Technical Library | 2020-05-28 02:19:28.0
Properly functioning printed circuit boards are essential for both manufacturers of electronic devices and also the developers if the overall intent is for the electronic device to function at high capacity. From designing the schematics of the printed circuit boards to testing the products, there is no process of PCB manufacturing and/or assembly that can be taken for granted. While it's true that you can attempt this process on your own, especially if you are in possession of a large scale manufacturing facility, here are a few reasons why it would be a better option to opt for a professional company for PCB manufacturing and assembly. 1. Variety A professional printed circuit boards manufacturing company will be able to offer you a huge variety. You will be able to choose from rigid, flexible, or rigid-flex. What's more, the PCBs will be customized as per the need of the application. 2. Quality Professional and good printed circuit board manufacturing and assembling companies might cost you just a little bit extra but they also guarantee to produce the best results and offer very high quality products. In the end, it is quality that will make the difference between mediocre and a high functioning PCB. 3. Cost Efficiency Since you don't have to waste time or resources on buying equipment to produce the best PCBs or hiring staff to oversee the process, you can actually end up saving money. You can even save on PCB assembly cost by hiring this job out. All you have to do is to negotiate the quote and sit back, relax, and wait for the PCBs to be delivered to you. 4. Eliminate Design Flaws Design engineers hired by PCB manufacturing and assembling companies use the best graphic software to develop and test the schematics of PCBs. This increases the chances of eliminating flaws in the printed circuit boards during the initial design phase. 5. Multilayer PCB Manufacturing and Assembly The process of manufacturing and assembling multilayer PCBs is as intricate as it sounds. All processes of manufacturing and assembling multilayer PCBs require the best machines and trained technicians to pass the quality and functionality tests. Manufacturing and assembling multilayer printed circuit boards yourself is going to cost you a lot. Even the smallest of mistakes during the manufacturing and assembling process might render the entire PCB entirely useless. 6. Save Time PCBs are just a single part of the electronic device. To complete the device, many more pieces would be needed. The manufacturers of the electronic device can hire out the job of manufacturing or assembling the PCBs, which will mean they will have one less chore to do. This, in turn, will save you a lot of time which could be spent on elevating the quality of the product. 7. Experience Experience makes all the difference. It is what makes the name of any company reliable in the market. Long experience of manufacturing and assembling printed circuit boards makes the company well versed in the process and it also makes it an expert to identify design, manufacturing, assembling, and testing needs of certain applications We, at Asia Pacific Circuits, offer these benefits and so much more. For quick turn PCB assembly, PCB manufacturing and PCB designing, you can contact us anytime.
Technical Library | 2016-11-30 15:53:15.0
The use of microvias in Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) for military hardware is increasing as technology drives us toward smaller pitches and denser circuitry. Along with the changes in technology, the industry has changed and captive manufacturing lines are few and far between. As PCBs get more complicated, the testing we perform to verify the material was manufactured to our requirements before they are used in an assembly needs to be reviewed to ensure that it is sufficient for the technology and meets industry needs to better screen for long-term reliability. The Interconnect Stress Testing (IST) protocol currently used to identify manufacturing issues in plated through holes, blind, or buried vias are not necessarily sufficient to identify problems with microvias. There is a need to review the current IST protocol to determine if it is adequate for finding bad microvias or if there is a more reliable test that will screen out manufacturing inconsistencies. The objective of this research is to analyze a large population of PCB IST coupons to determine if there is a more effective IST test to find less reliable microvias in electrically passing PCB product and to screen for manufacturing deficiencies. The proposed IST test procedure will be supported with visual inspection of corresponding microvia cross sections and Printed Wiring Assembly (PWA) acceptance test results. The proposed screening will be shown to only slightly affect PCB yield while showing a large benefit to screening before PCBs are used in an assembly.
Technical Library | 2023-11-14 19:52:11.0
The continuous drive in the Electronics industry to build new and innovative products has caused competitive design companies to develop assemblies with consolidated PCB designs, decreased physical sizes, and increased performance characteristics. As a result of these new designs, manufacturers of electronics are forced to contend with many challenges. One of the most significant challenges being the processing of thru-hole components on high thermal mass PCBs having the potential to exceed 20 layers in thicknesses and have copper mass contents of over 40oz. High thermal mass PCBs, coupled with the use of mixed technologies, decreased component spacing, and the change from Tin Lead Solder to Lead Free Alloys has lead many manufacturing facilities to purchase advanced soldering equipment to process challenging assemblies with a high degree of repeatability.
Technical Library | 2024-09-02 17:31:09.0
The cracking and delamination of printed circuit boards (PCB) during exposure to elevated thermal exposure, such as reflow and rework, have always been a concern for the electronics industry. However, with the increasing spread of Pb-free assembly into industries with lower volume and higher complexity, the occurrence of these events is increasing in frequency. Several telecom and enterprise original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have reported that the robustness of their PCBs is their number one concern during the transition from SnPb to Pb-free product. Cracking and delamination within PCBs can be cohesive or adhesive in nature and can occur within the weave, along the weave, or at the copper/epoxy interface (see Figure 1). The particular role of moisture absorption and other PCB material properties, such as out of plane expansion on this phenomenon is still being debated.
