Valley Services Electronics

The Gerber file is used to fabricate the raw circuit board. To help you to be better prepared, here’s a look at how Gerber files are explained and how they’re used in the manufacturing of your PCB.

If a high voltage develops between exposed metal on a PCB, electrostatic discharge can occur if the charge exceeds the threshold for dielectric breakdown; this material failure damages components and, in extreme cases, causes board conflagration. Creepage and clearance limits between exposed metal on your PCB are codified in critical industry standards for observation during…

No circuit operates without power; current can only flow through a closed loop, and some energy is necessary to power the electronics. Power supply design and the power distribution network (PDN) are critical to circuits, yet less thought goes into what happens to the PDN when circuit conditions fluctuate. Rarely does a circuit operate solely…

Despite the industry’s best efforts, a large gulf between PCB designers and manufacturers can exist. Often, most designers come from an academic background that provides broad electrical engineering knowledge that they must apply to the specific case of PCB design. On the other hand, manufacturers start from the specificity of equipment, processes, and regulations to…

As signal speeds increase on printed circuit boards, their potential for emitting or being victimized by noise and interference intensifies. Layout steps are necessary to clear the signal’s pathways, including arranging the board stackup in microstrip or stripline configurations to achieve the best signal integrity. This setup protects sensitive high-speed signals from much noise and…

During PCB layout, designers typically have to indicate the impedance of traces to ensure a proper balance of low-loss characteristics and power-handling capabilities. Before layout, the designer determines the trace width in some field solver software based on the desired impedance and other stackup factors like the surrounding substrates‘ dielectric constant(s) and the distance between…