Reflow Soldering

Reflow soldering is the modern mechanism for assembling most printed circuit boards today. It enables mass production at a very rapid rate by allowing placement of the components to be separated from the actual soldering process. This process is somewhat different from how somebody would solder by hand. When you’re hand soldering you’re treating one component individually and applying heat to each component at a time so the technique has to be a little bit different.

Reflow soldering is the most common method of attaching surface mount components to a circuit board, although it can also be used for through-hole components by filling the holes with solder paste and inserting the component leads through the paste. Because wave soldering can be simpler and cheaper, reflow is not generally used on pure through-hole boards. When used on boards containing a mix of SMT and THT components, through-hole reflow allows the wave soldering step to be eliminated from the assembly process, potentially reducing assembly costs.

The goal of the reflow process is to melt the solder and heat the adjoining surfaces, without overheating and damaging the electrical components. In the conventional reflow soldering process, there are usually four stages, called "zones", each having a distinct thermal profile: preheat, thermal soak, reflow, and cooling.

Soldering Irons

Soldering irons, a simple iron and a temperature-controlled one, need different wattages while working.

A 30-watt simple soldering iron is okay for modest electronics. Soldering ordinary through hole electronic components and thin wire, even the thin metal legs on direct current power plugs and sockets, should be fine.

While a temperature-controlled soldering iron needs much higher power than a simple iron, for example 80W or more. This allows it to maintain a relatively constant soldering temperature even it is being used at the same time, and heat parts with larger thermal conduction or capacity. It won't slow down an operator, and is a bit more flexible on what it can be used for than a simple iron. That is very important on a production line, or where a lot of soldering joints need to be made relatively rapidly. However, a simple iron is likely to drop too far below adequate soldering temperature, and slow the operator down which will cause boss much loss. 

PCB Design

With the rapid development of the latest technologies, it no doubt that in every few months, you can see a new “product for future” launched and it can really revolutionize how we live our lives. With advances in technology for consumer products, especially in the transportation and communications fields, we are now able to do more than we ever thought possible even a few years ago. As more and more products use printed circuit boards to get the job done, expands its capabilities and continues to grow in order to manufacture the top PCBs for your products and projects. Rather than being limited by the hardware available, you will be limited by just your imagination in the design process. Don’t worry about that, designers in EPCB can give you the most suitable suggestion for your design. 

Electronic Board Types

The term for an electronic board is a circuit board. There are three main types of circuit boards: printed circuit boards, stripboards and breadboards.

A printed circuit board functions by connecting various electronic parts in an electric device and providing them with mechanical support. It does this through conductive tracks, pads and laminated copper components. The printed circuit board is the most popular type of electronic board, and it can be found in most common electronic devices, including cell phones, radios and televisions.

A stripboard circuit contains a grid of holes bored into a plastic board and aligned copper strips on the other side of the board plastic. Circuit connections created on a stripboard are permanent. To create a system of connections on the board, the engineer therefore needs to manually solder in the copper strips that form the circuit. Stripboards are more ideal for smaller electronic connection needs.

A breadboard is a perforated plastic board with layers of metal alloy clips underneath the perforated plastic. It is quick and simple to construct. Unlike a stripboard, it is reusable, as a breadboard circuit can be adjusted by linking wires and leads to different holes each time a new circuit system is required.

Soldering Components on a Stripboard

A stripboard is a circuit board with holes and printed strips of metal. These boards are a good way of connecting simple to medium complicated circuits. Beginners are highly recommended to use stripboards in the beginning because you can control your connections and relatively easy to fix errors.

Soldering components on a stripboard: On the back side of the stripboard you can see several strips of metal which connect the holes either vertically or horizontally. Firstly, place all the components on the stripboard according to the schematic. Try to use the connections already on the stripboard as much as possible. Always think through where you want to place the components before you start soldering. After placing a component, bend its leads to make it stay in place when you turn the stripboard around to solder. Solder all the components to the stripboard and make sure you have good solder joints all over.

You can build all kinds of circuits! But a circuit with many connections can become a real hassle when you are trying to figure out which wire goes to where. You can first make sure all the connections are correct on your computer, then do it as per your schematic.

How to Use a Breadboard

A breadboard is a really simple way to put together a circuit. You don’t have to solder, just plug in the components. The breadboard has connections between its holes. Some are vertical connections and some horizontal connections. 

It’s common to use the vertical columns on the left and right for connecting the power supply. Each of these columns is connected vertically. So, if you connect 5 volts on the top hole of one of the side columns, you will have 5 volts in all the holes of this column. Some larger breadboards are split into two, so that the upper half of the left and right columns is connected and the lower half is connected. This is indicated by the vertical blue and red lines.

