PCB Prototype the Easy Way

Full feature custom PCB prototype service.

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PCB Assembly Services

Volume surface mount capabilities

PCB Assembly Capability

Our state-of-the-art assembly equipment enable us to meet all your PCBA needs under one roof in an inexpensive way, our Printed Circuits Boards Assembly Capability includes but not limited to what are listed below, as we are updating our equipment constantly to keep us on the cutting edge. If your PCB Assembly demands are beyond these capabilities, please contact us at Service@pcbway.com, we will respond if we can do or not within 24 hours.

Item # Item Name PCBA Capability
1. Lead Time Our assembly time ranges from 24 Hours to a few weeks. Please choose appropriate time option to fit your schedule and budget. Due to the complexity of how to determine the turn time of PCBA services, our policy is that turn-time begins immediately after all the parts are ready and all the PCB files (Gerber files/other PCB files, etc.,) , Centroid (Pick & Place PNP file, or XY Data or files in other formats), BOM, and all other necessary data or documents/images/photos are complete for our assembly work.
2. Parts Source Consigned/kitted We prefer you supply all the parts for the PCBA services. In this case, please send us all the components with BOM file and detailed packing list indicating item number, customer or manufacturer’s part number and quantity in kit.
Turn-key With our wide and powerful network of parts sourcing, we offer Turn-key PCBA service. We do not mark up on the parts cost. Considering the big price gap between different suppliers, we only source from reliable suppliers who may have no price advantages. We will always ask for your approval before making any decisions.
Partial Turn-key/Combo This is our regular practice which you offer the main devices and components, while we source the rest for you. Just like the Turn-key service, we will ask for your approval on every details of the parts concerning price, quality and availability.
3. Assembly Options We offer Surface Mount (SMT), Thru-Hole (THT) and hybrid of both. We also offer single or double-sided placement.
4. Types of Solder We offer both leaded and lead-free (RoHS Compliant) assembly services for our customers. Please choose one to best fit your PCB and the parts on the PCB.
5. Stencils We use laser cut stainless steel stencils to ensure high reliability for fine pitch and BGA components. Nano coating is available upon request.
6. Minimum Order Our minimum is as low as 5 pieces. We do not want you to pay for what you do not need indeed to save you money.
7. Component Size
  • Passive Component: we can accept components as small as 01005, 0201,0402.
  • BGA: We have the ability to handle BGA of 0.3mm pitch for rigid PCBs and 0.4mm for flex boards with X-ray testing. (The details can be confirmed according to the board design.)
  • Fine Pitch Parts: we can assemble 0.25mm fine pitch parts.
8. Component Package We accept parts in Reels, Cut Tape, Tube & Tray, Loose Parts and Bulk.
9. Board Dimension
  • Min Board Size: 10mm x 10mm (Boards smaller than this size need to be panelized)
  • Max Board Size: 250mm x 500mm
10. Board Shape We can assemble boards in Rectangular, Circular and any Odd Shapes. (For shapes other than rectangle, you need to panelize the boards in an array, and add break-away rails at the two longer paralleled edges of the panelized boards to ensure that the boards can be assembled by the machine.)
11. Board Type Currently we handles Rigid boards mostly. As we have the ability to handle flex and rigid-flex boards, please contact Service@pcbway.com if your boards are of flex or rigid-flex.
12. Repair & Rework Repair and rework can be difficult, but we do. Our BGA reballing service with which we can safely remove the misplaced BGA, reball it and put it back on the PCB correctly. It is cost-effective.

Various testing method will be applied to the assembled boards before the final shipment::

  • Visual inspection: general quality check.
  • X-ray Inspection: checks for BGAs, QFN and bare circuit boards.
  • AOI Testing: checks for solder paste, 0201 components, missing components and polarity.
  • ICT (In-Circuit Test).
  • Functional test (Following your test procedures).

PCBWay’s production facilities are ISO9001 certified to ensure we go beyond your expectations.

  • ISO9001 certified
  • IPC610-D Test specification
  • Pass rate ≥99.5%
  • Quality complaint rate ≤ 0.1%

Our list of printed circuit board assembly capabilities allows our PCB customers to have the convenience of a “One Stop Solution” for their manufacturing and assembly needs.

  • Automated PCB Assembly-line AOI (IPC610D)- Cut errors & rework... before problems even start

  • Samples were 100% X-RAY-ray inspection to ensure the reliability of each ball BGA

  • KIC furnace temperature tester: furnace temperature control at ± 0.1 ℃ to ensure the quality of each board welding

  • SMT Automatic first piece tester to ensure that each RC component of the parameters within the standard range

  • High-definition CCD microscopy does not miss the subtle quality and safety hazards

  • Product function analysis equipment to ensure that the test function of the rapid failure of maintenance

Front-end data preparation

01.PPE - Pre Production Engineering

Customer supplied data (gerber) is used to produce the manufacturing data for the specific PCB (artworks for imaging processes and drill data for drilling programs). Engineers compare demands/specifications against capabilities to ensure compliance and also determine the process steps and associated checks. No changes are allowed without PCBWay Group permission.

