printed circuit board – Page 6

Everything You Need to Know About Circuit Board Assembly!

mwcms on September 13, 2021

Most of the electrical appliances that run our lives on a daily basis include about 300 feet of tiny wires inside. This wire is the main component that adds connectivity inside an electrical product. It allows all the other small components in an electrical appliance to work seamlessly together.

The more complex an electrical appliance is, the larger the number of components and the wire inside it. However, you may be wondering where this wire is located. Well, this is where the printed circuit board assembly comes into play.

What is a PCB?

The printed circuit board or PCB is the small circuit board inside most electrical appliances. They are either green or blue and at first glance, they look like ordinary pieces of scrap plastic. But in reality, they are actually a multi-layered board that consists of an abundance of copper wires.

This scrap of flat metal is the surface on which manufacturers will precisely and carefully place all the essential components using expensive heavy machinery. Along with that, small copper wires will connect between the components and provide the necessary connectivity that occurs between all the components. This connectivity allows the components to work together and as a result, this paves the way for an electrical appliance to function.

What is inside?

The printed circuit board consists of ten conductive layers. The top and bottom layers of the Circuit board assembly make for surfaces on which manufacturers will mount components and they also act as multiple antennae. Moreover, each of these components on the circuit board requires plenty of power and ground and the PCB has entire layers that are only responsible for providing power and ground.

They are also aptly named power planes and ground planes due to their specialized role. Other ground planes that make the circuit board assembly serve the purpose of electromagnetic shielding and heat dissipation. The remaining four middle layers carry all the communication traces, which means that they carry all the signal wires.

Each of the conductive layers is copper, and between these conductive layers, there is insulating fiberglass, along with an epoxy resin that protects against the flow of electricity between the layers. A common PCB has a total of ten conductive layers, however, in a more technical and complex application, the layers can range up to 50 or more layers.

On the other hand, you may also find a PCB board that is simpler, with only two layers. Not to mention, on the top and bottom layers of a PCB, you will find a coat of solder mask, which offers a surface on which manufacturers will place components using high-tech machines. On top of the soldering mask is the silkscreen, which is nothing but the ink that indicates the placements for components by marking the circuit board.

The Assembly Process

After all the components of the PCB are manufactured, they need to be assembled before the PCB can go into the production line. This assembly process will involve the application of solder masks, automated component placement, along with the electrical testing of the bare board.

Final Thoughts

Printed circuit boards are more widely used inside computing devices, and since each model of smart phones and laptops along with other devices are different, the shapes and designs of circuit board assembly also differ vastly. Overall, it is fair to say that they are integral components of the modern technical era, and without them, none of the highest technical appliances can function.

The Process of a Printed Circuit Board Assembly

mwcms on August 30, 2021

The PCB assembly process undergoes thorough and intricate steps. PCB’s being the staple circuit board mechanism in most of the electronic appliances is undoubtedly major components that require perfect assembly otherwise they can be major causes of concern for many industries.

BluePrints and Layouts

The assembly process in factories start with a framework or blue print layout and make their way to the customers. Due to the advancements in PCB production, modern manufacturing units hardly have any workers on the production floor. This is because most of the manufacturing process is subject to automation and efficient machinery.

In the starting stage of assembly, the burr board inserts into the laser marking machine, which marks a serial number on the board so that the board can have a manufacturing label. This process is common in large scale production, but is not something common to all Printed circuit board manufacturers.

Applying Solder Mask

The process initiates with the application of solder to the circuit board. Solder mask is a material that sits on top the circuit as a layer in which you can install components of the circuit board. A specific inspection machine then inspects the circuit board and ensures that it is aligned.

Once the inspection is complete, it applies solder all the way across the surface board in an evenly fashion. After solder application, the solder goes through another inspection to ensure that it is applied evenly. Once the inspection is complete, the board is ready to undergo the next stage.

Adding Component Placements

The next stage involves the addition of the placements. Machines rapidly add placements on the board that are coming from the reels. This machine includes heads that pick up the reels and attaches them to the circuit board. This reel placement happens for about eight times before the circuit board is ready for the next stage.