Breadboards are often used to build a prototype or to test a circuit, or a part of a circuit that you are unsure about. It is a better way to use breadboards for testing out new circuits. For example, suppose you want to build a microcontroller circuit that controlled relays with the output pins from the microcontroller. Then you would want a little driver on the output. If you are unsure about this circuit, you could throw it together on a breadboard quickly to make sure it works before you put it into your final design. It is really useful.

Soldering Tools That Make Your Life Easier

The soldering tools you need to get started with soldering are a soldering iron and some solder wire. But there are some other tools that will make your soldering much easier. Aside from the soldering iron and the solder wire, here are a few other useful tools that EPCB would recommend to have when soldering electronics.

Wet Sponge: A wet sponge is very useful for cleaning the tip of the soldering iron. The tip is hot so that it will oxidize very fast and get dirty. A clean tip transfers heat faster and makes your soldering easier. A sponge is so cheap, so you should always keep one together with your other soldering tools.

Tweezers: Tweezers are some very handy soldering tools. You use them to keep components in their place and to avoid burning your fingers when soldering. You can also use them for placing small surface mount components.

Solder sucker: The solder sucker is a mechanical vacuum pump that sucks the solder away from the solder joint when it is melted.

Solder wick: The solder wick is a tool you use for de-soldering. It is made up of copper threads that will “suck” the solder from the solder joint. The solder wick is used for removing small amounts of solder. 

Electrical Short Circuit

An electrical short circuit, also called a circuit interruption, often occurs when the wire coating is stripped or when a nail passes through the wire. This generates a spark, which can set fire to nearby combustible material or damage an appliance or other fixture connected to the wires. 

The most common short circuits occur between a live wire and a neutral wire, but any two wires can short circuit. For example, if a neutral wire comes into contact with a ground wire, it is possible for that connection to create a short circuit.

If a homeowner is hammering a nail through a wall, and the nail comes into contact with two wires, it can establish a connection. The same thing happens when the coating is stripped from wires that can come into contact.

Short circuits can also occur in batteries. If the positive and negative terminals are connected by a wire, a surge of electrical current can generate sufficient heat to cause an explosion.

Solder Starved

Solder starvation occurs when adequate volumes of solder are not available to effect a perfectly-shaped solder joint, that means a solder starved joint simply does not have enough solder. It may make good electrical contact, but it is hard to verify by inspection. In any case, it is not a strong joint and may develop stress cracks, intermittent short circuit and fail over time.

Frequently, solder starvation occurs in surface mount technology (SMT) when solder paste deposits are inadequate. This happens because: The single-thickness stencil is designed for the majority of smaller components, starving the few larger components of solder volume. Or high-use interfaces, such as connectors and USB ports, require extra solder - to assure their solder joints survive the constant use in the field. Or smaller, more tightly compacted circuit boards don't allow for deposition of enough solder paste.

So, how do you solve this increasingly common problem? Actually, it is simple. Just re-heating the joint and add more solder to which you need it, and a good strong joint is made.

E-Waste

E-waste or electronic waste is the left over PCBs, components, PVC or plastic cases, body, etc., of your old electronic appliances, such as a TV, refrigerator, dish washer that you have thrown out. It is one of the fastest growing types of waste produced on the planet. According to a report on e-waste, by 2017, all of that year’s end-of-life refrigerators, TVs, mobile phones, computers, monitors, e-toys and other products with a battery or electrical cord worldwide could fill a line of 40-ton trucks end-to-end on a highway straddling three quarters of the Equator, the weight equivalent of 200 Empire State Buildings or 11 Great Pyramids of Giza. The US has the world’s highest figure of 9.4 million tons and China generated the second highest e-waste total of 7.3 million tons. The report also states that the total amount of e-waste generated by 2017 will be 65.4 million metric tons.

What can we do to stop the severe situation? Well, the simple answer is stop over-consumption. But that could take a long time to actually come into action. The next big thing is too start recycling every bit of those electronic appliances and gadgets that our leaving our house. We can open up the body of each of these appliances take out the PCBs and reuse the components.

Tips and Tricks for Soldering

Soldering is an important skill. No one can solder the components perfectly every time, so we need to practice more. The following tips should help you to learn more about how to correctly solder so as to avoid some unnecessary damage. 

1.Use heatsinks. Heatsinks are a must for the leads of sensitive components such as ICs and transistors. If you don't have a clip on heatsink, then a pair of pliers is a good substitute.

2.Keep the iron tip clean. A clean iron tip means better heat conduction and a better joint. You’d better to use a wet sponge to clean the tip.

3.Double-check joints. When assembling complicated circuits, it is good practice to check joints after soldering them. You can use a loupe to check the joint and a meter to check the resistance.

