Valley Services Electronics

The question on everyone’s mind now is how long these shortages will continue. OEMs want to return to full production of their products, manufacturers want to supply customers’ demand, and end-users want access to the latest products. Here we’ll look at the electronics parts shortage, how it is affecting the printed circuit board industry and some ways that designers can work around these problems.

A four-layer PCB layout involves some practices that differ intensively from a more populated board. Fortunately, most 4-layer PCB layouts exist on the less complicated side of the design spectrum. As in all things, form follows function, and the designer should be well aware of the limitations of a four-layer stackup and how best to maximize their space to excel during the design phase.

The implementation of RoHS has greatly reduced the presence of dangerous metals and chemicals that may eventually escape their packaging and be a downstream health concern to local fauna and flora. However, the industry is multitudinous enough in its applications that a RoHS compliant PCB is not always the best solution. In cases where RoHS materials would directly impact human health and safety, it is far more important to support the reliability and operational stability of the device.

Just as the ABCs are the basics of English language skills, other skills also rely on basic principles or ABCs. One of these is circuit board design and layout. Although PCB design encompasses various board types and design technologies, some basic ABCs still apply. Here is a list of the ABCs of PCB design basics that can help engineers avoid problems and create successful designs.

PCB repair functions much in the same way: given a large enough production lot or a long field life, a board will inevitably need maintenance. Rework before field usage is also critical, and some amount during manufacturing is always expected. In either case, technicians should be able to identify some of the common modes of failure for PCBs to more quickly and effectively reduce downtime for boards and return them to operation.

The RoHS requirements restricted the use of certain toxic materials during manufacturing, forcing changes in processes, materials, and components used in building electronics. Although this was a difficult change to incorporate, it has since been accomplished successfully by many PCB contract manufacturers. Here, we’ll look at the RoHS PCB manufacturing requirements in place today and how PCB CMs work with these regulations in producing circuit boards.