The first question must surely be why do we need to multilayer a circuit board? The answer is, as with a plated board, to allow more interconnection routes for the designer. As components have become smaller with more connections required, the routeing just gets more and more difficult. When I used to explain plated through […]
I am not sure who came up with the word manufacturability but I like the word, it may have even been me. It describes the ability to manufacture and if a circuit is able to be manufactured easily, it has a cost and quality implication. If you are putting pencil to paper or mouse to […]
There are lots of views on testing circuits from both the PCB manufacturer and the user. As a user, a well worn phrase is ‘’they don’t need testing if you can guarantee they are right.’’ As a manufacturer, you can’t guarantee they are right without a test so the ball is back in that side […]
It has been 20 years since a young man of 30 set up a business to supply PCBs to the electronics industry. To celebrate the founding of the company and the coinciding birthday, do the sums yourself, Steve invited everyone in the workforce to a grand day out in London. So, on Thursday the 5th […]
It seems an obvious statement that once a board is finished, it needs to be shaped to suit enclosures but as usual in the manufacturing of any product, there are options which can impact heavily on the cost. The cheapest and most cost effective shape is a rectangle and this is because it fits on […]
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So, why do we need a solder mask? Well, when we first used circuits to interconnect components the majority of the work was hand processed using soldering irons. The heat was applied to local areas and the chance of shorts was small. As volume use increased, the PCB industry moved on to wave soldering and […]
In the early days of circuit boards, life was simple. You made a silk screen image in negative of your tracks, screen printed them onto copper clad laminate using an etch resist ink, cured the ink, etched the exposed copper off, stripped the ink and hey presto, basically your circuit board. Then came the requirement […]
Thank you for your emails and memories of good old solder finishes but I opened up a question by mentioning undercut and a few of you have asked for a bit of background. Undercut is relatively easy to explain in that when a copper sheet is chemically etched, it is done with a bank of […]
For those of us who can, let us cast our mind back to the days when 12 thou gap and track was still a technological challenge and there was a rumour someone could drill and plate 0.6mm diameter holes. Surface finish was simple in those days. You had roller tin for single sided complete with […]