4.Solder small parts first. Solder resistors, jumper leads, diodes and any other small parts before you solder larger parts like capacitors and transistors. This makes assembly much easier.

5.Install sensitive components last. Install CMOS ICs, MOSFETs and other static sensitive components last to avoid damaging them during assembly of other parts.

Tips and Tricks for Desoldering

While soldering is an important skill, being able to desolder (that is to remove solder from a joint) is also important. No one can solder the components perfectly every time, so in some cases, it can be even more important than soldering itself. Desoldering is just like soldering to some extent which needs to be practiced again and again. The following tips should help you to learn more about how to correctly desolder so as to avoid some unnecessary damage. 1. Use heatsinks. Heatsinks are a must for the leads of sensitive components such as ICs and transistors. If you don't have a clip on heatsink, then a pair of pliers is a good substitute.2. Keep the iron tip clean. A clean iron tip means better heat conduction. You’d better to use a wet sponge to clean the tip.3. Check the pads. You need to inspect to make sure you did not damage the pad or trace when you removed the solder. 4. Use the proper iron. Although bigger joints will take longer to heat up with a 30W iron than with a 150W iron, 30W is still the best choice because this wattage is suitable for printed circuit boards. While higher wattages are great when desolder heavy connections, such as chassis.5. Both solder suckers and solder wicks should be use during the desolder process. Start by using a solder sucker to remove the majority of the solder, and then use a wick to finish things up.

Soldering Safety

While soldering is not generally a hazardous activity, there are a few things to keep in mind. EPCB suggest you to read risk assessments and chemical safety information before starting work.  The first and most obvious is that it involves high temperature. Never touch the element of the soldering iron, because they can reach 350F or higher, and will cause burning very quickly. Make sure to use a stand to support the iron and keep the cord away high traffic areas. Always work in a well-lit area where you have space to lay parts out and move around. Solder itself can drip, so it makes sense to avoid soldering over exposed body parts. You have to wear eye protection, and never soldering with your face directly above the joint because fumes from the flux and other coatings will irritate your respiratory tract and eyes, even worse, the spit solder can painfully hurt you. Last but not least, most solders contain lead, so you should avoid touching your face while working with solder and always wash your hands before eating. We hope you can be safe and sound on your soldering process. 

Surface-Mount Devices

Surface-mount devices or SMDs are used in a growing number of commercial and industrial products and become one of basic components when use surface-mount technology to produce PCBs. In the early stages of printed circuit boards’ production, all through-hole assembly was done in the traditional way by workers. After launching the first automatic machines which can do some easy job like put pins on printed circuit boards, however, complicated components still need workers to install in order to keep the work efficient of the printed circuit boards. Working with SMDs can be challenging, and mastering this technology takes a little more patient, while learning these techniques will help you succeed when working with small components. 

In-Circuit Test

In-circuit test (abbreviated ICT) is a useful and efficient tool for printed circuit board test by measuring each component in turn to check that it is in place and of the correct value. Some in-circuit testers are able to test some of the functionality of some integrated circuits, and in this way give a high degree of confidence in the build and probability of operation of the board. Parameters covering shorts, opens, resistance, capacitance, and other basic quantities can easily show whether the assembly is correctly fabricated and have a very high chance of performing to its specification. 

PCBs Assist Emergency Personnel

When we talk about printed circuit boards, the first thing that comes to our mind is consumer electronics. Only insert high-quality PCBs on computers, phones, entertainment systems and more, can we utilize them as expected. Actually, PCBs are not limited in the consumer electronics, they also can be used to help save lives by emergency responders around the country, such as firefighting, police, medical treatment, etc. 

Firefighters – Imaging tools allow fire crews to map out the size and location of a fire and with the help of existed geography and topography, firefighters can make the best action plan which can both make the action more efficient and protect firefighters’ lives better. 

Police Officers –PCBs can be placed in gun grips or other equipment that will register when an officer has fired his or her weapon. That can then alert other units nearby or a dispatcher.

Organic Solderability Preservative

Organic Solderability Preservative, or OSP, or preflux is a method for coating of printed circuit boards. It uses a water-based organic compound that selectively bonds to copper and protects the copper until soldering. The OSP uses simple technology with low cost, and that makes it more and more popular among PCB industry. Actually, OSP has a history about 35 years which is longer than SMT. OSP has a variety of advantages, for example, it can be used in a low temperature, its cost is lower than use HASL, less energy is needed during processing, etc. Rosin, active resin and azole are three kinds of materials for OSP, among them azole is the most widely used one. 

