As a PCB innovation company, PCBWay is committed to solving the pain points of PCB procurement and meeting customers’ various PCB procurement needs — offering special plates such as Rogers, copper substrates, aluminum substrates, and high-frequency high-speed HDI.
Recently, with the efforts of the technical department, PCBWay has added many special technologies.
The resistance encountered by high-frequency signals or electromagnetic waves in the transmission signal lines of electronic components is called characteristic impedance. When the digital signal is transmitted on the board, the characteristic impedance value of the PCB must match the electronic impedance of the head and tail components. Once there is a mismatch, the transmitted signal energy will be reflected, scattered, attenuated, or delayed, seriously affecting signal integrity. In this case, impedance control must be performed to match the characteristic impedance value of the PCB to the component.
At present, in PCBWay’s prototype of FR-4, FPC, a rigid-flex board, the impedance control process can achieve 2–20 layers and the impedance tolerance is ±10% (limit ±8%).
Blind holes are only visible on one of the top or bottom layers, that is, blind holes are drilled from the surface, but not through all layers. Buried holes are through holes in the inner layer, both sides of the hole are inside the board layers, in other words, holes buried inside the board. The application of blind buried holes greatly reduces the size and quality of HDI (High-Density Interconnect) PCBs, reduces the number of layers, improves electromagnetic compatibility, reduces costs, and also makes PCB design work easier and faster.
At this stage, the application of PCBWay’s blind buried hole technology in the FR-4 prototype has broken through the highest level of 20 layers. The thickness of the board is ≤6.0mm. The stage of blind holes is 1~4, the minimum aperture is 0.076mm, and the technology is laser drilling.
Adhere a layer of copper foil on the outer layer of FR-4, when the copper thickness is 2oz or above, it is defined as a thick copper PCB. The thick copper PCB has excellent extension performance, high temperature, and low-temperature resistance, and corrosion resistance, which allows electronic equipment products to have a longer service life, and also greatly helps the size of electronic equipment to be simplified.
At present, PCBWay can achieve 2~6 layers in thick copper PCB technology(more than 6 layers needs to be reviewed). The maximum copper thickness is 10oz, the minimum via is 0.4~0.6mm.
With the continuous emergence of high-speed circuits, the complexity of PCB boards is getting higher and higher. In order to avoid the interference of electrical factors, the signal layer and the power layer must be separated, so multiple layers are involved. The stack-up structure is an important factor that affects the EMC performance of the PCB, and also an important means to suppress electromagnetic interference. For the number of signal networks, the greater the device density, the greater the PIN density, the higher the frequency of the signal design should try to use a multi-layer special stack-up structure.
At this stage, the special stacks that PCBWay can do are 2–8 layers.
Nickel electroplating also refers to electroplated gold, electrolytic gold, etc. It uses electroplating to attach gold particles to the PCB. Because of its strong adhesion, it is called hard gold; using this process can greatly increase the hardness and wear resistance of the PCB, and can effectively prevent the diffusion of copper and other metals. And can meet the requirements of hot press welding and brazing. The coating can be uniform and meticulous, with low porosity, low stress, and good ductility. Therefore, it is widely used in PCB proofing.
Electroless Nickel Electroless Palladium Immersion Gold(ENEPIG) is to deposit a layer of nickel, palladium, and gold on the surface of the printed circuit copper layer by chemical methods in PCB prototype. It is a non-selective surface processing technology. It uses 10 nm thick gold plating and 50 nm thick palladium plating to achieve good electrical conductivity, corrosion resistance, and anti-friction properties. The thickness of its copper layer will directly affect the various physical and appearance properties mentioned above.
ENEPIG is the latest technology currently used in the PCB prototype.
In the PCB manufacturing process, it is often encountered that the production of non-circular holes which called special-shaped holes. Including an 8-shaped hole, a diamond hole, a square hole, a zigzag hole, etc.. It is mainly divided into two types: Plated Through Hole (PTH) and Non-Plated Through Hole (NPTH). For the smallest aperture, PCBWay can achieve 0.2mm.
With the diversified development of electronic products, special concave fixed components are gradually applied to PCB design, resulting in a deep groove. At this stage, PCBWay can achieve depth control depth tolerance ±0.1mm, depth control depth aperture ratio 1.3:1 (aperture ≤0.2mm), 1.15:1 (aperture ≥0.25mm), mechanical control depth drilling depth tolerance ±0.1 mm.
