We have so many tech articles about how to design pcb. However you may still curious how to manufacture boards in our factory as a designer. I know you can check the production status in your PCBWay account, it shows the mainly production process, here I will show you more details and you can download the file.
IQC is mainly to control the raw materials, including the quality inspection of incoming materials, the treatment of undesirable raw materials, inspection of components and PCB, as well as solder paste, flux and all other process materials. It might have some points as following:
According to customers’ requirements, cut the whole copper clad sheet into small pieces.
Youtube: Board Cutting ( Material issue)
the input of materials to the final packaging process, which means that IPQC will appear many times throughout the production process.
Youtube: Drilling / PCBWay PCB Manufacturing Process
In the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) production process, IPQC (In-Process Quality Control) is a crucial component. IPQC refers to monitoring and controlling product quality during the production process to ensure that the final product meets customer quality requirements. The following are the main contents of IPQC in the PCB production process:
Burrs are microscopic metal particles that are removed from the surface of the workpiece. These particles are called burrs and are formed during cutting, grinding, milling and other similar chip cutting processes. To improve quality and service life, it is necessary to remove the burrs from all metal precision parts. The traditional deburring process includes machining, grinding, polishing and other processes with different degrees of automation.
PTH is customarily called a metallized hole. It is to coat the entire hole wall with metal, so that the two sides of the printing plate or multi-layer printing plate inner and outer layers of conductive graphics to achieve electrical connectivity. The hole plating process traditionally uses chemical copper plating to deposit a thin layer of copper on the hole wall, and then electroplating the copper to a specified thickness.
Youtube: PTH
The same as step 4.
This process is the transfer of graphics from one medium to another through image transfer by using the photosensitive materials.
Take the production of inner circuit as an example: a dry film should be pressed on the substrate first and then covered with the film. Next, the illuminated place would be very different from the place not illuminated after exposing. For Photo polymeric dry films, the color of the illuminated area becomes darker, meaning that it has hardened (as a result of photo polymerization), and then developed (using sodium carbonate solution to wash away the unhardened dry film), where the original film is transparent, the dry film is retained, whereas the original film is black and the dry film is not hardened. It has been shown off. The substrate is then etched with a copper etching solution (a chemical that corrodes copper). Without the protection of the dry film, the whole army of copper is covered, and the copper surface under the dry film is retained. If our negatives use colorless transparency to represent lines and copper areas, and black to represent copper-free areas, after exposure, development, etching, the image on the negatives is transferred to the substrate. The overall result is that the circuit diagram in the CAM workstation is transferred to the substrate via Plotter output and then to the substrate through the above process. Image transfer method is widely used in PCB factory, not only in the production line, but also in the production of weld-proof, screen plate and other needs to accurately control graphics occasions have its place.
Youtube: Layer Image
The same as step 4 and 7.
After a period of electroplating to increase the thickness of the exposed area and the copper inside the through hole, the exposed area (also including the through hole) is coated with a thin layer of tin. At the end of this step, all the remaining photoresist is removed, leaving only a copper-covered panel with only tracks, pads and a thin layer of tin through the hole. At present, the typical process of PCB processing is graphics electroplating, which is to electroplate a layer of lead-tin to resist corrosion on the diagram of the circuit, and then use chemical method to corrode the remaining copper foil, known as etching.
Youtube: Panel Plating
Etching is a chemical or electro-chemical way of removing the unwanted portions of conductive or resistive material. Here are the main steps of etching as following:
Youtube: Etching
AOI is a testing method based on the principle of optics to detect common defects in welding production, which utilizes high-speed and high-precision visual processing technology to automatically detect various mounting errors and welding defects on PCB boards. The machine automatically scans the PCB through the camera and compares the tested welding spot with the qualified parameters in the database. After the analysis and processing of the image, any defects on the PCB would be marked out by the display or automatic mark for maintenance personnel to repair.
Youtube: AOI
Solder mask is a thin lacquer-like layer of polymer that is usually applied to the copper traces of a printed circuit board (PCB) for protection against oxidation and to prevent solder bridges from forming between closely spaced solder pads. Solder mask is not always used for hand soldered assemblies, but is essential for mass-produced boards that are soldered automatically using reflow or solder bath techniques, and it is traditionally green but is now available in many colors.
Youtube: Soldermask
The same as step 4, 7 and 9.
Screen printing is a printing technique whereby a mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. One color is printed at a time, so several screens can be used to produce a multicoloured image or design. The simplified process flow is as follows:
Youtube: Silkscreen
The same as step 4, 7, 9 and 14.
Surface finish, also known as surface texture or surface topography, is the nature of a surface as defined by the three characteristics of lay, surface roughness, and waviness. This process may be grinding (abrasive cutting), polishing, lapping, abrasive blasting, honing, electrical discharge machining (EDM), milling, lithography, industrial etching/chemical milling, laser texturing, or other processes.
Youtube: Surface Finish
This is the process of cutting the manufac-turing panels into specific sizes and shapes based upon the customer design as defined within the gerber data. There are 3 main options available when providing the array or selling panel – scoring, routing
