Advantages of cost effectiveness | Low Cost PCB Prototype

A PCB Prototype is a tiny device as compared to the original circuit PCB assembly. It is employed in the circuit to connect its electronic parts. The prototype is also used for ensuring an even functioning of the circuit-employed electronic/electrical device.



A prototype uses electronic signals or pre-defined paths that are derived from the copper components. These copper components are laminated on an insulated material. By the moment the PCB gets complete, its every attribute is tested. Upon completion the electronic components of the device are attached to each other to form a Printed circuits board assembly (PCBA). These attachments are done with help of soldering. It is further tested in various conditions to check its durability and performance. To test, temporary connections are made to the PCB prototype.

A major shortcoming is that the servicing of this prototype is quite difficult.

A coating is done on the PCB prototypes. It is made of polyurethane or epoxy. The coating is done in order to prevent current leakages and shorts within the circuit that occur because of condensation.

Advantages of Low-cost PCB:

Printed circuits are the latest advancements in the electronic technology and so far these have turned out to be the best. It is prominent to generate cost effectiveness by using low cost PCB prototypes.

There are many companies in the PCB manufacturing field that have put quotations for low cost PCBs online. Out these ‘many companies’ some have been claiming their quotations to be the best in the market that too at prices. These prices eventually turn out to be advantageous for the buyers above others.

The various phases involved in the making of printed circuits including designing and manufacturing are done precisely and under the guidance of trained professionals. The details that the designers require are the Gerber files or Fab drawings. If there are any other requirements apart from Gerber files like board material, board’s thickness, solder mask, mask color, number of layers and number of layers than it is to be informed to the designers prior to the advent of designing. 

Crimp Circuits has proved to be the best option for good quality Printed circuit boards and low cost PCB prototypes. Being the best printed circuit board manufacturers in Canada they offer vast services in manufacturing printed circuits, express prototype, metal clad PCB, quick turn PCB and full turnkey services.

Read More

Flex and Flex-rigid- the contemporary printed circuits

Consider yourself as one of the best manufacturers of printed circuits in Canada, and there is a need for you to launch a new electronic product in the market. The first difficulty to face; will that be the design of the product? No, the main challenge faced in the manufacturing process is the selection of the printed circuits that will actually give life to the product.

Choosing between a flex and flex-rigid PCB becomes a simpler ordeal with this article on Flex and flex-rigid PCBs. This article covers almost all the aspects of the PCB’s pros & cons, cost derivatives, efficient and tolerance. These two types of PCBs can be considered as the evolved form of the conventional rigid PCBs. They are made to fit into areas where the forces due to vibrations are high to the areas where a rigid one would be just fine. But, where both the types are required in complex circuits such as aerospace & automotive industries, the use of Flex-rigid PCBs has become prominent.


Flexible Printed Circuit Boards-

The main reason to term the PCBs as flexible is the flexibility in their design that can be shaped according to the requirement of the products design. In short, the flexible printed circuits are good enough to be molded into the shape of the product. The Designers of the product do not need to give an extra space or casing to the product or PCB respectively as they can fit these printed circuits into an existing product as well.

The flexible PCBs can give:

• Low weight addition to the existing product
• Portability: It can be easily attached and detached to the system (device)
• Durability: Flexible products are less likely to break while undergoing bending

There is no difficulty in removing the printed circuit from a particular system, change the circuitry and then can be put back into the device. It is that easy! Second best thing is its prominent usage in the automotive industry due to its durability in places with vibrations.

Advantages of using s flexible circuit board:

1. More Reliable than the conventional printed circuits as they have no mechanical connectors.
2. Temperature resistance is fine as it can withstand a few temperature undulations
3. Flexibility up to a great extent that makes these printed circuits pliable.
4. The main advantage of using a flexible PCB is that it can fit in most of the designs.
5. It is mostly efficient in conditions that are highly stressed or faster movement.