PCB Corrosion

It happens very often that your electronic products fail to work. You may drop your phone in water, but it doesn’t necessarily stop working–at least not immediately. What people don’t know is that in most cases simply drying your phone out is not a solution because water ingress isn’t the real problem. It’s corrosion. Corrosion begins almost instantly when an electronic device gets wet, and is typically what causes devices to fail. 

But people always have no idea about why their electronic products are corroded when they didn’t drop phones in water before. So being able to identify the cause of corrosion on a printed circuit board assembly is critical which allow you to be able to both clean up the corrosion and prevent further issues from arising. There are numerous methods for you to take to find the culprit on your PCB and remove it. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is recommended to identify the elemental composition of the corrosion. When you are able to identify the chemicals present in the corroded area and compare them to those that you expect to be present in the soldermask you can use process of elimination to find the offending elements. This will allow you to take the necessary corrective action to fix your circuit board. 

Tips for Cleaning Dust

If you notice that your circuit board is collecting dust or grime that keeps it from functioning normally, you may decide to clean the board when you take into consideration the money and time you will spend on purchasing a new one. 

There are different methods for cleaning printed circuit boards depending on the type of PCB you have and what dirt or buildup exists. Before you begin to clean your PCB, be aware that any time you do so you run the risk of causing damage to the board and components. Therefore, if the board works normally but is just a bit dusty you must decide if attempting to clean the PCB is worth the risk. For PCBs with only light dust, use an old dry toothbrush, dry paintbrush or the upholstery brush from your vacuum to loosen the dust. Then you can use a can of compressed air to blow the remainder of dust off of the board.

The cleaning process becomes a bit trickier if you have grime on your printed circuit boards. Grime is common with monitor chassis boards that deal with higher temperatures and melting wax from components. Be sure to remove any socketed components before applying detergent and scrubbing mildly to loosen whatever is caked onto your PCB. Since this method may not work 100 percent of the time, it is a good idea to consult a PCB expert to see what you can potentially do to clean your circuit board and get it back into working order. If it cannot be fixed, you will need to place an order for a new board. 

PCBs in Automobiles

As social media continues to change the way how people communicate and companies do business, more and more industries are turning to ways of digitizing the overall customer experience. For this reason, automotive companies are finding ways to add more and more technology into vehicles, for example driving recorder, GPS navigation, etc. Our EPCB, as one of the best PCB companies in Shanghai, is committed ourselves to achieving high PCB’s quality and creating more innovative PCBs. We know a lot of specifics need to go into the production of PCBs for automobile use. It is important that PCBs for car manufacturers can properly power all of the components used so that the onboard computers do not fail and result in a loss of power. 

Recover Printed Circuit Boards

When an electronic device is recycled, it is broken down into its simplest parts so that printed circuit boards and valuable metals can be recovered. The research found that there are four key techniques used in the UK for the recovery of PCBs: 
Fully manual segregation – segregation of target items from other WEEE streams, followed by manual dismantling of equipment; 
Fully manual segregation, including re-use -– as above but incorporates the recovery of specific PCBs/processor chips for re-use; 
Semi-automated with commercial shredding – Mechanical shredding of WEEE for size reduction and separation of saleable ferrous and non-ferrous metals, with manual downstream picking operations to recover PCBs and other components. This process is best suited for recovering PCBs from items which are not cost effective to manually sort or items where the PCBs are physically attached, e.g. welded, and cannot be manually removed; 
Semi-automated with commercial smashing – manual removal of streams requiring manual recovery. Spinning and smashing of the remaining WEEE into smaller components followed by magnetic separation; and finally manual picking lines.

Address In-field Issues

It is absolutely a nightmare for every PCB designer that your finished goods are not as perfect as you expected. You may receive the final results for your new circuit boards’ quality testing and life testing, and everything looks good and ready for production. Then you may think your finished PCBs are reliable, but actually you get the opposite of what you want. Your PCBs sometimes are imperfect, and this scenario makes you wonder. Is there anything that can be done to reduce the impact of in-field errors, or is that just the nature of engineering when luck isn’t on your side? The key to solve in-field failures starts at the design process itself, not after. If you could find how your PDN looks during your design process and make necessary changes in the same moment, then you can have your reliable PCBs. 

Potential Applications for Soluble Printed Circuit Boards

Though soluble printed circuit boards can greatly protect our environment, product designers and engineers in all industries must find ways to integrate the technology into our daily applications, so they can enter the market and accept by people all around the world. Potential uses for this new technology that could be seen in the coming years include: Medicine – Brain monitors and other medical devices that need to be implanted can be made from these components so that once they have served their purpose they do not need to be removed.Cell Phones – Most cell phones and other portable electronics end up in landfills when people stop using them, but it really does severe harm to our environment. If we use soluble printed circuit boards, they will be able to safely and responsibly recycle.Machinery – Machines that rely on PCBs can have their parts easily swapped out as needed without needing to start from scratch, saving time and money. 

