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What are IPC standards for PCB Design, PCB Assembly and PCB Fabrication?
IPC standards are electronic design, manufacturing and inspection standards published by IPC, a global trade and standards setting association focused on the electronics industry. IPC’s standards are used worldwide and have been essential to the globalization of the electronics industry. Anyone who designs or manufactures PCB assemblies needs to be familiar with the standards. Most engineers and designers first encounter the IPCstandards in the fabrication notes on PCB drawings or because they have been trained on ubiquitous IPC-A-610 “Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies” which illustrates quality standards for PCB soldering and cleaning. The IPC publishes standards for every aspect of PCB design [1], ...
Basics of Solder Paste selection for PCB Assembly
INTRODUCTION Solder pastes are amorphous putty-like soldering materials used to solder surface-mounted components to the Printed Circuit Board. [1] The effect of solder paste on the PCB’s structural and functional integrity is the paramount factor to consider when deciding on selection of solder paste for application. Many factors which contribute towards the strength of the solder joint and its conduction efficiency need to be addressed as well. This is not just a discussion on what measures and precautions to take during PCB assembly and reflow, but also to put into question what a PCB design [2] engineer should consider ...
Better BGA routing on a Printed Circuit Board with High Density Interconnect
One of the technologies that have allowed electronic products to shrink in size and provide increasingly higher performance is the ball grid array (BGA) IC package. The BGA allows higher density Printed Circuit Board [1] layouts because of simple geometry. The number of pins that can be accommodated on the perimeter of a quad pack increases linearly with package size. The number of connections that can be accommodated on a BGA increases with the square of the package size. BGA packages now routinely exceed 1000 connections, and the ball pitch has shrunk from 1.0 mm to .8 mm to a growing ...
Accelerate your New Product Development with rapid PCB assembly prototyping
The time from concept to prototype has accelerated remarkably in the past decade. 3D printed prototype components in a wide variety of materials are available in hours. Machined or sheet metal components are available from rapid prototype shops in only one or two days. Prototype Printed Circuit Board Fabrication [1] and assembly companies like PNC have followed this trend towards faster prototypes and can now provide complete assemblies in less time than ever before. PNC can fabricate and deliver a bare 10-12-layer PCB in just three days, and a simple double-sided board in just 24 hours. However, even with the streamlining ...
CONFORMAL COATING
What is Conformal Coating? Conformal coating is protective chemical material coating applied after the final SMT PCB assembly [1] or through-hole assembly process. Coatings are comprised of 5 different types, Acrylic, Epoxy, Urethane, Silicone and Parylene resins. Applying the coatings to a PCB board assembly [2]can be done by hand spray, robotic spray, brush or dipping. The coating acts as an additional dielectric layer that provides protection due to environmental and mechanical stresses, such as thermal extremes, chemicals, dust, salt fog, abrasions, and moisture. In a PCB assembly [3] that has close spacing of conductive pathways or close ...