It is undoubtedly the goal of this product to have a PCB that can withstand any electrical, mechanical or structural adverse effects throughout its life expectancy. Circuit board construction process. These goals are equally divided between PCB manufacturing and PCB assembly. For manufacturing, the threat is cracking and breaking, while for assembly, the threat is open circuit or short circuit that may damage components and circuit boards. These threats can be alleviated or even eliminated by the best electronic PCB assembly process. What is the best electronic PCB assembly? Let’s answer this question first, and then define a method to ensure its implementation.
What is the best electronic PCB assembly?
Printed circuit board components or PCBA account for about half of PCB development and manufacturing steps. In fact, all these things are focused on preparing the board for component installation, actually installing the components or ensuring that the components are firmly installed. Follow these steps to meet your general requirements of surface mount technology (SMT) or through-hole components, in most cases. However, the following steps can’t guarantee that the manufacturing of circuit boards will meet the quality, reliability or speed targets.
Except for the simplest circuit, all circuit board designs usually have constraints, restrictions or special conditions that PCB development must follow. These may include or belong to one of the following:
Delivery schedule restriction
For many designers, one of the most important aspects is the manufacturing turnaround time. CM’s ability to quickly build boards will greatly affect the development cycle time.
Operation life cycle
If your design is used for critical systems, such as Class 3 medical equipment, then reliability is particularly important, because system failure may lead to false diagnosis or even loss of life.
Component restrictions
Many industries and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have strict requirements for components that can be used in their systems. For example, the military and its suppliers, the aerospace industry, require the supply chain to be recorded to avoid counterfeit components.
Quality acceptance level (AQL) limit
Quality should always be the first priority because it will affect your production level and return on investment (ROI). However, some customers have higher standards, which may be due to environmental or extended deployment concerns.
Manufacturability level
Depending on the system your circuit board belongs to, there are various manufacturing levels of acceptable performance. The highest requirement is IPC-6011, which is the level defined by PCB. The requirement for assembly is to minimize defects and ensure that end users can rely on its high-level performance.
Yield target
Another important index that directly affects the cost of product development is the rate of return, that is, the ratio of the available board to the actually built board. Maximizing this rate is and should be the production goal of every design, because it plays an important role in determining your profit margin.
Test requirements
The only way to evaluate the board’s ability to achieve its expected goals is through testing. This test may be a design test to evaluate the design or a manufacturing test to evaluate the physical characteristics of the board of directors in the following ways.
Regulations and standards
All circuit boards are controlled by laws and regulations. At a minimum, there are standards about the structure and material of the board. There are also quality management and risk mitigation. If your PCB will be used in sensitive or critical systems (e.g. medical equipment and aerospace systems), this standard is the standard.
Since electronic PCB assembly is the final stage of circuit board manufacturing, it takes on the role of verifying that your circuit board meets all applicable standards (such as those listed above). Therefore, the best electronic PCB assembly depends not only on the process of firmly connecting components, but also on the ability to identify design and manufacturing defects, which will make it difficult or impossible to achieve good and safe connection.
How do you ensure the best electronic PCB assembly?
Functionally, electronic PCB assembly is performed by the contract manufacturer (CM). However, your CM is limited by the data and information you provide. Therefore, your design decision plays a vital role in the assembly process. Following the following suggestions will greatly help your CM to achieve the best electronic PCB assembly for your design.
Suggestions on the best electronic PCB assembly
Select the right components-Purchase components from reliable sources and plan for possible shortages.
Make sure your design package is accurate and complete-the best rule of thumb is to be clear when designing data. This includes not only materials, layout and stacking, but also images, instructions and any special considerations.
Make sure your BOM matches your layout-check carefully to avoid the mismatch between the component package and BOM component package. Otherwise, you may face board delay and extended turnaround time.
Use SMT and avoid using through-hole components as much as possible-soldering surface mount devices (SMD) and through-hole components are different processes; Therefore, both processes take a longer time, and when many components become through holes, it takes a longer time.
Using single-sided component placement-Similar to using different welding techniques, top and bottom installation takes longer than single-sided installation.
Follow the assembly design (DFA) criteria-the application of DFA is very important for assembly optimization. Failure to do so may cost you valuable time to make design corrections.