Technical Library | 2015-07-16 17:24:23.0
Qualification of electronic hardware from a corrosion resistance standpoint has traditionally relied on stressing the hardware in a variety of environments. Before the development of tests based on mixed flowing gas (MFG), hardware was typically exposed to temperature-humidity cycling. In the pre-1980s era, component feature sizes were relatively large. Corrosion, while it did occur, did not in general degrade reliability. There were rare instances of the data center environments releasing corrosive gases and corroding hardware. One that got a lot of publicity was the corrosion by sulfur-bearing gases given off by data center carpeting. More often, corrosion was due to corrosive flux residues left on as-manufactured printed circuit boards (PCBs) that led to ion migration induced electrical shorting. Ion migration induced failures also occurred inside the PCBs due to poor laminate quality and moisture trapped in the laminate layers.
Technical Library | 2015-02-12 13:32:52.0
Market forces, particularly legislation against the use of lead in electronics, have driven electronics manufacturers towards lead-free solders for PCB assembly and rework. This approach creates challenges because of the relatively high temperatures needed for lead-free soldering. Additionally, lead-free solder alloys typically do not wet or wick as easily as Sn63Pb37 leaded types. As PCBs often include both BGAs and simpler discrete devices, a lead-free rework capability should include a suitable soldering station and a BGA rework station. This article shows how such equipment can be adapted to overcome the lead-free issues and provide a successful reworking facility.
Technical Library | 2021-09-15 19:00:35.0
This paper presents the use of physics of failure (PoF) methodology to infer fast and accurate lifetime predictions for power electronics at the printed circuit board (PCB) level in early design stages. It is shown that the ability to accurately model silicon–metal layers, semiconductor packaging, printed circuit boards (PCBs), and assemblies allows, for instance, the prediction of solder fatigue failure due to thermal, mechanical, and manufacturing conditions. The technique allows a lifecycle prognosis of the PCB, taking into account the environmental stresses it will encounter during the period of operation. Primarily, it involves converting an electronic computer aided design (eCAD) circuit layout into computational fluid dynamic (CFD) and finite element analysis (FEA) models with accurate geometries. From this, stressors, such as thermal cycling, mechanical shock, natural frequency, and harmonic and random vibrations, are applied to understand PCB degradation, and semiconductor and capacitor wear, and accordingly provide a method for high-fidelity power PCB modelling, which can be subsequently used to facilitate virtual testing and digital twinning for aircraft systems and sub-systems.
Technical Library | 2020-10-27 02:07:31.0
For companies that choose to take the Pb-free exemption under the European Union's RoHS Directive and continue to manufacture tin-lead (Sn-Pb) electronic products, there is a growing concern about the lack of Sn-Pb ball grid array (BGA) components. Many companies are compelled to use the Pb-free Sn-Ag-Cu (SAC) BGA components in a Sn-Pb process, for which the assembly process and solder joint reliability have not yet been fully characterized. A careful experimental investigation was undertaken to evaluate the reliability of solder joints of SAC BGA components formed using Sn-Pb solder paste. This evaluation specifically looked at the impact of package size, solder ball volume, printed circuit board (PCB) surface finish, time above liquidus and peak temperature on reliability. Four different BGA package sizes (ranging from 8 to 45 mm2) were selected with ball-to-ball pitch size ranging from 0.5mm to 1.27mm. Two different PCB finishes were used: electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG) and organic solderability preservative (OSP) on copper. Four different profiles were developed with the maximum peak temperatures of 210oC and 215oC and time above liquidus ranging from 60 to 120 seconds using Sn-Pb paste. One profile was generated for a lead-free control. A total of 60 boards were assembled. Some of the boards were subjected to an as assembled analysis while others were subjected to an accelerated thermal cycling (ATC) test in the temperature range of -40oC to 125oC for a maximum of 3500 cycles in accordance with IPC 9701A standard. Weibull plots were created and failure analysis performed. Analysis of as-assembled solder joints revealed that for a time above liquidus of 120 seconds and below, the degree of mixing between the BGA SAC ball alloy and the Sn-Pb solder paste was less than 100 percent for packages with a ball pitch of 0.8mm or greater. Depending on package size, the peak reflow temperature was observed to have a significant impact on the solder joint microstructural homogeneity. The influence of reflow process parameters on solder joint reliability was clearly manifested in the Weibull plots. This paper provides a discussion of the impact of various profiles' characteristics on the extent of mixing between SAC and Sn-Pb solder alloys and the associated thermal cyclic fatigue performance.
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