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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.

Quality management systems (QMS) and other PCB certifications will provide customers and partners with the faith that an operation complies with current industry standards and grants operations the knowledge and training to reduce scrap and rework and save on costs.

High current PCB practices need to be employed to keep a board in operation but functioning in lockstep with its design intent to avoid any issues during prototyping or field use.

For those of us that spend most of our time working on schematics and layouts within the virtual world of CAD tools, soldering gives us a chance to interact with the actual hardware of our designs. However, soldering components on a circuit board must be done correctly to avoid problems that could affect the performance of the board or outright damage it. Here is a basic guide of best practices that engineers should know for through-hole soldering.