The only disadvantage with Flexible printed circuits is that they are expensive than the rigid or flex-rigid PCBs.

Flex-Rigid Printed Circuit Boards-

This type of printed circuits use both the type of Printed Circuits namely Rigid and Flexible sandwiched in form of multilayer Complex-PCB. The conductive layers are designed with an outline of flexible or rigid insulation to support the respective needs of the product. The outer layers on the board irrespective of them being in huge number are to be covered with safety covers or exposed pads. The primary rigid layer is the one that houses the conductors. Holes are used to connect the multiple layers of the Printed Circuit.

The projects that are associated with Mobile devices or some portable devices require the use of printed circuits that are flexible enough to be used at any place. Hence, this makes the Rigid PCBs limited to be used in the electronic industry where adjustment feature of the printed circuit comes into play and the Flexible PCB wins again.

Advantages of using a flex-rigid printed circuit:

1. Highly reliable: As the number of joints were less
2. Excellent resistance during temperature rise making it ideal to be used in industries such as furnace, automotive etc. Be a Formula1, all use the Flex-rigid Printed Circuit Boards.
3. Lower costs than the modern flexible Printed Circuits make it even easier to use than Flexible.
4. Can withstand high movements and stress but not as compared to the Flexible PCB.
5. Flexible than the traditional rigid circuit boards.
6. Durable enough, due to fewer connections and components.
7. Requires very low maintenance.

The Flexible PCBs can be used in many places, such as:-
Used in:

1. Automotive electronics
2. Computer Electronics
3. Medical science
4. Smart phones

Uses of Flex-Rigid printed circuits:

1. Mostly in Aerospace industry
2. Medical wearable
3. Industry

The Flex-rigid printed circuits are mostly used in the Aerospace field and rocket science where multi-layer PCBs are required to perform different attributes at the same time within a single component. Though the Flex-rigid PCBs are good as they are a combination of both flexible and Rigid PCBs, still places with minute space for circuits such as smart phones or electronic devices flexible PCBs are used to serve the design in a best possible way.

Why to choose from the Flexible and Flex-rigid PCBs?

With the latest advancements in the electronic industry, a need has raised to use flexible systems that are flexible in terms of shape as well as functionality. Though the above types can’t be used in most of the places, still these can be used in the below mentioned situations/places to obtain an efficient result.

• Mobile and moving devices require the use of any of these two printed circuits to offer efficiency
• Design is complicated enough and hence, the PCB needs to be flexible
• Corners, rough places (especially crowded with wires)
• Surface connections that are to be made with the various components of a device
• Low maintenance is required as the device can be on an external front
• The device or the board have to experience tough conditions involving the high rise in temperature within the device or the surroundings in which the device is working. 

Read More

A Quick guide on the manufacturing of Printed circuits

“Printed circuits are the future of electronics.” This statement is considered to be a cliché by most of the tech critics as they believe technology is advancing day-by-day. But this advancement has to be in circuits. Why?

Well, circuits are the most essential part of any device. The ‘brain’ and ‘heart’ in a human vessel has never been changed not even by the creator nor by humans themselves. Similarly, the printed circuits (‘brain’ off a device) can be developed but not changed until the tech-geeks find another power source. Printed circuit boards are an invention that can be observed in almost all the electronic devices. Its basic function is to connect the components of the device and transmit electric power to them. It also provides an area for the surface-clamped wires.

Hence, we can say that like brain PCB tells blood (here electricity) its path, on which it sshoukd flow to reach the organs (here circuit components). It sends current via a set of connections consisting copper pathways around its body (circuit). Yet, to manufacture a PCB a designer has to visit the fabrication industry first and inquire about the requirements for the PCB’s manufacturing. This is the reason behind the outsourcing for manufacturing of PCBs as companies want minimal errors and maxed-up efficiency.

