Clearance and Creepage Rules for PCB Assembly

It’s important to follow electrical spacing rules for keeping the product safe in case the normal operating voltage exceeds 30VAC or 60VDC. You’ll be surprised to know that voltage above these levels are considered perilous and these designs are considered high voltage.

This blog post includes important spacing rules, both creepage and clearance, and some methodologies to make sure these rules are applied precisely and adhered to. We’ll be sharing a few important Clearance and Creep page Rules for PCB Assembly.

Design Trends

We aim to minimize size and maximize component density on Printed Circuit Boards and minimize the overall PCB design & assembly costs. The whole electronics product development industry is focusing on recent high-density components. This miniaturization offers some serious challenges to the designers when using mixed technology and where the design parts include the high voltage circuits. Previously, designing high voltage boards separately in a multi-board system was an easy process.

But now the increased focus towards miniaturization implies that there is at least space left for multiple boards, designs employing mixed technologies have increased in the numbers.  The high voltage circuits demand a new set of rules for operator’s safety. It is important to have a deep understanding of these rules and different ways to implement them while focusing on reducing the overall product size.

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Ultimate Guide to learn and master PCB Repair

 

Repairing small circuit boards is not a complex task. Small boards can be simply repaired via applying methodological approaches and using basic tools like oscilloscopes that measure voltages and waveforms at particular test points in the circuit and Digital multimeters (DMMs). On the other hand, troubleshooting multi-layer PCBs is a daunting task. However, the availability of proper documentation plays a crucial role in PCB Repair speed. If you are interested in electronics, there are good chances that you’ll encounter a dead PCB. So, what’s the best approach to follow when confronted with such a situation?

In this blog post, we will discuss Printed Circuit Boards Repair in detail which will help you to master PCB Repair.

PCB repair is a complicated process these days. Manufacturing mistakes and frequent component failures have led to the increased numbers of PCB Repairs. Older Printed Circuit Boards can break down due to component failure, manufacturing errors, and incorrectly soldered parts, solder bridges and more. Though component changes and simple soldering require less complex fixes, some repairs require expert approaches to detect fault causes.

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Ultimate Guide to PCB trace | Printed Circuit Boards Canada

 What is PCB Trace?

A PCB trace is a copper conductor on the PCB that conducts signals on the surface of the PCB. It is the flat, narrow portion of the copper foil that is left behind after etching. The electricity that flows through the copper traces generates a significant amount of heat. Correctly calibrated PCB trace width and thickness help minimize the buildup of heat in your board.PCB trace is a vital part of almost every Printed Circuit Board. If PCB trace is not identified or calculated accurately, fixing it can be time-consuming and sometimes can cause errors in the system.

Printed Circuit Boards are equipped with numerous components and knowing exactly the required parts for repairing or assembling a Printed Circuit Board and kind of functions and formulas is very important.

What is PCB Trace Width and PCB thickness?

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5 Effective Tips for PCB Design for assembly

 PCB Design for assembly is one of the most daunting tasks for people who want to become a PCB master on the first try. This blog post includes a series of effective tips that will ensure a smooth quick turn printed circuit board design and assembly process for the newbie’s.

Want to become a PCB Master on the first try? Follow these effective tips for PCB Design and assembly

Focus on part-to-part spacing

Most of the new designers struggle with component-to-component spacing. Placing two components too close to each other can create numerous issues that may result in redesigning and prefabricating which is a time-consuming and expensive affair.

PCB masters make the best use of different techniques to avoid the potential issues that could arise from component disarrangement. They design the footprints in the manner that there is always an adequate gap between the component boundaries and component shapes do not overlap each other.  Also, make sure that PCB Design for Assembly Guidelines, component rules and requirements, and proximity regulations have been well-established while designing software for PCB Designing.

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The best tips for high Speed PCB routing

 

When it comes to routing a circuit board a PCB designer has a difficult task. When high speed PCB routing and signals are involved things get more complicated. In an effort to help different PCB designers, a list of best high speed PCB routing practices has been made that will assist them in achieving that perfect high-speed design.

It was not that long when the word “high speed” didn’t exist in the vocabulary of PCB designers. However these days, it seems to be just opposite. At that time, the only concern was all about putting the puzzle pieces together and strategist your way through a physical board layout. But what with high speed design? Now here there is a bunch of invisible forces to worry about, things like electromagnetic interference which is also known as EMI, cross-talk, signal reflection and etc.

To handle the extra advanced computing needs of these devices high speed circuitry is required in dense PCB designs. Other than that is the RF portion of these devices which increases the complexity of their small yet powerful circuit boards. However to successfully design these boards, PCB designers need to balance the requirements of a board that has both high speed and RF PCB routing on it.

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Understanding Thermal Profiling PCBs

 

Normally, in the production and assembly of electronic products, precise control of process parameters is essential. Usually this process is done by continuous monitoring and record process parameters which includes thermal profiling of PCBs. Basically, thermal profiling of PCB’s involves controlling the temperatures during the component soldering on the PCB.

What is Thermal Profiling for Assembly?

The common industry practice is to develop one of the three types of thermal profiles; it depends on PCB size and largely on guesstimates. Its consequences include a high probability of cold solder joints and damaged components. These issues sometimes lead to inordinate extra re-work and assembly costs and OEM product delays.

Also thermal profiling of PCB’s or temperature profiling is very important for any manufacturing process along with the heat treatment. Other than this it involves plotting the temperature at numerous points on a given product as it passes through thermal process. If you say typically, a thermal profile is a complex set of time-temperature data. That is why, the thermal profile is all about controlling the different dimensions like peak, soak, or slope, etc. that usually affect the process. It is an important part of efficient PCB design services that require advanced PCB manufacturing and assembly equipment.

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Different Benefits of surface-mount technology PCB

 

What is Surface mount technology? Surface mount technology is part of the electronic assembly that deals with the mounting of electronic components to the surface of the PCB. This way mounted electronic components are called surface mounted devices (SMD). The main purpose after the development of SMT was to minimize the manufacturing costs while making efficient use of PCB space. Other than that the introduction of surface mount technology has enabled PCB design services for highly complex electronic circuits with the smaller assemblies. There are any benefits of surface-mount technology PCB’s which we will discuss further in the blog.

In other ways if we try to study we can also say that Surface-mount technology (SMT) is a method for producing electronic circuits in which the components are mounted or placed directly onto the surface of printed circuit boards (PCBs). Such an electronic device is known as Surface-mount device (SMD). These devices have largely replaced the through-hole technology construction method of fitting components with wire leads into holes in the circuit board. With the through-hole technology used for components not suitable for surface mounting such as a large transformers and heat-sinked power semiconductors, both technologies can be used on the same board.

The arrivals of Surface mount technology

Surface-mount technology was developed in the 1960’s and was broadly used in the 1980s. However by 1990s, they were used in the most high-end PCB assemblies. These conventional electronic components were designed to include metal tabs or end caps that could be attached directly to the board surface; this replaced typical wire leads which needed to pass through drilled holes. The advent of SMT led to much smaller components and enabled component placement on both sides of the board more frequently than with through-hole mounting.

The Design for manufacturing (DFM) software gives circuit designers the foundation for their SMT component placement and production. Other than this the software also helps designers to consistently meet stringent industry quality standards. This is where the functional and design features should merge. 

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