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2.5 Workmanship and Acceptance Criteria
Quality cannot be negotiated after the solder has cooled. Subjective terms like "good enough," "n...
2.4 Process Specs: Alloys, Stencils and Chemistry
Soldering is not applying conductive glue; it is a complex metallurgical process relying on phase...
2.3 Land Patterns, Spacing and Polarity
A component footprint is not merely a drawing; it is a prediction of how molten solder will behav...
2.2 Surface Finishes and Panelization Strategy
The physical interface between the component and the PCB is defined by two factors: the planarity...
2.1 Material Science, Stackups and Via Architecture
A printed circuit board defined solely by Gerber files is a suggestion, not a specification. With...
1.6 Engineering Queries, ECO and Deviation Control
Informal agreements via instant messaging, email threads, or verbal confirmations are non-existen...
1.5 Release Checklist and Freeze Rules
For an EMS provider, the NPI Gate is the primary defense against liability. Once you accept a dat...
1.4 Assembly Outputs: Centroid, Rotations, Polarity and Stencil Inputs
SMT programming is not an interpretative art; it is a coordinate translation task. If the input d...
1.3 CAD/CAM Outputs: Fabrication Package Definition
The fabrication package is the blueprint for the physical substrate. If this data is incomplete, ...
1.2 The Bill of Materials (BOM) & Revision Control
The Bill of Materials (BOM) is not merely a purchasing list; it is the primary driver for SMT pro...
1.1 The GDP Standard: Formats, Directory & Integrity
Production failure begins with data ambiguity. If the input data is fluid, the manufacturing outp...
1.7 Supply Chain and Logistics: Speed vs Stability
A product sitting on a factory loading dock is not revenue; it is a liability. It only becomes va...
1.6 Cost and Lead-Time Drivers Without the Math
The final price of an electronic assembly is not determined by a random markup; it is a summation...
1.5 The Minimum Manufacturing Data Pack
A manufacturing line does not run on good intentions; it runs on data. The most common cause of p...
1.4 The End-to-End Lifecycle: Prototype → NPI → Mass Production
A common and expensive misconception is that Mass Production is simply a Prototype built at high ...
1.3 Who Does What: OEM, EMS, ODM
Manufacturing relationships are defined by one question: Who owns the Intellectual Property (IP)?...
1.2 What Is Being Built: PCB vs PCBA vs Box Build
Precision in terminology is the first line of defense against manufacturing error. Using "PCB" wh...
1.1 The 5-Minute Mental Model
Electronics manufacturing operates on a rigid causal loop: Product = Data + Materials + Process C...
4.4 Common Failure Modes and the Debug Workflow
A zero-defect manufacturing run is a theoretical ideal, not an operational reality. When a produc...
4.3 Risk Management for EMS Projects
In electronics manufacturing, optimism is a liability. A successful project manager does not hope...