Preparing

02.Board Cutting (Copper Clad Laminate Cutting)

PCB production starts with a large piece of sheet material. Due to the limitations of PCB production equipment and manufacture capabilities, the factory has requirements for its minimum and maximum processing size. Therefore, under the guidance of manufacture instruction (MI), the raw material of PCB (Copper Clad Laminate ) needs to be cut into the processing size by automatic cutting machine before production.

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03.Print inner layers

Stage 1 is to transfer the image using an artwork film to the board surface, using photosensitive dry-film and UV light, which will polymerise the dry film exposed by the artwork. This step of the process is performed in a clean room.<br> Imaging – The process of transferring electronic data to the photo-plotter, which in turn uses light to transfer a negative image circuitry pattern onto the panel or film.

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04.Etch inner layers

Stage 2 is to remove the unwanted copper from the panel using etching. Once this copper has been removed, the remaining dry film is then removed leaving behind the copper circuitry that matches the design.<br> Etching – The chemical, or chemical and electrolytic, removal of unwanted portions of conductive or resistive material.

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05.Inner layer Automatic Optical Inspection(AOI)

Inspection of the circuitry against digital “images” to verify that the circuitry matches the design and that it is free from defects. Achieved through scanning of the board and then trained inspectors will verify any anomalies that the scanning process has highlighted. PCBWay Group allows no repair of open circuits.

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06.Lay-up and bond (Lamination)

The inner layers have an oxide layer applied and then “stacked” together with pre-preg providing insulation between layers and copper foil is added to the top and bottom of the stack. The lamination process consists of placing the internal layers under extreme temperature (375 degrees Fahrenheit) and pressure (275 to 400 psi) while laminating with a photosensitive dry resist. The PCB is allowed to cure at a high temperature, the pressure is slowly released and then the material is slowly cooled.

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07.Drilling the PCB

We now have to drill the holes that will subsequently create electrical connections within the multilayer PCB. This is a mechanical drilling process that must be optimised so that we can achieve registration to all of the the inner layer connections. The panels can be stacked at this process. The drilling can also be done by a laser drill

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08.Electroless copper deposition

The first step in the plating process is the chemical deposition of a very thin layer of copper on the hole walls.
PTH provides a very thin deposit of copper that covers the hole wall and the complete panel. A complex chemical process that must be strictly controlled to allow a reliable deposit of copper to be plated even onto the non-metallic hole wall. Whilst not a sufficient amount of copper on its own, we now have electrical continuity between layers and through the holes.Panel plating follows on from PTH to provide a thicker deposit of copper on top of the PTH deposit – typically 5 to 8 um. The combination is used to optimise the amount of copper that is to be plated and etched in order to achieve the track and gap demands.

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09.Image the outer layers

Similar to the inner layer process (image transfer using photosensitive dry film, exposure to UV light and etching), but with one main difference – we will remove the dry film where we want to keep the copper/define circuitry – so we can plate additional copper later in the process.
This step of the process is performed in a clean room.

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10.Plating

Second electrolytic plating stage, where the additional plating is deposited in areas without dry film (circuitry). Once the copper has been plated, tin is applied to protect the plated copper.

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11.Etch outer layer

This is normally a three step process. The first step is to remove the blue dry film. The second step is to etch away the exposed/unwanted copper whilst the tin deposit acts an etch resist protecting the copper we need. The third and final step is to chemically remove the tin deposit leaving the circuitry.

AOI

12.Outer layer AOI

Just like with inner layer AOI the imaged and etched panel is scanned to make sure that the circuitry meets design and that it is free from defects. Again no repair of open circuits are allowed under PCBWay demands.

Soldermask

13.Soldermask

Soldermask ink is applied over the whole PCB surface. Using artworks and UV light we expose certain areas to the UV and those areas not exposed are removed during the chemical development process – typically the areas which are to be used as solderable surfaces. The remaining soldermask is then fully cured making it a resilient finish.<br> This step of the process is performed in a clean room.

Surface finish

14.Surface finish

Various finishes are then applied to the exposed copper areas. This is to enable protection of the surface and good solderability. The various finishes can include Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold, HASL, Immersion Silver etc. Thicknesses and solderability tests are always carried out.

Profile

15.Profile

This is the process of cutting the manufac-turing panels into specific sizes and shapes based upon the customer design as defined within the gerber data. There are 3 main options available when providing the array or selling panel – scoring, routing or punching. All dimensions are measured against the customer supplied drawing to ensure the panel is dimensionally correct.

Electrical test

16.Electrical test

Used for checking the integrity of the tracks and the through hole interconnections – checking to ensure there are no open circuits or no short circuits on the finished board. There are three test methods, flying probe for smaller volumes,fixture based for volumes and 4-wire Kelvin testing (For PCBs use in automotive, or aerospace applications).We electrically test every PCB against the original board data. Using a flying probe tester we check each net to ensure that it is complete (no open circuits) and does not short to any other net.

inspection

17.Final inspection

In the last step of the process a team of sharp-eyed inspectors give each PCB a final careful check-over.Visual checking the PCB against acceptance criteria and using PCBWay “approved” inspectors. Using manual visual inspection and AVI – compares PCB to gerber and has a faster checking speed that human eyes, but still requires human verification. All orders are also subjected to a full inspection including dimensional, solderability, etc.

Packaging

18.Packaging

Boards are wrapped using materials that comply with the PCBWay Packaging demands (ESD etcetera) and then boxed prior to be being shipped using the requested mode of transport.