Tips for Including Fonts & Graphics on a PCB
As PCB aesthetics continue to grow in importance, we’re manufacturing more designs with specific fonts and graphics as a part of the PCB’s silkscreen layer. But if you’re not following the process we’re about to describe, don’t be surprised if things don’t turn out quite the way you expect!
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ITAR Compliance and Printed Circuit Board Production
The U.S. Government requires all manufacturers, exporters, and brokers of defense articles, defense services or related technical data to be ITAR compliant. An increasing number of companies are requiring their supply chain to be ITAR compliant based on the use of the end product even though they may not be engaged in the “export” of the product or its technical information.
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University of Florida Solar Racing Team: PCBs for Education
Our PCBs for Education program enables us to help future engineers by actively partnering with professors and students in support of their classroom engineering projects and team competitions. We’d like to highlight one such group, the University of Florida Solar Racing Team which aims to spread awareness for solar energy by designing and building a solar-powered race car.
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Secrets of a Fabrication Drawing
Essential to the success of any printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing project are the detailed notes included in the fabrication drawing. While the design files (typically Gerber or ODB++) contain the most basic structure and outline of the board design, it is the fabrication drawing that tells the manufacturer the specific details about a board that make it unique.
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Gerber File Issues: Tips to Avoid Most Common Problems
The PCB manufacturing process is complex. The precision of the manufactured PCBs hinges on many things, but none more important than accurate and complete manufacturing or design data, most often Gerber files. A wide variety of PCB design software applications are used to produce manufacturing data, and the complexity of each design can vary significantly.
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Circuit Board Design Tips for Hard or Soft Gold
Due to the specialized nature of hard gold and soft gold surface finishes, many designers never encounter the particular challenges associated with these surface finishes. As a result, the first build for a hard or soft gold PCB can often be cumbersome and even surprising.
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