The Function of Plating

Plating is a surface covering in which a metal is deposited on a conductive surface. It is used to decorate objects, for corrosion inhibition, to improve solderability, to harden, to improve wearability, to reduce friction, to alter conductivity, and for other purposes. Plating techniques include electroplating, vapor deposition under vacuum and sputter deposition. 

Recently, plating is used frequently in PCB industry. After your PCB is etched and rinsed, plating a coat for your exposed copper on PCBs is necessary which can largely prevent surface oxidation of bare copper. So you can make sure that your finished PCBs will be able to remain solderable and work properly on your application or project. Every coin has its two sides, so you’d better know advantages and disadvantages about each type of coating, and research your options before making your final decision. If you use the wrong type of coating for your PCBs, your finished PCBs will possibly ineffective and your application maybe won’t work properly as you expected. 

For more information and to get your questions answered about the different steps of PCB fabrication, please contact a representative at EPCB.

Power Sources for Printed Circuit Boards

With product designers building smaller devices for the masses, engineers must get creative when it comes to choosing a power source and other components for their printed circuit boards. In addition to needing a large enough capacity to support battery life, it is also necessary to have a sustainable energy source that will lessen environmental impact and improve end user experience. 

The following three methods are the common way for us to use. 
Sunlight – Solar panels and chargers harvest sunlight to power energy stores and provide homes and phones alike with the juice they need.
Movement – Automatic watches have been harnessing the power of movement for years. As we move into the future, phones and even buildings will be able to convert human energy into electricity.
Body Heat – Wearable devices are in development that can take body heat from an individual and convert it to energy. These will then power electronics and other equipment for first responders and in emergency situations.

Depanelization Cutting Techniques

Depanelization is a process step in high-volume electronics assembly production. There are six main depanelization cutting techniques currently in use, and each has its unique benefits. Hand break is suitable for strain-resistant circuits. With the help of a proper fixture, PCBs are easily ripped by people. A pizza cutter (also known as V-cut) is a rotary blade, sometimes rotating using its own motor. It is often used only for cutting huge panels into smaller ones. The equipment is cheap and requires only sharpening of the blade and greasing as maintenance. Punching is a process where single PCBs are punched out of the panel through the use of special fixture. The production capacity of such a system is high, but fixtures are quite expensive and require regular sharpening. A saw is able to cut through panels at high feed rates. It can cut both V-grooved and not-V-grooved PCBs. It does not cut much material and therefore generates low amounts of dust, but it only can cut in straight lines. All in all, it is important to specify and assembly requirements in your design files and ensure your expediency and needs are met. 

PCB Panelization

Panelization, also known as the processing of boards in an array format, keeps small boards attached to each other within a single, larger substrate. As circuit boards become smaller, changes to production processes must be made in order to ensure that quality is not sacrificed. Panelization helps to address these issues to process multiple small boards through assembly, and is becoming more prevalent as board sizes shrink. There are two primary reasons for using an array scheme: One is to increase throughput, and the other to allow the manufacturing process to maintain its standard panel size. Besides, smaller boards run the risk of being removed during routing due to the router’s vacuum pressure, while the risk can be largely reduced when boards are arrayed in a good order. 

Single, Double-Sided and Multi-Layer PCBs

During the printed circuit board design process, you have to know the differences between different PCB types, such as single PCB, double-sided PCBs, because it really impact the working efficiency on your finished PCBs. EPCB is here to give you some suggestions about how to choose a suitable PCB type for your application, so you can start in a right direction. Single sided boards are made from rigid laminate with copper on one side of varying thickness. Double-sided boards differ in that they have copper on both sides of the laminate. A multi-layer PCB has copper foil on the top and bottom and inner layer cores. Each type of PCB has its own unique advantages, so you’d better work with an EPCB expert to choose a suitable one.

Test PCBs during Production

It is absolutely important that the printed circuit boards you received are exactly in accordance with the specification you required and work as you expected. After performing the shorts and opens test at EPCB, the in-circuit tester tests each component on a PCB assembly one at a time. This way, you are promised to get your printed circuit boards that are totally ready to be used as you needed. During the testing process, programs will be loaded onto test machines to check for any issues. EPCB tests 100 percent of the networks on your circuit board for continuity and isolation. You can get more information about the production process by talking with an EPCB representative.

Save Money on PCB Orders

One of the main benefits you get from ordering PCBs through EPCB is that you save money on some of the highest-quality circuit boards available. You will have a coupon for your first order at EPCB. When you place an order in a considerable quantity, you can get a fine discount. If you refer us to other customers, once they place an order at EPCB, you can have a coupon at the same time. If you can put forward good suggestions for us to improve our fabrication, you can receive a coupon, too. Contact the experts at EPCB today for more information.

