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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…

Even small-lot PCB manufacturing relies on automated solder deposition processes to expedite the assembly process while providing greater consistency in solder application/joint reliability. Solder masking is necessary to prevent unintentional bridging of exposed copper and enhance the reliability of copper features that do not require atmospheric exposure. Using a carefully cut stencil, manufacturers apply an…

Electronics manufacturers must understand the difference between HASL vs. ENIG when specifying their PCB fabrication to meet their requirements.

High-density pinout components using a package-on-package (PoP) construction, most notably ball grid arrays (BGAs), feature pitch (pin-to-pin distances) much smaller than historical standards. Given their proliferation in modern electronics due to their broad functionality, designers and manufacturers have had to adapt processes to accommodate the tighter pitches. Fine-pitch PCB design focuses on how layout and…