Technical Library | 2013-04-12 08:20:15.0
There is much to read about the shifting sands of electronics manufacturing, including current moves by OEMs to alter their EMS relationships to better mitigate risk and cost, while EMS companies look for additional ways in which to adjust their business models in an attempt to improve their profitability. Electronics outsourcing over time evolved from a means to buffer manufacturing demand fluctuations into a wide scale shift in capabilities, in part in order to deal with vastly shorter product life cycles. Following the global economic crash of 2000, aka “the internet bubble,” more and more EMS providers responded by transferring their manufacturing to low cost labour regions, and in particular China.
Technical Library | 2014-01-23 16:49:55.0
As reliability requirements increase, especially for defense and aerospace applications, the need to characterize components used in electronic assembly also increases. OEM and EMS companies look to perform characterizations as early as possible in the process to be able to limit quality related issues and improve both assembly yields and ultimate device reliability. In terms of BGA devices, higher stress conditions, RoHS compatible materials and increased package densities tend to cause premature failures in intermetallic layers. Therefore it is necessary to have a quantitative and qualitative test methodology to address these interfaces.
Technical Library | 2012-03-15 17:50:28.0
The competition in the EMS sector has considerably intensified over the last few years,. The enormous pressure to reduce production costs, which every service provider today has to face, frequently forces the organization to have a critical look at their
Technical Library | 2010-08-19 17:50:32.0
This article looks at each of the roles of the engineer and PCB designer, considers the traditional design process, and makes suggestions on how the designer can contribute significantly to improving a design’s overall signal integrity while simultaneousl
Technical Library | 2019-10-18 10:37:25.0
It usually does not make any logic to invest in costly fabrication equipment in case you just desire to spin some prototypes and rather outsource your Printed Circuit Board assembly as well as prototype fabrication to a trustworthy vendor. I would provide a few tips as to what to consider when seeking a contract manufacturer. The two most common procedures associated with Printed Circuit Board Assembly are through-hole technology and surface mount technology. Talking about the difference between through-hole technology and surface mount technology. Through-hole elements have metal leads, & these metal leads are supplied through-plated holes inside the circuit board. On the other hand, SMT elements might or might not have leads, nevertheless most significantly, they are developed to be soldered onto the surface of the circuit boards straight on the same side as the element body. A lot of contract manufacturers would provide a quick quote mechanism over their site for the fabrication of circuit boards as well as assembly of prototypes. This would bank your time when comparing various vendors. Ensure that the quote system facilitates you to fill your details, for instance, board material, thickness, copper thickness, milling, etc. in order that you can avail of a precise quote devoid of any surprises afterward. And this is quite necessary. Typically the cost per board would decline as quality upgrades. This is owing to the fairly high setup price of circuit board fabrication over and above component assembly. A few vendors would employ a system where they unite boards from various consumers. This manner the setup price would be circulated among numerous clients. When you fabricate an item, you clearly don’t desire to have to fabricate a big quantity of boards straight away whilst you improve your design. One restriction with small quantity prototypes though is that the option of materials & material thicknesses would be constrained. In case you are employing a particular material then opportunities are there will not be any other clients employing the same material. Additionally, lead time plays a major role in indecisive prices. A longer lead time facilitates the fabricator more liberty in slotting your fabrication. This is basically reflected in cheaper prices that would view in the quote section. Clearly, if you are in a hurry and desire to be moved to the summit of the pile you would require splurging more dollars. Ensure that your contract fabricator would support the file sort for producing which you offer. The most general format for printed circuit board fabrication is the Gerber format nonetheless a few vendors would moreover embrace board files from general printed circuit board software products. A few suppliers also provide in house printed circuit design. Even in case, you create your board yourself, choosing a vendor with design services might prove resourceful in case there is an issue with your files. In this scenario, your vendor could make swift changes that would neglect pricey delays. If you are looking for an Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS Assembly) provider, then the web is the best to search.
Technical Library | 2023-11-20 17:42:33.0
Zero-defect strategies and increased demands on the production of assemblies are making quality assurance in electronics production increasingly important. Continous miniaturization of components, ever higher packing densities and the associated hard-to-view assembly areas, as well as the increased use of components such as BGAs, QFNs and QFPs, pose a considerable challenge when it comes to high-precision quality control.
Technical Library | 2014-08-19 16:07:15.0
Warpage management consists of planning, measuring, analyzing, sharing, and reacting to data related to the surface shapes of electronics components as they change throughout the reflow assembly process. Leading semiconductor manufacturers have had warpage management systems in place for ten years or more, mainly because microchip package warpage must be understood and compensated for in order to attain high assembly yields. Similarly, newer device architectures such as package-on-package and system-on-a-chip are sensitive to warpage-related assembly issues, and companies involved in the manufacture and assembly of these devices tend to have the most advanced warpage management programs.
Technical Library | 2015-12-14 13:40:04.0
A Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is a software program that manages and monitors production work in a factory. The MES controls and monitors all manufacturing data in real time, so there is no guesswork as to the status of any given job, machine, operator, etc. The focus is on short-interval scheduling (shift or day) with an emphasis on optimizing the distribution of work orders. Larger manufacturers have employed MES’s for years but many small to medium sized enterprises (SME’s) have yet to adopt such systems. The benefits of using an MES are many. Looking forward, I predict that even the smallest manufacturing companies will employ MES systems in the future.
Technical Library | 2018-03-05 11:17:31.0
In order to comply with RoHS and WEEE directives, many circuit assemblers are transitioning some or all of their soldering processes from tin-lead to lead-free within the upcoming year. There are no drop-in replacement alloys for tin-lead solder, which is driving a fundamental technology change. This change is forcing manufacturers to take a closer look at everything associated with the assembly process: board and component materials, logistics and materials management, solder alloys and processing chemistries, and even soldering methods. Do not expect a dramatic change in soldering behavior when moving to lead-free solders. The melting points of the alloys are higher, but at molten temperatures the different alloys show similar behaviors in a number of respects. Expect subtler changes, especially near the edges of a process window that is assumed based on tin-lead experience rather than defined through lead-free experimentation. These small changes, many of them yet to be identified and understood, will manifest themselves with lower assembly yields. The key to keeping yields up during the transition to lead-free is quickly learning what and where the subtle distinctions are, and tuning the process to accommodate them.
Technical Library | 2015-06-18 12:42:57.0
In the recent past, the Light Emitting Diode (LED) was hailed as the new energy efficient light source that would never have to be replaced. There were claims of 50,000+ hrs lifetime for the humble LED. That story has changed over the last few years as the number and diversity of the LED based products has increased. This is not to say that the original evidence was incorrect, but the initial enthusiastic estimates from the labs did not match the ultimate test, customers. As a result of poor quality products affecting the overall opinion of LED based products, it is critical that manufacturers can be confident in the quality of their product. In current times we want to have products certified, checked and ensure that we have the best quality. For the purposes of this paper we will look at one aspect of LED product, and this is the Lumen maintenance and estimated lifetime. The method described here does not seek to replace using high quality rating labs, but hopefully will allow the manufacturer to know with confidence that their prototype product, upon going to certification labs will be of a high enough quality that no expensive re-designs are required.
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