Posts Tagged ‘extra thin pcb’

How to avoid circuits issue while the production process ?

Monday, July 13th, 2020

As we all know, the short & open circuits is a very common issues for the Printed Circuits Board, especially for the extra thin PCB, because its substrates thickness are very thin, generally from 0.4mm-0.15mm, so the circuits will be easy to be broken if we didn’t control the production process well.

So, you may want to know, as an experienced PCB manufacturer, what we will do to avoid the circuits issues?

Here let me show you what we do:

Firstly, after the process of copper plating, we will put the boards into our washing line to remove those drilling burr, surface oxide layer, etc.  To make sure the boards are fully clean before start the traces making process.

pcb washing
pcb washing

Actually, most of the open and short circuits problem are caused by the film scratching, so each operation while the pattern transfer process is very important.

That’s also why the exposure and developing need to be processed in the dust-free workshop. We will use the rack to place each PCB board separately, to avoid the touching between PCB.

pcb explosure and developing
pcb explosure and developing

After the circuits etching out, we will take the boards to do the AOI testing, to check if there are any broken circuits, short gaps, protrusions, copper surface garbage and other problems. If there is, our machine will alert the problem, and we will fix the problem or scrap the defectives boards, with this process to prevent the defective boards move to the next step.

Most importantly is that we will do the first article inspection for all the boards, as long as we found the circuits issues while the AOI process, we will not take the whole batch boards go ahead.

aoi testing
aoi testing

Besides, the operation standard while the etching process is also very important for how the traces being. So, our production team will control the running speed of the etching machine very strictly. If it is a PCB with o.5oz bottom copper , only allow walk 1.4 meters at per minute, if 2oz, walk 0.8m one minute.

etching pcb
etching pcb

Except above process, all the boards will be required to do a final electrical testing before move to the packing. For prototypes, we will use flying probe testing. For volume, we will open the E-testing fixture to do the testing.

In our company, for the extra thin PCB, if the boards thickness lower than 0.2mm to do the flying probe testing, it needs to be tested before the outline process, because the boards are too thin to support the boards well while the flying probe, it will fall down easily.

flying probe testing and electric testing
flying probe testing and electric testing

Of course, our QC people will do the double visual inspection to make sure all the boards are being well made.

fr4 pcb inspection
fr4 pcb inspection

We always try our best effort to prevent any defective boards send to customers.  

Quality and Customers Scarification, it is always our company’s pursuit.

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What kind of finishing recommended for the extra thin FR4 PCB

Thursday, June 18th, 2020

As we know, the extra thin PCB means the thickness of printed circuit board is more thin than normal PCB, which is refer to a thickness smaller than 0.4mm for 1L/ 2L & 4L PCB. For extra thin PCB, we know they are all very thin and are easily to be broken, so the option for the surface treatment of the extra thin PCB is very crucial.

So, what kind of finishing to be recommended for the extra thin Rigid PCB?

extra thin FR4 PCB
0.15mm extra thin FR4 PCB_Best Technology

Generally, there are 3 kinds finishing can be recommended for the extra thin PCB. It is OSP, ENIG (Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold), and ENEPIG.

extra thin pcb finishing
extra thin pcb finishing

But you may want to ask that lead-free Tin is also a common finishing for the PCB. Why not recommend LF HASL? 

That’s because while LF HASL Process, the PCB will be easy to be blew away, people will use heated compressed air to leveling (blowing) on the coating molten tin (lead) solder, during this process, the traces will be easy to be broken as well.

So normally, we will not recommend the LF HASL finishing for an ultra thin FR4 PCB.

HASL lead-free is only suitable for a board with minimum thickness of 0.6mm, while the standard gold immersion surface coating can support PCB with a minimum thickness of 0.2mm. For the surface treatment of ENEPIG , which plate only needs to be about 0.1 microns for palladium and about 0.1 microns for gold, (palladium is a precious metal that is much harder than gold), so for board with ENEPIG finishing, its surface will looks more smooth, that’s also why it is the most recommended surface treatment for an extra thin PCB.

extra thin PCB
0.13mm extra thin Rigid FR4 PCB_Best Technology

If you are searching for an extra thin PCB, feel freely to ask or send your inquiry to us. We will be pleased to share you more information regarding the extra thin PCB.

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