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© 2016 PCB design & manufacturing 2 PCB fabrication Material prepar ation SMTReflow Testing & QA 5 steps to design and manufacture PCBA

© 2016 Things to know before starting the PCB design: 1. PCB size – this depends on your product size. 2. PCB layers – the more layers, the more complex the manufacturing of the PCB will be. o 2 layers for simple toy products o 4 layers for IoT related products o 6 to 8 layers for smart phones or smart watches 3. PCB manufacturer requirements. Make sure you read the guidelines about spacing, trace size, power isolation, and file naming before you start designing. 3 Step 1: PCB fabrication

© 2016 Information you will need to provide to PCB manufacturer:  Number of Layers (ex. 2, 4, 6,…etc.)  Material (FR-2 (phenolic cotton paper), FR-3 (cotton paper and epoxy), FR-4 (woven glass and epoxy…etc.)  Thickness (0.5 mm, 1.0 mm…etc.)  Color (Red, Black, Green…etc.)  Surface Finish (ENIG (Electroless Nickel/Immersion Gold), DIG (Direct Immersion Gold), OSP (Organic Solderability Preservatives…etc.)  Copper Weight (1 oz (35 um), 2 oz (70 um), 0.5 oz (18 um)…etc.)  Gerber file 4 Step 1: PCB fabrication

© 2016 Step 2: Material preparation 5 Once you have components selected, you can ask your PCBA manufacturer to order them for you or you can do it yourself. Things to keep in mind: Order components in reels for SMT machine automatic pick-up, not in separate packages. Check MOQ of your component. If you’re buying less than the minimum, make sure the selected components are in-stock. Order 10% more to account for losses (this does not apply to the expensive components).

© 2016 Step 2: Material preparation Keep in mind lead time, it can be up to 8-16 weeks for some components. For small quantities (up to 50) you can order online from DigiKey or Mouser.DigiKey Mouser For bigger quantities, ask your manufacturer for recommendations 6

© 2016 Step 3: SMT and Through-hole There are two main methods for placing components on the PCB surface: o Through-hole (thru-hole) is manual method of fitting components with wire leads into hole on the PCB surface. It is also often called DIP or Dual In-line Package process. o SMT (Surface Mount Technology) method is the most widely used in mass manufacturing. It is done by fast and precise SMT machines that save you time, money, and avoid human error. 7

© 2016 SMT machine 8

© 2016 Step 3: SMT and Thru-hole Things to remember: Your component type number should not exceed the number of reels the SMT machines of your manufacturer can support. Optimize and consolidate your components, so to have just one SMT run. Check what footprint pad sizes your manufacturer supports. Otherwise the SMT machine will not be able to mount the components correctly. Some bigger components cannot be mounted by the machine and still need manual thru-hole work. Thus, both of these technologies can be used on the same board. Any components that you will need to add manually with thru-hole method, will add to the manufacturing cost SMT machine in action YouTube videoSMT machine in action YouTube video. 9

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© 2016 Step 4: Reflow soldering 11 Reflow soldering is a process that makes the components “stick” to the PCB. The PCBA goes through a reflow oven or an infrared lamp that heats up the board until the solder melts, permanently connecting the components to the board. The tricky part here is not overheating or damaging the components, as each package has a different thermal profile. A reliable PCBA manufacturer will take care of this process and all you need is to provide the component specifications to them.

© 2016 Reflow ovens 12

© 2016 Step 4: Other soldering methods 13 Wave soldering is mostly used for the components added manually using the thru-hole method. In these cases, your PCBA will first go through reflow oven and then after adding other components manually, it will go through a wave soldering machine. Iron soldering can be used in specific cases, but not usually in mass manufacturing.

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© 2016 Step 5: Testing & QA 15 Most common tests are: ICT (In-circuit Test). When you design a PCB, you often will reserve some test points for debugging, programming, and other purposes. The ICT machine will use these test points to do open/short tests and will check if the values of the passive components, resistor, inductors, and capacitors are within specifications. AOI (Automatic Optical Inspection). The manufacturers use a “golden sample” – a reference PCBA to compare with others. For this test, the hardware creators will need to provide specifications and tolerance measurements to the manufacturer to set the parameters for the test. X-ray test. The PCBA manufacturers will use X-ray to check the soldering conditions for BGA components that cannot be seen in an optical test.

© KingBrotherKingBrother is a Shenzhen based PCB manufacturer providing PCBs for UAV, medical, and other industries for almost 20 years. They offer rapid PCB fabrication and assembly services. They accept orders as small as 1 PCB and they can do complex PCBs up to 30 layers.

© NexPCB Program PathfinderNexPCB Program Pathfinder. They have turn-key PCB solutions, which is especially good if you have limited knowledge about PCB design and you just want it to work. NexPCB offers 10% discount on its PCB layout design and turnkey solutions for HWTrek creators.

© HQPCB Program FlashHQPCB Program Flash. This program is best if you're in a hurry and want to verify the basic functions and design in a very short time-frame. They can get the PCB fabricated in 3-4 days or in special cases in 24 hours. They accept orders as small as 1 PCB.

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