Assembly on PCB

PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD

A printed circuit board (PCB) mechanically supports and electrically
connects electronic components using conductive tracks, pads and
other features etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-
conductive substrate.

PCB's can be single sided (one copper layer), double sided (two
copper layers) or multi-layer.

Conductor on different layers are connected with plated-through holes
called vias.

Advanced PCB's may contain components - capacitors, resistors or
active devices - embedded in the substrate.

ASSEMBL
Y
After the printed circuit board (PCB) is completed, electronic
components must be attached to form a functional printed circuit
assembly, or PCA (sometimes called a "printed circuit board assembly"
PCBA). In through-hole construction, component leads are inserted in
holes. In surface-mount construction, the components are placed
on pads or lands on the outer surfaces of the PCB. In both kinds of
construction, component leads are electrically and mechanically fixed
to the board with a molten metal solder.

PCB with test connection pads

There are a variety of soldering techniques used to attach
components to a PCB. High volume production is usually done
with SMT placement machine and bulk wave soldering or reflow
ovens, but skilled technicians are able to solder very tiny parts (for
instance 0201 packages which are 0.02 in. by 0.01 in.)

by hand under
a microscope, using tweezers and a fine tip soldering iron for small
volume prototypes. Some parts may be extremely difficult to solder by
hand, such as BGA packages.

Automated PCB assembly
process
In almost all situations a bare board
loader, which may also be called a
destacker or line loader, is used to feed
unpopulated printed circuit boards into
the line at the beginning of the
production line
Introducing Boards Into
the Line
SMT Solder Paste Application

If Surface Mount Technology (SMT) is being used in the assembly process
the next item usually found in the typical production line is the Screen
Printer. This unit applies a film of solder paste to the boards at the points
where components are going to be soldered to the board. This works
something like silkscreen printing on a T-shirt. A mask is made that only
allows the paste to be "printed" only in the desired areas.
Parts Placement

Following the Screen Printer sometimes an automated optical inspection
unit or an inspection conveyor would be used to transfer boards into the
Pick & Place machine. Some machines, depending on the technology used,
are called Chip Shooters. In some cases special length entry and exit
conveyors are required to match the specific Pick & Place machine. This
machine is in a way the heart of the production process. It will "pick"
components from a supply, normally some type of roll or cartridge storage,
and "place" them in the appropriate spot on the board. The Pick & Place
machine is likely to be the largest investments in the automated production
line.

Assembly line with SMT placement machines
Soldering Machine

Following the Pick & Place machine an inspection conveyor transfer
boards into the soldering machine. When "Surface Mount Technology"
(SMT) is involved this would be a reflow oven. In this type of soldering
machine the PCBs travel inside the oven, which provides a controlled
temperature profile to melt "Reflow" the solder paste soldering on the
components.

When using "Through Hole" assembly methods a Wave Solder Machine
would be used to solder the components.
In this type of machine the PCBs travel over
a "Wave" of solder with just the bottom
of the board in contact with the molten solder.

Double Sided Boards

If product design has the board populated on both sides, as
many are today, a "Board Inverter" will be required. This
takes the board which is assembled on one side and simply
flips it over, leading for trailing edge, and sends it on to a
second screen printer that will apply solder paste to side 2
in preparation for component attachment. Next will come a
second component placement process with associated
feed and exit conveyors.

Accumulation

At the exit of the solder machine it is always a good idea to have some
type of storage device. An accumulating conveyor is used for this
purpose.

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