Printed Circuit Board Plating Finishes

When you are in the process of designing your PCBs, you have a lot of decisions to make in order to make sure that your finished PCBs can work best for your application. One of these decisions is to choose a suitable printed circuit board plating finish. Although there are multiple plating finishes available, each has its own unique benefits that can either make or break your PCBs. Hot air solder leveling (HASL) keeps fabrication costs low and is excellent for both solder wettability and solder joint integrity. A lead-free HASL finish is also available. In addition, printed circuit boards may be plated using electroless nickel immersion gold, which provides excellent co-planarity, immersion silver, which offers low resistance and high speed, or immersion tin, which is used to create a layer of metal that results in a flat finish. Other options include organic solderable coatings (OSP), and electrolytic nickel gold. Consult a PCB expert to learn about your best option.

PCBs in TV

The invention of PCBs has made a huge impact on the consumer electronics industry. Printed circuit boards allow manufacturers to make their products smaller, more powerful and more efficient. As time goes by, we have seen television sets go from small screens in large boxes to ultra slim and high definition displays that are optimized for movies, games and more. With each advance in technology in the industry, designers and manufacturers need to figure out how to deliver the goods that the public wants while still creating a product that is going to be fast and reliable. While it is difficult to know what new technology will appear in the next generation of television sets or gaming consoles, the chances are high that the PCB will be revolutionized as well. By becoming slimmer, more powerful and more versatile, circuit boards will help deliver the products of the future that consumers crave.

Printed Circuit Board Milling

Printed circuit board milling (also known as : isolation milling) is the process of removing areas of copper from a sheet of printed circuit board material to recreate the pads, signal traces and structures according to patterns from a digital circuit board plan known as a layout file. Similar to the more common and well known chemical PCB etch process, the PCB milling process is subtractive: material is removed to create the electrical isolation and ground planes required. PCB milling has advantages for both prototyping and some special PCB designs. Probably the biggest benefit is that one doesn't have to use chemicals to produce PCB's.

Printed Circuit Board Certification

When hobbyists, engineers and companies look for printed circuit board suppliers that provide the high quality results they need, it is also important to know where industry standards originate and their intent. IPC publishes the most widely recognized and used standards in the printed circuit industry worldwide. These range from production processes to PCB material selection and assembly.

When new standards are proposed and adopted, PCB manufacturers are committed to earning certification in order to stay on the cutting edge of the industry and provide engineers with latest technology which can advance applications moving forward. 

Improved Quality of Printed Circuit Boards

The quality of your printed circuit boards depends on their design and implementation. Using specific materials and laminates and qualified components can allow you to get PCBs that will work as you expected. Besides, it is crucial to research a leading PCB manufacturer before placing your order to ensure that you work with industry leaders that can help you get the boards you need before your deadline of your project. To learn more about your options for designing and ordering PCBs, contact a representative at EPCB without any hesitation.

Epoxy Laminates and Printed Circuit Boards

For years, epoxy laminates and glass fiber have been the foundation of the printed circuit boards throughout the world. In fact, our houses are full of these materials, for example, components, resistors and connections. So it is no surprise that our demand for PCBs is very large and the trend of the PCB market is always keeping growing. With the development of world’s economy and technology, people are willing to retool and improve their home appliances and other devices, the performance limits of epoxy laminates and glass fiber will be tested. For the time being, these materials will continue to dominate due to their proven track record and the need for trusted PCBs for critical and delicate applications, such as those in the medical, defense, motor and aircraft.

Common Mistakes Made with Flex Circuits

When making your printed circuit boards you want to be able to get the functionality you need to keep your system running and you also want everything to be easy to assemble. There are some common mistakes made with flex circuits, however, that can inhibit your progress. EPCB can help avoid such issues as placing vias outside the stiffener area, which can cause via cracking. Not providing the proper stiffener information can also lead you to getting the wrong product. You also run into problems with flex circuits when placing the edge of the feature closer than to the edge of the board.

For more information about the latest PCB trends, please visit our website www.epcb.com.

Flexible Printed Circuits

Flexible printed circuits were originally designed as a replacement for traditional wire harnesses. From early applications during World War II to the present, growth and proliferation for flex circuits and flexible printed circuit boards continues exponentially. There are many benefits of Flexible Printed Circuits including: assembly error reduction, decreased assembly time and costs, flexibility during installation, high density applications, etc. 

