Routing Signals Between PWB Layers –  Part 1, An ESD Example Here is another in our guest blog posts from Doug Smith.  You can learn more about Doug at his website www.emcesd.com. Figure 1. Signal Current Flow in a Layer Transition Abstract: Printed wiring board, PWB, signal paths must often change layers in a board stackup. Under some conditions this can cause problems. An ESD example is used to illustrate Read More..

Here is another great video from Dave Jones of EEVBlog. A follow on from some of the recent blogs that have involved basic thermal heatsink calculation. This time around Dave takes you though the basic theory of thermal design and how heatsink calculations work. Then there are some real world temperature measurements to see how close to the theory we get. How do you read a heatsink thermal response graph? Read More..

This is a blog post of a recent paper written by Jim Quilici.  Jim is an electrical engineer working on new technology uses for magnetics in electronics.  This is post is a recent paper Jim wrote for the IPC Apex show.  He is also a Bay Area Circuits customer. Jim Quilici Radial Electronics El Dorado Hills, Ca. Abstract — Inductors and transformers are basic building blocks in electronic systems. Their Read More..

For the next in our PCB101 series we will be talking about the final fabrication on the board. Once we finished applying the board finishes mentioned in our last post in this series it is time to cut our rout out the individual boards. The boards can be routed out as individual small boards or they may be an array (multiple boards) still connected via tabs or score lines.  This Read More..

This post is a guest post from Doug Smith.  Doug is an electrical engineer who trains other electrical engineers in EMC Design.  His website emcesd.com is a wealth of information.  We appreciate his contribution to our site. Figure 1. PCB Layout with Noise and Signal Ground Areas Abstract: Printed Circuit Board designers sometimes place protective devices on external signals as they enter a PCB and shunt the current from these devices to Read More..

I wonder if you have ever seen one of these 3D printers.  They are used to make quick prototype designs and even can be used to make final production products. They are quite an amazing piece of technology.  There are several ways that the process works but basically it is taking a polymer and applying it a small layer at a time until the final object is completed. There are Read More..

Applying the surface finish is one of the last steps of manufacturing a printed circuit board. The surface PCB finish is designed to prevent oxidation of the remaining exposed copper, while the soldermask covers the majority of the circuitry. This is important because oxidized copper cannot be soldered. In rare instances, when a printed circuit board requires “body gold,” the finish is applied to the copper prior to the soldermask Read More..

This post is a guest post from Doug Smith.  Doug is an electrical engineer who trains other electrical engineers in EMC Design.  His website emcesd.com is a wealth of information.  We appreciate his contribution to our site. If you have any comments or questions please post them below and we will have Doug answer them for you. Ferrite cores are often installed on cables to insert a common mode impedance. Read More..

Alright let us do a quick re-cap of what we have covered so far. We have given an overview of some basic materials and the initial process for developing imaging for inner layers. We have covered the lamination and drill process. Now we are coming down the home stretch. Now that the panels are drilled we need to do the outer layer image and copper plating process. That begins with Read More..

We learned how the inner core of a 4 layer PCB is processed prior to adding the outside layers in our last post. In this post we will take about the next part of our “sandwich” construction – but first, let’s start with a brief introduction of foil lamination. Foil Lamination There are a variety of ways that foil lamination is used as well as a variety of materials that Read More..

We like to hear from our customers on how we are doing. So we setup this comment page so we can hear the good and the not so good if needed of how we are meeting your expectations. Please take a minute and let us know in the comment box below. [testimonial testimonialimgurl=”” tessize=”small” style=”TA”] The boards arrived a day earlier than I expected, and the quality was fantastic! You, Read More..

I just wanted to thank Angela Alexander from Iconnect007.com for attending our workshop and doing this write up.  Angela also took the pictures you see here as well.   Recently I was invited to Bay Area Circuits for an evening of Pizza, Pop, and PCBs. The event was organized by Peter Brissette, Marketing Manager at Bay Area Circuits in Redwood City, CA. The seminar has long been a dream of Read More..

In our last post we talked about the basic material used to start the PCB manufacturing process. If we were doing a double sided board it would actually be going into drill at this part of the process. We will get to that eventually. What we are going to do is walk through the multilayer process which is a different process initially. We will pick up at drill and the Read More..

This is the first in a series of articles that will explain what is involved in the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) manufacturing process of a double sided PCB and a multilayer PCB. This will be very high-level overview to provide someone who is not familiar with the manufacturing process the basics of how a PCB is manufactured. Those who will find this series most useful will be hobbyists, students, and Read More..

Common Problems with Gerber Files and How to Avoid Them! The reasons we want to address these common problems is to help reduce the number of errors, mistakes and time delays when manufacturing your PCB. All of these reflect in higher costs in the long run which no one needs! Obsolete File Format: There are basically two types of file formats: 274D (requires aperture list) and 274X (apertures are embedded Read More..

Gerber File Extension For those that are not familiar with the Gerber file extension designation of rs274d vs rs274x we put together some basic information to help you understand the difference and why it is important in the PCB ordering and manufacturing process. How can just a letter make such a big difference? At first glance the “d” would seem like it would be better than the “x”. After all Read More..