After all the components attach to the board, it is then ready for the reflow process. This process is important since the solder needs to melt so that it can adhere and be a good surface that provides mechanical and electrical connections between components and parts.

Reflow process

When it goes under the cooking process of the machine, it comes out from the other side to cool. Cooling process takes place so that all the junctions between the components can form and solidify. This results in the next step which involves testing.

Inspection and Electrical Testing

The final inspection will now ensure that all the components are situated in their correct specific placements so that the circuit board assembly is ready for use. In this testing, advanced machines identify whether the pins are contacting the pads in the exact location. At this point, the SMT process is in completion.

Electrical testing can have implications that follow two processes. The first involves the bed of nails, which helps manufacturers test at a high volume at a shorter time, however it require expensive fixtures. The second testing method is a flying probe, which is a high mix at a small volume.

If the circuit board assembly includes large BGA components, then manufacturers need to inspect whether the pins are reaching the right layer. These pins are usually behind each component and therefore, you cannot test those using automated machines. In this scenario, manufacturers will likely use the help of X-ray images and make sure that the soldering and components are adequate.

Parts of a PCB, or Printed Circuit Board

Whether the PCB board is inside an air conditioner, or a refrigerator, you can find numerous different parts mounted on the bare board. The main components that you are likely to find and which are critical for its functioning involve a Fuse, transformer, and a switch. The quantity and types of these components can vary according to the specific electrical appliance.

To Conclude

All of these processes and testing are then finalized by a functional test. As you can see, the process of a printed circuit board assembly is full of inspections and automated machine work. Thus, it is a true reflection of the detailed workings in a mass production factory.

Tips and Tricks: Learn to Improve Your Current PCB Design

mwcms on August 4, 2021

Circuit designing can be incredibly daunting when it comes to practical application. Often, PCB designers will make common design mistakes that they can improve, with simple tips and tricks. In this article, you learn how to improve things such as signal integrity, EMI, and so forth. You will also gain insights over trace widths, via sizes, placements, and clearances between traces.

Use Design Tool Kits

Often time’s people fail to realize the use-cases and benefits of tool kits, and do not utilize them for their PCB design. This is somewhat of a mistake, considering that you can find free toolkits online that can help you make a series of calculations that can help perfect a PCB circuit. It is most useful for conductor impedances, crosstalks, differential pairs, and so on.

Coupling and Decoupling Capacitors

Capacitors can come in as very handy components when building a PCB circuit. They act as timing elements or filters. When you use them as decoupling capacitor, you need to connect them in parallel with the power supply.

Why should you do this? Well, you should not expect power supply of any kind to be flawless. The output from these will have a fluctuating property. Hence, this is where a decoupling capacitor can help. Adding it into the circuit will prevent the fluctuations from the supply to reach the digital pins.

Pull Up and Pull Down Resistors

In digital circuits, the conventional way of feeding input involves using switches or push buttons. When you do that, you run into the risk of leaving the input pins into your floating state. This is where the input prints of a chip cannot detect input logic and ultimately lead to an unexpected outcome.

If you want to avoid this common floating state issue, you can use resistors of specific value to improve your PCB circuit. Resistors such as Pull up or Pull down resistors connect the input pin to VCC, so that it can read, “LOGIC 1”. Whereas, a Pull down resistor can connect the input to the ground, and you can use it to read, “Logic Zero”

Discharge Time of Batteries

Your design needs to be compatible with batteries. The most important tip, when powering your circuit with batteries, is to calculate the discharge time of the battery. This tip is helpful because if you attempt to discharge the battery capacity, more than its optimum level, you run the risk of permanently damaging your battery.

As a rule of thumb, you choice in batteries should have about 1.5 times more capacity than your circuit’s actual consumption. However, make sure to check the datasheet because of the invariabilities within the battery chemistry.

If you are designing a circuit that requires one ampere for an hour, then a battery that holds capacity of 1.5 AH is the best choice for optimum performance.

