Printed Circuit Board Blog

ITAR Compliance and Printed Circuit Board Production

August 31, 2019
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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.

University of Florida Solar Racing Team: PCBs for Education

August 26, 2019
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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.

Secrets of a Fabrication Drawing

July 31, 2019
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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.

Gerber File Issues: Tips to Avoid Most Common Problems

June 30, 2019
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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.

Circuit Board Design Tips for Hard or Soft Gold

May 31, 2019
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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.

Rogers Material: Right For Your Next RF Project?

April 30, 2019
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With the increase in mobile communications from cellular phones, IoT devices and more, the demand for special materials in circuit board manufacturing has increased as well. To help you understand your options, we put together a Q&A with Rogers Corporation, a leading manufacturer of engineered materials.

Don’t Be Surprised By Markings on a PCB

March 31, 2019
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In the days of the old Model T Ford, you could get any color you wanted – as long as it was black. Not that long ago it was the same way for printed circuit boards, of course, the only …

V-Scoring for Printed Circuit Boards

February 28, 2019
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Bay Area Circuits recently installed a new Accu-Score AS-100-MAX V-scoring machine in our Silicon Valley facility. This new scoring machine will not only improve the quality of the printed circuit boards scoring process, but also shortens manufacturing process time. Both big wins for our customers. …

UC Berkeley CalSTAR Rocketry Team

February 11, 2019
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Our PCBs for Education program enables us to help future engineers by actively partnering with students in support of their classroom engineering projects and team competitions. This month we'd like to highlight the CalSTAR Rocketry Team from UC Berkeley, which designs and builds high-powered rockets for multiple national and international competitions.

Design Considerations with Heavy Copper

January 31, 2019
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Minimum line width is one of the first questions asked of a PCB manufacturer’s capabilities, but the answer rarely includes “depending on copper weight.” To simplify your design process and avoid problems at the time of manufacturing, we will demonstrate …

Printed Circuit Board Laminate Material Trends

December 31, 2018
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Recently, we at Bay Area Circuits, have seen an increase in demand for Ventec’s laminate materials in part because of the proliferation of LED lighting and IoT (Internet of Things) products which often have greater than normal requirements for thermal …

Optimize PCB Manufacturing: Technical Tips for Success

November 30, 2018
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Designing a printed circuit board poses many challenges. It can be exhilarating to complete a design and send it off to manufacturing but later deflating to receive boards and identify a failure that could have been prevented. Was a mistake …

Introduction to IPC Inspection Guidelines

September 30, 2018
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Acceptable Quality Level Before discussing IPC Inspection Guidelines, it’s important to understand the meaning of the term Acceptable Quality Level (AQL), also referred to as Acceptance Quality Limit. It is an inspection standard that prescribes the range of the number …

Bare Printed Circuit Board Electrical Test

May 31, 2018
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Visual inspections are performed following the manufacturing process of a printed circuit board to identify any potential problems. While that may work fine for a two-layer PCB, for multi-layer PCBs, it is almost impossible to visually inspect the internal layers …

Solder Paste Stencil Basics

April 30, 2018
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Solder Paste Stencils In the printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) and manufacturing electronics world, solder paste stencils are not so different from the common stencils used to paint letters/numbers or draw shapes. Solder paste stencils are designed for a similar …

Introduction to Drilling and Vias

March 31, 2018
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It wasn’t that long ago a printed circuit board was drilled using a simple drill press. The operator had to manually move the panel to the correct x and y coordinate and then pull the lever to drill an individual …

Advantages of the Gerber X2 Format

December 31, 2017
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In 2014, a new Gerber format was released call Gerber X2 (or version 2) by Ucamco, owners of the Gerber standard. If this is news to you, Ucamco has put together an excellent 5 minute intro video which can be …

Reshoring of Printed Circuit Board Manufacturing

November 30, 2017
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For many people, the words “Made in the USA” have become a rallying cry. In fact, a survey done in 2012 found that 83% of US citizens disapprove of companies that manufacture their goods overseas and they are interested in …

Bay Area Circuits Celebrates Manufacturing Day

October 9, 2017
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Bay Area Circuits, hosted a Manufacturing Day event on Friday, October 6th for the fourth consecutive year. The company opened its doors to give college engineering students a tour of its printed circuit board manufacturing operations and a look at the latest equipment upgrades and technological advancements in the industry.

Basic PCB Design Tips & Tricks

September 30, 2017
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Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) are made from fiberglass reinforced plastic with the copper wiring in trace form. All the circuit board components are held in position by soldering the components into place after drilling holes in the demarcated areas on …