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For years, electronic components have been soldered onto printed circuit boards using solder with a lead base. To protect the environment from exposure to lead and other harmful substances, regulations are now in place for certain areas to restrict their use. Here’s more information on what lead free PCB manufacturing is, and why it is important.

Component shortages can happen for a number of reasons, and while some of those can be planned for, others often sneak up behind us when we aren’t expecting them. Here are some of the reasons why the parts you need may be in short supply.

To keep these electronics from being affected by external electromagnetic interference (EMI), or affecting each other, automotive electronics today have to meet specific electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) requirements. To do this, electronics designers for automotive products have to understand what those requirements are, and how best to design for them. Here is a little more information on how you can be prepared for designing to the EMI/EMC standards for automotive electronic components.

In the world of PCB design and manufacturing, the third party contract manufacturer serves an important role. Electronics manufacturers usually have the engineering expertise to design the printed circuit boards, the technical skills to assemble their final products, and the sales and marketing team to sell them. What they don’t have though is the skill, experience, and facilities to manufacture the circuit boards. By using a PCB CM for this task, they can avoid the overhead of PCB manufacturing, allowing them to focus on their core competencies such as engineering and marketing of their products.

There are always events that will have an effect on the PCB component supply chain. Since much of the supply chain depends on overseas manufacturers, it can easily be disrupted by national holidays, political unrest, materials shortages, or problems with shipping. With the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, however, a new set of problems compounded the already complex nature of the supply chain.

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) has been a problem that electronic design has grappled with for as long as printed circuit boards have been built. Depending on the function and design of the electronics, a PCB may produce or fall victim to radiated electromagnetic energy. The goal is to design PCBs so that they will not interfere with each other and have good electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). This means paying attention to five key areas on your design.