Below is a perfect guide to help the PCB designers to get over the errors and design an efficient printed circuit board.
Steps that will lead to designing of an efficient PCB:

STEP-1 Designing and output estimation

The primary thing in this designing section is the software on which the design has been made. It is recommended for the designers to inform the manufacturer about the version of the software so that it might not get complicated when the manufacturing starts. Various designing software for designing a PCB are: CAD, KiCad, Altium designer, Pads, Eagle and so on…

After the design has been approved for reaching the production stage, the designer must convert the file into a format that the designer supports. Here, Gerber can be used as it’s the most prominent product in the market. It is also known as IX274X.

Important information like drill drawing, component notations, copper tracking the layers, apertures etc, are encoded with the help of the Gerber. Hence, IX274X has been considered as the best output format. The software uses algorithms to counter check every aspect of the design and so, leaves no error. Here, another inspection is carried out by the designer that goes by the name of design for manufacturing as it tests all the tolerances that it should have before it undergoes the Manufacturing process.

STEP-2 When Files are replaced by Films!

The schematic files made by the designers are replaced by the ‘negatives’ (conventional photography films). These films are used by manufacturers when they print the circuit board’s design using a ‘plotter’- a laser printer. These designs on films are used to image the printed circuit on the copper board. The technology of a plotter makes it efficient enough to provide a properly detailed design, the way it was on the software.

A sheet with the negatives on it in black is obtained from the plotter. In this design, the inked part represents the copper parts of the printed circuits. The clear patches on the plastic sheet represent the non-conductive parts of the circuit board. The area other than the copper’s conductive part will be removed. The sheets are used for the circuit board’s surface and solder masks. Hence, for designing a two layer PCB, four sheets are required.

The sheets should stick along the circuit’s body in such a manner that it should not disobey the alignment pattern. However, to give the sheets a perfect alignment you must create the connection holes in a manner that they face each other accurately else the circuit’s alignment will be disintegrated.

STEP-3 Creation of the printed layers on the copper surface 

This is the initial stage of the creation of a PCB. The printed circuits are inscribed on a copper plate. It’s time to start the making of that copper plate actually. The board is made of substrate materials which are epoxy resin and glass fiber. The board is laminated in order to hold the copper over its surface. The substrates provide stiffness to the circuit board as well as make the board’s body a dust-resistance one. Copper is coated on both sides of the circuit board. To stop the circuit from being short or open it is decontaminated and cleaned so that no dust particle remains on the copper coated board.

It also consists of a layer that has photo chemicals over it. Now, that is what the photo films we created in the previous step require to settle on the copper board. The copper-coated board and the photo film are sandwiched on both sides. The sandwich undergoes an interaction with the UV light. The UV light here, hardens the photo film on the copper layer making them one. The ink markings from plotters prevent the UV rays from reaching the circuits structure areas.

The alkaline solution and a pressure wash are used to clean the board after which it’s left to dry.
This step is used while manufacturing PCBs with more than two layers. In simple PCB manufacturing process, after the second step the manufacturer switches directly to the drilling part.

In manufacturing of multiple-layer PCBs some steps are executed before drilling:

• Copper removal
• Layer alignment
• Optical inspection
• Layer bonding

STEP-4 Drilling of the circuit holes!

A computer-controlled drill is used to create holes in the printed circuit board. The speed of the drill is approximately 150,000 rpm, well, at this speed a hole is drilled within a second. But, an average PCB consists of a hundred holes to drill thus, it takes time to drill them with precision even for a machine for it has to follow a certain path to drill all those holes.

STEP-5 Copper deposition and plating

This step is also the one that is used while creating a multi-layer PCB. This step involves the diffusion of different copper plated layers using chemical deposition.

STEP-6 Layer Imaging

After the drilling and plating the most important step in the manufacturing process comes. The photo film is deposited again. Now it contains the PCB’s design on it. This process is performed in sterile environment in order to make the PCB board perfect.

STEP-7 Plating

This step involves a repetition of the step before the previous step. Hence, it is also useful while manufacturing a multi-layer PCB.

Read More