Wattage Ratings

Most people tend to forget about the wattage ratings and focus more on the resistor value of the circuit. Wattage rating of a resistor refers to the maximum amount of power that a resistor can safely dissipate in the form of heat. If the dissipation in the resistor exceeds the maximum wattage rating, then the resistor is likely to crash.

This is why finding a wattage resistor that corresponds to your circuits resistance value is a tip that will not only improve your circuit design, but also save it from smoking. Hence, you should pay close attention to the power dissipation of a particular resistor.

To Conclude

Most of the times, it is the small changes in PCB design that make the biggest improvements. Therefore, make sure to keep track of all the small measurements and calculations if you want to optimize your circuit for it to work in its highest capacity.

How does Automated Trace Routing Work in PCB Design

mwcms on July 29, 2021

Every electronic device that you use consists of over a hundred meters of wires, along with dozens of small copper components. These components work seamlessly together to run a specific electronic device, whether it is a Smartphone, television, or remote control.

All of the wires and components perfectly attach to a thin-layered board, or PCB (Printed circuit board). When engineers mount all the components on this surface, it provides an organized framework for all the small structures to communicate with each other.

PCB DESIGNING

PCBs consist of conductive material that sits on insulating material, or the substrate. When you categorize PCBs based on this, you get two classifications, the single-layer PCB, and the double-layer PCB. The single-layer PCB includes a one-sided conductive coating, while the double layer has a coating on both sides.

One of the many ways to decrease the build-up of heat in a PCB design is to widening the traces on the board. This is one of the routing rules out of many that creators follow when designing PCBs. The wider the distance between the traces, the lesser will be the resistance of the flowing current. To calculate trace widths, you can seek the help of online trace width calculators.

Similarly, you can find methods that encompass the manual routing process. In an electronic design, automated trace routing is the way to go amidst modern technological advances.

WHAT IS AUTOMATED TRACE ROUTING?

This is a method of design for the printed circuit board, along with the integrated circuits, or (ICs). This step automates the process of placement when integrating a PCB. The dynamics of this method predicates upon identifying the placement for each active component of a PCB.

The automated trace routing method allows you to enable an automatic routing system that systematically makes all the placements themselves. You can find auto-routing software such as Altium, which provides users an interface that helps access automated trace routing.

With the help of automated trace routers, encoders can increase their productivity and not waste their time in manual routing solutions.

SHOULD YOU USE AN AUTOMATED TRACE ROUTER?

Auto-routing tools can be of immense help, especially if you are a beginner designer. They have incredible use and benefits for simpler designs. However, skilled and experienced designers that incorporate complex routing placements do not use automated routers.

This is because the automated routing tools will often not have the complex routing strategy or layout in their systems. Therefore, whether you should use an automated trace routing tool depends entirely on the layout of your PCB, the complexity of your strategy, and the settings that you are particularly looking for.

AUTOMATED TRACE ROUTING ALGORITHMS

Algorithms ultimately define the function of an automated trace router. They are the fundamental construct of the different routing topologies. In other words, they are a set of instructions that automate the routing process, speeding it up, and making this lengthy task easier.

The three main algorithms for auto-routing involve random search, directed search, and river routing. Each of these algorithms has its advantages and setbacks and suits each encoder for a different set of tasks.

TO CONCLUDE

If you are new to PCB design, then auto-routing tools can be emphatic to get you started on your PCB projects. In hindsight, the benefits of an automated trace router outweigh some of the drawbacks, especially if you consider the recent advances in their technology.

Everything You Need to Know about Solder Mask Material

mwcms on July 16, 2021

Solder Mask material is a fine layer of polymer. In terms of application, engineers will often use this material for copper traces in a circuit board, PCB. It is an essential material in circuit building projects, protecting the PCB from oxidization. This is, however, not the only use case and benefit of solder masks when it comes to the construction of circuit boards.

PREVENTS THE BRIDGES FROM DEVELOPING

Printed Circuit Boards or PCB usually has components of copper placed extremely close to each other. The solder masking helps an engineer avoid solder bridges from manifesting due to the pads spaced closely.