Here we want to talk something about design freedom– unlike rigid boards, flex circuits are not restricted to two dimensions. Because they are as flexible as wires or ribbon cables, flex circuit design options are endless. Flex circuits can be designed to meet highly complex and unimaginable configurations while being able to operate in the most hostile environments. Flex circuit designs could entail any of the following:

• Highly complex configurations

• Withstand hostile operating environments

• Single- Double- combinations

• Complex interconnections

• Shielding

• Rigid/flex capabilities

• Surface mounted devices

Top Laminate Suppliers for PCBs

Knowing how your printed circuit boards are made will help you during your design process because you will know what to expect from the finished product. The laminate used on your printed circuit boards will help achieve final thickness and give you a PCB that you can use for your application. You will be able to get the strength you expect from your PCBs and use the information listed to design the exact boards that you need. EPCB ensures that every finished PCB ordered on our company can meet the toughest standards set by the industry for quality. If your want to learn more information, please contact us or send email to us.

Superior Customer Service

At all stages of your development process, from designing your application to assembling your finished product, you should be able to expect that everything will go smoothly. This includes the process of designing and manufacturing your printed circuit boards to get the highest quality to meet all of your unique specifications. EPCB, one of the best PCB manufacturers in Shanghai, China, has lots of professional experts to help you get all of your questions answered. By meeting and exceeding quality and manufacturing standards set by the industry, EPCB is able to produce all of the PCBs that you need to get the job done quickly and correctly. With all of the resources available, you are ensured of the excellent PCBs no matter your order is small or large. Contact us today for more information. 

Custom Printed Circuit Boards

One of the most common items that you will find if you take apart the electronics in your home is the circuit board. Printed circuit boards, or PCBs, are the brains of your devices and are responsible for ensuring that it functions as designed. In order to make sure that your product is going to run as you need it to, you will want to design a PCB from scratch. This is due to the fact that you have the ability to layout the board so it can work with the components you need. In addition, by designing a custom board you can be sure that it will fit into the device that you are creating. Hobbyists and large-scale companies benefit from custom PCBs because it gives you ownership over every step of the production process. Our EPCB respects every designer's work, and provides customized service to you.

For more information about the latest PCB trends, please visit our website www.epcb.com.

Recycle Old PCBs

As we all know, environment pollution is severely serious which does harm to people’s health. So we should do our part to protect the environment as both an individual and a part of our company which will allow us all to conserve valuable resources, reduce energy consumption and create a cleaner environment for our future. We can achieve our objectives by recycling old printed circuit boards which are made from chemicals and materials that are hazardous to the environment. Those raw materials are illegal to dump without special treatment, because if these items make their way into a landfill they will just sit there, allowing the chemicals to potentially seep into the soil or get into water supplies. That’s the reason why we appeal to PCB users and manufacturers to recycle old PCBs. We have the responsibility to ensure that the raw materials are properly disposed of and meet regulations in order to protect our environment. 

PCB Board

A printed circuit board, or PCB Board, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, tracks or signal traces etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. When the board has only copper tracks and features, and no circuit elements such as capacitors, resistors or active devices have been manufactured into the actual substrate of the board, it is more correctly referred to as printed wiring board (PWB) or etched wiring board. Use of the term PWB or printed wiring board although more accurate and distinct from what would be known as a true printed circuit board, has generally fallen by the wayside for many people as the distinction between circuit and wiring has become blurred.

The Evolution of Consumer Electronics

The Evolution of Consumer Electronics
Waterproof electronics is known by public until very recently. In fact, it wasn’t that long ago that a toilet was a smartphone’s worst nightmare. Come to think of it, it wasn’t even that long ago that word like smartphone, tablet and wearable were completely unheard of by us. Today EPCB list some of the most influential and important consumer electronics innovations over the last 50 years.
1977 – Apple II is introduced and becomes a highly successful personal computer.
1979 – Sony releases the Walkman.
1984 – Motorola blows the world away with the DynaTAC. A two-pound wonder that retailed for $4K
1989 – Nintendo Gameboy attracts gamers everywhere.
1993 – Intel introduces the Pentium Microprocessor which efficiently promotes the development of personal computers.
1997 – The Digital Video Disc (DVD) is invented.
1998 – Apple introduces the first iMac, making it the gold standard for personal computers.
2001 – Apple makes music stylish with the iPod.
2007 – Apple changes the cellphone market forever with the introduction of the iPhone.
2015 – Apple releases the Apple Watch.
2016 – Apple releases iPhone 7.

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Don'ts of Flex Circuit

Flex circuits are largely used in PCB fabrications, EPCB found that most of us didn’t pay enough attention to those problems, such as the layer stack design, parts placement, cutouts, etc. But remember that flex circuits have some gnarly material quirks which range from relatively high z-axis expansion coefficients of adhesives, to the lower adhesion of copper to PI substrate and coverlay, to copper’s work hardening and fatigue. These can be compensated for largely by following some don’ts.

