Many customers choose our PCBWay as their only PCB manufacturer, not only because of the high quality and unbeatable price, but also because we can provide excellent services on PCBWay.com. And one of them that has been mentioned a lot by customers is “Production Status” on the Background management. So let me introduce it clearly to all of you.
MI(Manufacture Instruction)：
Customer’s file (Gerber) is used to generate the manufacturing data for the specific PCB (artworks for imaging processes and drill data for drilling programs). Engineers compare demands/specifications against capabilities to ensure compliance and also determine the process steps and associated checks. No changes are allowed without customer’s permission.
Cut Lamination：
Each CCL(copper clad laminates) is divide into several small pieces.
Drill：
We now have to drill the holes that will subsequently create electrical connections within the multi-layer PCB. This is a mechanical drilling process that must be optimised so that we can achieve registration to all of the the inner layer connections. The panels can be stacked at this process.
Inner Circuit：
The process of transferring electronic data to the photo-plotter, which in turn uses light to transfer a negative image circuitry pattern onto the panel or film.
Inner Eaching：
Remove the unwanted copper from the panel. Once this copper has been removed, the remaining dry film is then removed leaving behind the copper circuitry that matches the design.
Inner Laminating:
The inner layers have an oxide layer applied and then “stacked” together with prepreg providing insulation between layers and copper foil is added to the top and bottom of the stack. The lamination process consists of placing the internal layers under extreme temperature (375 degrees Fahrenheit) and pressure (275 to 400 psi) while laminating with a photosensitive dry resist. The PCB is allowed to cure at a high temperature, the pressure is slowly released and then the material is slowly cooled.
Plated Through Hole:
A complex chemical process that must be strictly controlled to allow a reliable deposit of copper to be plated even onto the non-metallic hole wall. Whilst not a sufficient amount of copper on its own, we now have electrical continuity between layers and through the holes.Panel plating follows on from PTH to provide a thicker deposit of copper on top of the PTH deposit – typically 5 to 8 um. The combination is used to optimise the amount of copper that is to be plated and etched in order to achieve the track and gap demands
Circuit(Print Outer Layers&Pattern Plating)：
The process of transferring electronic data to the photo-plotter, which in turn uses light to transfer a positive image circuitry pattern onto the panel or film.
Etching (Outer Layers):
This is normally a three-step process. The first step is to remove the blue dry film. The second step is to etch away the exposed/unwanted copper whilst the tin deposit acts an etch resist protecting the copper we need. The third and final step is to chemically remove the tin deposit leaving the circuitry.
AOI:
The imaged and etched panel is scanned to make sure that the circuitry meets design and that it is free from defects.
Solder Mask：
Solder mask ink is applied over the whole PCB surface. Using artworks and UV light we expose certain areas to the UV and those areas not exposed are removed during the chemical development process – typically the areas which are to be used as solderable surfaces. The remaining solder mask is then fully cured making it a resilient finish.This step of the process is performed in a clean room.
Silkscreen：
Traditionally, silkscreen has been applied using a traditional screen printing process. Increasingly, silkscreen is applied using a custom-built digital printer with an ink-jet technology.White is the standard silkscreen color.
Surface Treatment:
Various finishes are then applied to the exposed copper areas. This is to enable protection of the surface and good solderability. The various finishes can include Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold, HASL, Immersion Silver etc. Thicknesses and solderability tests are always carried out.
Routing:
This is the process of cutting the manufacturing 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 or punching. All dimensions are measured against the customer supplied drawing to ensure the panel is dimensionally correct.
Testing:
Used for checking the integrity of the tracks and the through hole interconnections – checking to ensure there are no open circuits or no short circuits on the finished board. There are two test methods, flying probe for smaller volumes and fixture based for volumes.We electrically test every multi-layer PCB against the original board data. Using a flying probe tester we check each net to ensure that it is complete (no shortor open circuits)
Package:
Boards are wrapped using materials that comply with ESD and are shipped using the requested courier service.