Solder bridge refers to an electrical connection between two copper components on a PCB board. Therefore, the correct application of a Solder Mask can be instrumental in avoiding this issue. Their use case for PCBs is increasingly widespread and fine-tuned into the mass production of circuit boards.

Hence, you will not only find the solder mask material as a hand assembly use case but also integral to the mass production companies of PCB. Companies involved in mass production often use wave or reflow techniques to solder their circuits.

APPLICATION PROCESS

The application process of solder involves firstly, applying the solder material on the board, and then following it up with making openings into the material for the copper components. Engineers that craft circuit boards will make these openings, often by using photolithography techniques.

Traditionally, solder mask material has a green physical appearance, but you can find it in many other colors as well. You can also use solder-masking techniques to construct your very own solder mask at home.

Hence, the quantity, quality, or type of the solder mask material ultimately depends on the particular PCB. Every PCB is different, not only in terms of size but also in terms of applications. PCBs for certain electronic instruments may have more components than some others.
Therefore, the physical dimensions of a particular PCB, the number of openings, and the volume and sizes of components are considerations that factor in before every soldering process.

TYPES

Typically, you can find four types of solder mask materials, each having its unique physical properties and distinct applications.

TOP-BOTTOM SIDE MASKS

The use of this type of solder mask is common amongst electronic engineers. They use this type of solder to recognize the openings in the solder layer. The layering of this solder mask often follows a film or an epoxy technique.

EPOXY LIQUID SOLDER MASKS

This is one of the cheaper solder masking options since it is a polymer that you can easily silkscreen on the PCB. Silk-screening refers to a printing method in which you have to apply woven mesh to hold the ink patterns.

LIQUID SOLDER MASK/PHOTO IMAGEABLE SOLDER MASK

This solder material is often the more superior out of the four. In terms of property, it is a mixture of two different liquid components. For this reason, it has a much higher shelf life than other solder mask liquids. Furthermore, it is also versatile in its application, meaning, that you can use multiple techniques to apply this solder mask material type.

DRY FILM PHOTO IMAGEABLE SOLDER MATERIAL

This type of solder mask material is excellent for high-density wiring boards. Since the film is dry, it is less likely to escape through the holes. Moreover, when using dry film, you should use the vacuum lamination application technique.

CONCLUSION

Solder mask materials are emphatic for the PCB industry. Without their application, all circuit boards are vulnerable to damages due to short circuits. Moreover, they also have an essential role in the functionality of the particular circuit board, and they allow aspiring circuit board creators to practice their PCB crafting skills.

Flawless Prototypes and Designs Equals Perfect Circuit Board

mwcms on June 21, 2021

Creating a perfect circuit board takes plenty of consideration and time. The design of the circuit board is the rudimentary and fundamental thing that contributes to the functioning of a circuit board. Creating a proper PCB design by ordering it from a proper manufacturing house is the way to go, if you wish to save time and create and flawless prototype. Below, this article will discuss how you should go about building a circuit design idea, and turning it into a prototype.

Planning the Function of the Circuits

The first thing that you must consider before taking any circuit design measure is the function of a specific circuit. Each circuit that serves a specific circuit will have a particular design that will be distinct from other circuits with different use cases.

Apart from the design, you also have to be varying of the components in the circuit. Each circuit that serves a specific purpose will have different components, such as resistors, batteries and controllers. Once you have a good idea of the circuit design, you can move forward and put pen to paper, and lay out a paper schematic.

Component Sourcing and Paper Schematic

Component sourcing involves looking at the components that you have listed down for your circuit, and finding their prices in the market. You can find your components easily online, and once you have them sorted, you can start thinking about the packages.

The packages will describe how the circuit will physically look like. It will also determine whether you will have a THT, or an SMD. Your package choice will lay out all the complementary components that your circuit needs.

Next, you want to connect all the components on a piece of paper, and draw the layout of your circuit. This will also include drawing the necessary components into the right places. The package size should correspond to all the components.

