PCB design is a vast subject in itself. Make the best PCB design with all the features you can for an application, it will be only accepted in the market if the design is cheap to manufacture or is a balance of cost and performance. A product is considered successful if it can sell up to or above expectations. Many factors cannot be controlled like the R&D cost and prototyping cost but some factors can be controlled like the economics and material cost. So we need low cost PCB manufacturing services to get the ideal PCB without compromising its quality. This article talks about the controllable cost of the PCB and how can you maximize the value of a PCB with the optimum performance.
While there are no definitive parameters to judge the quality of a PCB that has been through low cost PCB manufacturing, there are a few traits of a PCB that give an overview of the quality of a PCB –
Sturdiness – A general perception in terms of PCB quality is the sturdiness of a PCB. The PCB should not flex when it is not supposed to flex. Generally, a flexing rigid PCB gives an impression of a lack of physical quality. A PCB with longer or wider dimensions tends to flex more. This phenomenon is also observed in rigid PCBs which are thin when manufacturers take on low cost PCB manufacturing. Therefore, a PCB must be adequately thick according to its dimensions.
Signal Integrity – Signal Integrity in PCB is crucial for high-speed applications or even data transceiving applications. Concerning low cost PCB manufacturing, if the PCB is causing high attenuation or high data loss to the signals then the quality of the PCB is deemed as poor. It is recommended that at least minimum guidelines for a protocol for data transceiving be maintained.
Heating of PCB – A PCB should not get excessively hot in normal working conditions (please note that heating of PCB is quite different from heating of components). The PCBs generally heat up when there is a shorting of a power and ground net at some place or the amount of current is much higher than the capacity of a trace. After the low cost PCB manufacturing, a PCB with consistent heating can be considered as a poor-quality PCB. Usually, a heating PCB is perceived as a PCB with an inadequate amount of copper thickness. A heated PCB also tends to decrease the efficiency of the components mounted on the PCB.
While several other traits give an overview of the quality these are the major traits of PCB that give an impression of the quality of the PCB that has been through low cost PCB manufacturing.
It is important to first understand the factors contributing to the low cost PCB manufacturing. A few major factors affecting the cost of a PCB are-
In low cost PCB manufacturing, the major cost of the PCB is implied by the material of the PCB used. Common materials like general-purpose FR-4 are very cheap but they are incapable of many high-speed, high-power, flex or high-frequency applications. Therefore special materials for such applications are used which are several times more expensive than FR-4. Some specialised materials require different fabrication processes during low cost PCB manufacturing which further shoots up PCB costs.
The dimensions of the PCBs are very influential to the cost of the PCBs. The cost of the PCB is directly proportional to the surface area of the PCB. However, disproportionately long or wide PCBs may cost more than the conventional area is-to-price ratio. Further irregular shapes in the low cost PCB manufacturing also tend to cost more than shapes such as rectangles and circles.
Multilayer PCBs have a layer stackup that tells the thickness of the copper and the dielectric material ( prepreg or core) used in a PCB. In low cost PCB manufacturing, layer stackup is a critical aspect of the cost of a PCB. Using an unconven
