Manufacturing

Browse our library of resources to learn more about pcb design and pcb manufacturing.

PCB fabrication notes

Decoding PCB Fabrication Notes Your PCB fabrication notes contain important information that ensures your board can be manufactured exactly as you intend. See what you should include and what these mean. Read Article

Data-Driven Smart Manufacturing

Data-Driven Smart Manufacturing In this episode, Andrew Scheuermann, CEO, and Co-founder of Arch, shares his company’s mission to drive digitization and sustainable innovation in electronics manufacturing. Read Article

PCB manufacturing

How to Compare PCB Manufacturing Services for Your Board Do you know what to look for in PCB manufacturing services? Here are some of the important points to consider before placing your next order. Read Article

Sub-25 Micron Traces with Averatek ASAP Technology

Sub-25 Micron Traces with Averatek ASAP Technology High-density designs, simplified. Averatek offers a disruptive solution for complex electronic design. In this episode, we are very fortunate to have the powerhouse executive team from Averatek Corporation. Watch or listen on the go. Read Article

PCB Trace and Pad Clearance: Low vs. High Voltage

PCB Trace and Pad Clearance: Low vs. High Voltage High voltage/high current designs carry safety requirements which need to be met by designers. Similarly, high speed designs need to have suppressed crosstalk in order to ensure signal integrity. The key design aspects that relate to both areas are your PCB trace clearance and pad clearance values. These design choices are critical for balancing safety, noise suppression, and manufacturability. The IPC 2221 standards provide guidance for Read Article

Via current carrying capacity for PCBs

PCB Via Current-Carrying Capacity: How Hot is Too Hot? One common question from designers, particularly new designers that are learning about industry standards, is current-carrying capacity of conductors in a PCB. Trace and via current-carrying capacity are legitimate design points to focus on when designing a new board that will carry high current. The goal is to keep conductor temperatures below some appropriate limit, which then helps keep components on the board cool. While the recommended Read Article

Industry 4.0 artificial intelligence applications

Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence, and IoT in Manufacturing When it comes to electronics, consumer devices like smartphones and Alexa tend to get all the attention. However, according to Alun Morgan at Ventec International Group, “about 23% of PCBs produced worldwide are used in electronics equipment for manufacturing applications.” The numbers only go up when you include other non-consumer categories that support manufacturing operations, such as automotive, telecom, power generation/distribution, and Read Article

PCB design review

Online PCB Design Review with Altium 365 You can design a PCB any way you like, but if it doesn’t pass a PCB design review and manufacturability checks, then it will never become a real board. A PCB design review is about more than just checking DRCs, it’s about designing to satisfy your manufacturer’s capabilities and processes. PCB design reviews also give the design team a chance to examine manufacturing files and deliverables for any errors before sending data in for fabrication and Read Article

PCB Trace Width vs. Current Table for High Power Designs

PCB Trace Width vs. Current Table for High Power Designs Keep your board cool with our PCB trace width vs. current table Copper is a strong conductor with high melting point, but you should still do your best to keep temperatures low. This is where you’ll need to properly size trace widths to keep temperature within a certain limit. However, this is where you need to consider the current flowing in a given trace. When working with a power rail, high-voltage components and other portions of your board Read Article

Remote BOM Access Makes Work as Easy as Hitting a Button

Remote BOM Access Makes Work as Easy as Hitting a Button It seems like you can’t purchase any electronic device anymore without it coming with a remote control. TVs, radios, and computers all have them, and you can even find them on fireplaces and air conditioners. This is not a complaint, I love having the ability to control things remotely. I have enough years behind me that I remember having to get up and walk over to the TV to change the channel. In my opinion the more remote control the better off Read Article

Take the Fear out of PCB Form Factors with These Four Considerations

Take the Fear out of PCB Form Factors with These Four Considerations Throughout the early 2000’s, we were blessed with an array of new and exciting products, shows, music, and technology. Myspace was just coming into view as one of the top social networking sites of its time, Livestrong bracelets were the most fashionable accessories around, and who could forget the launch of the very first iPod. However cool and hip all these things were, there was one that clearly stood out among the rest: the NBC show Fear Read Article

Riding the Wave: When Wave Soldering is the Best PCB Soldering Process

Riding the Wave: When Wave Soldering is the Best PCB Soldering Process Everybody loves the beach and I am no different. Sitting on the edge of the ocean being mesmerized by the ebb and flow of the water is a favorite pastime of mine. This is especially true when there are surfers riding the waves. It is awesome to watch a huge wave appear intent on engulfing them only to see them emerge upright on their boards having ridden the wave towards the shore. However, when too many surfers are bunched together they are Read Article

Taxes Aren't All You'll Pay Without PCB Manufacturing Process Reviews

Taxes Aren't All You'll Pay Without PCB Manufacturing Process Reviews Some people are afraid of spiders or snakes and I’m afraid of those too, but one of my worst fears is being audited. Now it’s time to start getting organized again and collect on all of my organization last year to make reviewing my notes and preparing for taxes easy. But, wait: my drawer full of notes and important receipts is also full of assorted shopping lists, grocery receipts, home repair goals, and that list I wrote in February for a Read Article

Don't Let Lithography Issues Cast a Shadow on Your PCB Manufacturing

Don't Let Lithography Issues Cast a Shadow on Your PCB Manufacturing Projectors can often be the most annoying piece of technology to work with. You could have a movie night you want to host with an old school projector and some nice, buttery popcorn but be unable to find a spot where the image projected isn’t crooked; you could be trying to give a highly-influential presentation to your peers and bosses, only to encounter that the projector has squished all of your images and graphs; you could be trying to teach Read Article

What Is a Gerber File in the PCB Fabrication Process?

What Is a Gerber File in the PCB Fabrication Process? Aside from the food, the sweaters, and the cheer, what is the most important part of a holiday party? Taking pictures, of course! So when I was getting ready for a holiday party, I retrieved my HD camera to get some better quality shots than what my phone might be able to give me. Though as I pulled the camera out, I realized just how long it’s been since I’ve used it. And just like any technology that you don’t use for a while, I had completely Read Article

Preventing Critical PCB Contamination: There Goes the Boom

Preventing Critical PCB Contamination: There Goes the Boom Ensuring chemical compatibility isn’t always as straightforward as avoiding throwing oil on a fire. When I was an undergrad, I worked in a lab with a heavy emphasis on etching. Processing steps use a range of chemicals, and sometimes these chemicals would not be compatible. One day, a student coworker of mine was hearing weird sounds while etching. After a few minutes, he pulled the fume hood shut and encountered a small explosion from Read Article

Understanding Solder Bridge Shorts: Bake Your Cookie and Eat It Too

Understanding Solder Bridge Shorts: Bake Your Cookie and Eat It Too I love the idea of baking. Especially around the holidays, there’s something thrilling and therapeutic in planning to bake up elaborate platters of cookies and bring them to parties. In reality, what I like is to eat cookie dough. The actual rolling or spooning out cookies onto a pan and waiting for them to bake is an exercise in both tedium and restraint. When I lose my patience, I try to cram as many cookies onto the tray as possible; of course Read Article