Getting a package that is too big will make your circuit look very bulky, and getting one that is too small will present you problem when attaching components. Usually, a 0.6 to 0.6 package is ideal, since it neither too big, nor too small.

Create a Paper Schematic

You can use online schematic creators to formulate a flawless circuit system. These online paper schematic systems allow you to enter components and arrange them into orderly blocks that you find suitable.

These online systems allow you to take what you planned on paper, and replicate it into the computer with the right dimensions. By doing so, you can implement the right techniques and get a better idea of what your circuit will look like. After doing so, you can move over to PCB design and ordering.

PCB Design and Outline

This is the last step of the PCB design, and involves working out the main outline of a PCB circuit. Once you have worked on the design, and ensured that the traces pair well with each other. You can go forward and order that PCB design, and get a replica that is a flawless prototype.

To Conclude

The introduction to online PCB design portals have made it easy and accessible for anyone to create a circuit board that is functioning and durable. However, you still need to have a good idea of design for the most efficient creation. Let us know how we can assist you with your next project.

There’s more than one Reason to Make a Flawless Printed Circuit Board

mwcms on April 12, 2021

A printed circuit board (PCB) is a very critical part of our modern-day electronic equipment. Your basic printed circuit board usually consists of large active and passive components. These components have side-to-side connections with each other that you can see via traces on the board.

You can actually create larger circuits using smaller printed circuit boards using small-sized components. However, you must ensure to make a flawless PCB to make them a perfect choice for any manufacturer of electronic components, equipment, and instruments.

Let us dive right in and see how making a flawless printed circuit board can help.

7 Reason to Create Flawless Printed Circuit Boards

Here are seven of the fundamental but essential reasons why you must create flawless PCBs.

Saves Time and Energy

While traditional circuit board connection methods can take longer to connect each component, the PCB takes less time to assemble a circuit.

Compact Size

If you are designing a characteristically printed circuit board, it will include numerous electronic components. Instead of using current-carrying wires, you use copper tracks to interconnecting the components on a PCB. This gives your PCB finesse, compact design, and lightweight.

A perfect PCB design will offer you a simple platform to arrange sophisticated electronic components in an efficient manner. This compactness enables you to create complicated and bigger electronic circuits in smaller form factors.

Preventing Lose Connections and Short Circuits

Creating a flawlessly printed circuit board will allow you to use copper tracks. This means there will be no chances of any short circuits or loose connections.

Ease To Repair

In case your PCB incurs damage, you can easily run a diagnostic on it to check and replace the failed components. The properly designed printed circuit board has clear labels for each electronic component mentioning their polarities.

This also allows you the convenience to install and/or repair the board and its components.

Reduced Electronic Noise

A printed circuit board produces less electronics noise. The reason is that the organization of the component is so precise that the electrical current’s path between them is as smaller as possible. This translates into low radiation as well as reduced pick up of any electromagnetic waves.

This also ensures minimal crosstalk between any of the electronic components and their varied traces. This is actually a big concern in traditional circuit boards. The electronic noise usually releases in the form of radiation, heat, and flickering sounds.

Cost-Effectiveness and Reliability

Printed Circuit Boards are very cheap to manufacture, especially during mass production. Moreover, they offer reliability to the performance of your circuits.

Fixed Components

One of the most important advantages of designing a flawless printed circuit board is that all the components are firmly fixed to the board. The manufacturers use solder flux, which ensures that the components do not move from their place irrespective of how much you move the board.

Conclusion

Manufacturing a printed circuit board will cost you money. Therefore, you must ensure that you design a flawless specimen instead of getting issues from the assemblers or clients. It would be wise to involve your printed circuit board assemblers’ team from the beginning.

This will allow you to gain valuable insight into how you can start making an impeccable printed circuit board design. Moreover, the assemblers can also give you valuable information about the new practices, trends, and materials to make flawlessly printed circuit boards. The more knowledge you have, the better your printed circuit board will be. In case you are looking for international standards. You can check out the Institute of Printed Circuits (IPC), as they are the global entity setting standards for printed circuit board designing, manufacturing, and assembly. We are also available to consult with you on any of your PCB needs.