12-Layer PCB: Stack-Up, Design and Manufacturing What Twelve Layers Buys A twelve layer board is the point at which the design has stopped being an exercise in routing and become an exercise in planning. A circuit that needs twelve layers usually has several high speed interfaces, more than one supply…

PCB Punch Die Clearance: 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 punch die clearance from the perspective of a PCBA factory…

PCB Leads and Wires: Selection and Termination The Connection Everyone Forgets Most of a design review is spent on the circuit, and the connection between the board and the rest of the product is treated as a detail. It is not. A solder joint between a stranded wire and a…

Transmitter PCB: Design and Cost Factors What a Transmitter Board Adds to a Radio A radio board receives and transmits; a transmitter board is built around the transmitting chain and the problems that come with it. The receiver is a low level circuit that must be quiet. The transmitter is…

PCB Laser Cut Flex Profile: Cutting a Flexible Circuit 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 laser cut flex profile gives you a practical…

Rogers 6002 PCB: Properties, Design and Selection Where 6002 Sits in the Range Rogers 6002 is a polytetrafluoroethylene based laminate reinforced with a woven glass fabric, part of the RO6000 family and designed for microwave and high speed digital circuits where loss has to be very low. Its dielectric constant…

Microphone PCB: Design for Low Noise Audio What Makes an Audio Board Different An audio board handles signals that are small, slow and analogue. A microphone capsule produces millivolts or fractions of a millivolt, the preamplifier works at a level where a stray microampere of injected current is audible, and…

Buzzer PCB: Driving Sounders and Piezo Elements Two Kinds of Sounder A buzzer produces a tone, and the two families available work differently enough that the drive circuit, the layout and the acoustic design all follow from the choice. A magnetic sounder contains a coil, a magnet and a diaphragm,…

PCB Router Bit Chip Load: What Buyers and Engineers Should Check 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 router bit chip load from the perspective of…

Optoelectronic Rigid PCB: Boards for Light-Based Electronics What an Optoelectronic Board Has to Do An optoelectronic board sits at the boundary between electricity and light. It drives an emitter such as an LED, a laser diode or a vertical cavity laser, it receives light on a photodiode or an image…