Designing guidelines for PCBs!

Printed circuit board is a key element used in the manufacturing of electronic products used in different industrial area. We can say that PCBs are the basic building blocks make an electronic unit functional.

A printed circuit board itself is constituted using variety of, large and small, electronic elements that collaboratively exhibit the function of the product.

The fabrication of PCBs needs a professional designer or engineer to come with a design that will work according to the product prototype. Professional designers first create a schematic for the circuit that will give you a close idea of the actual circuitry that will be etched on the board using that diagram (or schematic).

PCB manufacturing companies rely on professional engineers for the fabrication of these electronic units. The skilled design professionals ensure that the printed circuit board will be manufactured keeping in mind various standards and techniques, and the blueprint of the model will be exactly transferred to the board.

In order to ensure that PCB will work successfully, it is good to follow some guidelines, although nothing can substitute the knowledge and experience:

PCB design guidelines:

Listed below are some guiding principles that will help to design and layout a PCB. These guidelines are divided into different section as follows:

Board constraint design guiding principles:

• The selection of right reference points that costume the fabrication process. They most important thing is to have reference holes on the substrate. These points are used to place machines and examine fixtures. Choose these pints in such as way they complement the manufacturing process of PCB. They may be in the form of holes for machines or may be in the form of cross points for sensors.
•  The area of the board should be sufficient for the circuit. The length and breadth of the circuit board will define the size of the final product. Therefore, it is important to make estimation about the size of the board so that it can accommodate all components and pathways needed to design the desired circuit and also give you the final product of the required size.
• Determine whether it is a single layer, double layer, or multiple layers printed circuit board that your project needs. Also, if it is a multilayer board then how many layers it needs to fabricate the comprehensive PCB as per client’s requirement specifications?
• An important fact to know that increase in the number of layers will also increase the production costs. When the circuit is complex, it is not possible to etch all needed tacks on the single substrate. Adding layers the job of etching pathways become much simple.
•  The next thing that you need to consider is element mounting techniques. There are different types of mounting techniques, such as surface mount technology, through-hole technology etc.
• PCB manufacturing companies facilitates the professional designing will give you a standard design and fully-functional printed circuit board.

Different processes of PCB assembly process!

PCB assembly a very common term that most of us listen today; especially those people who are surrounded by electronic equipment and products. However, still there are few others who are not aware of it. So for them this article would help enlighten few facts about it:

Basically, PCB comprise of various components that are put together to enable the functioning of device. However, the whole process is quite complicated and long one which is needed to be carried out carefully by the manufacturing company. Various multi-stages are carried during the PCB assembly service that includes placing of components of board, soldering them, inspect and lastly test them for working.

The foremost and basic step that is followed by the manufacturer company is ordering of silicon and other semiconductors, further which are then transformed into electronic chips. These chips are then integrated onto a printed circuit board for its working or operation.

Now let’s have a detailed look at the different processes carried under PCB Assembly Services:

Solder Paste Printing: Once the chips are prepared they are needed to be pasted on the board, during the soldering method. Basically, during this process, binding of material is done on the board.

SMT pick and place assembly: On each assembly line, chips are placed appropriately or accurately on their designated places. This is done in order to have proper functioning of device.

Reflow/Through-hole curing: So as to bind the chips properly on the board, hole curing method is performed after soldering is done. This helps to bind the chips more firmly on the board.

Conformal Coating: After the chips are soldered and placed properly, boards are covered with a protective layer coating so that they are not affected by the harmful materials or other things. Usually, conformal selective coating is done by the machines that provides protective layer to the board.

AOI and AXI: In order to get assured that no mistakes are there on the board, inspection process is also carried out during the assembly process. This method is particularly known as Automatic Optical Inspection and Automated X-ray Inspection. After soldering and pasting is done, this method is vital to perform and therefore, PCB manufacturers never miss out to leave this process of inspection.

Reworking: During the inspection, if any defect is detected then that is corrected before the board is sent out for construction. During the reworking process, board is heated, chips are removed and replacement is made with the right chips or semiconductors. Once the chips are soldered then again the inspection process is carried out in order to ensure that now the replaced board is working properly.

Fabrication of printed circuited board and its assembling is a very cumbersome and challenging task. It is generally outsourced by business to the assembly service providers. So make sure to find out the most reliable company for PCB Assembly Manufacturing .