler is a different exercise from comparing prices, and it is usually split between two people who ask different questions. Purchasing wants to know what the order will cost and when it will arrive. Engineering wants to know…

PCB Drill Bit Wear and Hole Quality: 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 drill bit wear and hole quality from…

Choosing a PCB Fabricator for Prototypes and Pilot Runs Choosing a PCB fabricator for a prototype is usually treated as a purchasing decision, made by comparing the price on two websites. For a simple double-sided board that is the right approach, because the fabrication is standard and the differences are…