Don’t bend at corners. It is generally best to keep copper traces at right-angles to a flex-circuit bend. However there are some design situations where it’s unavoidable. In those cases you should keep the track work as gently curving as possible, and as the mechanical product design dictates, conical radius bends is a better way.

Don’t change widths unexpectedly. Whenever you have a track entering a pad, particularly when there is an aligned row of them as in a flex-circuit terminator, this will form a weak spot where the copper will be fatigued over time. Unless there is going to be stiffener applied or a one-time crease, it’s advisable to taper down from the pads.

For more information about the latest PCB trends, please visit our website www.epcb.com. 

Can Voltmeters and Ammeters Both Measure Resistances?

Neither a voltmeter nor an ammeter measures resistance directly; a voltmeter measures voltage and an ammeter measures amperage or current. However, using Ohm's law, resistance can be calculated from known quantities of voltage and current.

Voltage is defined as the pressure pushing electrons through a system, while amperage or current, is the number of electrons moving through the system. Resistance, on the other hand, is a measure of how much a material opposes the flow. To relate the three, Ohm's law states that resistance is equal to the voltage divided by the current. This means, then, that an increase in pressure will increase the amount of opposition to the flow, as will an increased movement of electrons.

 For more information about the latest PCB trends, please visit our website www.epcb.com.

Differences between KVA and KW

Though both kVA and kW are units of measure used to describe power, kVA is a kilo volt amperes and kW is a kilowatt. KVA is known as the apparent power of an electrical system or of a particular circuit. In direct current circuits the kVA is equal to the kW, while they are different in alternating current circuits. That’s because the kW is the amount of actual power that does valid work where only a fraction of kVA is available and accessible to do work while the rest is in excess in the current.

The relationship between kVA, kW and the power factor can express like this: kW = kVA x power factor. In direct current circuits, there is no difference between the kVA and the kW because of the power factor. The power factor leads or lags depending on the way that the load shifts the phase of the current compared to the phase of the voltage. This creates a unity in the direct current circuits. In alternating current circuits, voltage and current may get out of phase leading to a difference in kW and kVA that will be based on the power factor.

 For more information about the latest PCB trends, please visit our website www.epcb.com. 

Why is Electrical Grounding Important?

Electrical grounding reduces the risk of severe electrical shock from uninsulated metal components inside of electrical devices, appliances and power tools. When a grounded system is used properly, the leaking current, also known as the fault current, is transferred harmlessly. 

Most electrical systems use circuit breakers or fuses to offer protection against short circuits and powerful fault currents. The wiring system protects people from electrical hazards. The pipe is usually connected to a copper conductor that is attached to a rod and a group of terminals located in the electrical service panel. This offers much more protection from electricity and strikes during thunderstorms.

Electrical grounding prevents electrical hazards such as electrocution and fatal shocking. Electrical workers use a device known as a ground-fault interrupter, which provides a grounding method that protects workers from leaking currents while standing on wet surfaces. The ground-fault interrupter is extremely delicate and is capable of detecting leaks as small as 5 milliamperes. After detecting leakages, the interrupter immediately disconnects any circuit around the leakage.

Resistive and Inductive Loads

Resistive loads typically convert energy into heat during the electrical process. The heat must be expelled from the system through a medium such as air or water, and the energy can be utilized purposely in heating devices. To achieve high efficiency, it is essential to optimize the voltage use of a resistive load. When a resistive load operates under the proper voltage, it ensures a constant supply of energy and protection from loss of energy to sensitive devices.

An inductive load is a part of an electrical circuit that uses magnetic energy to produce work. Some common examples include transformers, electric motors, wound control gear and electromechanical relays. These sorts of tools basically store energy until it is needed and, once it is, they convert it with a series of magnetic fields. And these sorts of loads often have to be harnessed and protected to keep the energy flowing in only one direction, since the force of the power can cause damage to the circuit or connected breakers otherwise.

 For more information about the latest PCB trends, please visit our website www.epcb.com.  

What are Series Circuits Used for?

Series circuits are most often used for lighting. A common example is a string of classic Christmas tree lights, in which the loss of one bulb shuts off the flow of electricity to each bulb further down the line. However, series circuits can be used for any situation in which a single cable is used to supply power to a number of widely spaced lights or other devices.

A series circuit uses a single cable with multiple resistors on it. As more voltages flow through a series circuit, a more expensive and heavily insulated cable is a must. This allows applications to be made much more cheaply with a single power source and only a single cable. Modern models also include bypasses so the loss of one resistor does not break the circuit. A series circuit also must be able to cope with the sum of all resistances on the circuit. Thus, the voltage must be high enough to compensate for the voltage drop from each resistor.