How to Choose Surface Finish

There are many surface finish types to choose when designing a printed circuit board. Do you know how to choose the best one for your electronics assemblies? EPCB lists some common but popular finishes with pros and cons for each.

Hot Air Solder Leveling    HASL has been around for many years. A thin layer of solder is mechanically applied to copper surfaces. A hot air knife is used to sheet the excess solder away to create a flat finish. It is cheap, and available from all PCB suppliers. What’s more, it has really long shelf life, and good resistance against oxidation and against handling.    However, its surface flatness is difficult to control. This could be an issue for components that are sensitive to surface flatness like BGA, fine pitch components, etc. The hole size may not be uniform which could be an issue where press fit connectors are used. And HASL is not suitable for RoHS application.

Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold   ENIG is a chemical plating process where a thin layer of nickel and gold is deposited onto the copper surfaces. The gold preserves the copper below and it remains solderable and conductive with very low contact resistance. ENIG’s surface flatness is excellent, suitable for BGA or other fine pitch components, and also available from all PCB suppliers. Like HASL, it has good shelf life and good resistance against oxidation and handling.    However, it requires a tightly controlled plating process to prevent excessive gold being plated, and not suit some high frequency or high-powered RF application. Besides, its processing cost is much higher because gold is used in plating solution.

To be continued…

Understand Circuit Diagrams Better

It is not so easy for beginners to understand circuit diagrams better at the beginning. A little trick in this article will make it easier to understand. We know this sounds a little bit boring, but it’s really important. 

The law says that if you sum all the voltage drops in a circuit – it equals the voltage of your voltage source in the circuit. Suppose you have a 9 volt battery connected to two resistors and a diode in series. If you measure the voltages over each of the components – the sum of them will be 9 volts. You don’t need to memorize the name of this law. Just remember that this is how it is.

How to Choose a Microcontroller

How to choose a suitable microcontroller is really hard, at least if you don’t know what you are doing. But we hope you can feel much easier after reading this article.

There are numerous different microcontrollers. But what is really important for your project? Let’s look at some differences between microcontrollers.

You can find 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit microcontrollers. These numbers refer to the size of the databus. In practical terms, a larger databus can do more heavy calculations. The 8-bit microcontroller is the most commonly used by hobbyists. In general, the 8-bit microcontroller has fewer pins, so that it’s easier to solder. And it is usually easier to program too.

Different microcontrollers have different amount of memory, number of input/output pins and peripherals. Peripherals are extra functions added to the microcontroller. The two most common microcontroller-brands for hobbyists are probably AVR from Atmel and PIC from Microchip.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.