You have a great idea in mind. You've spent weeks or even months finalizing and testing it, and finally, it's time to bring your ideas no paper and design a custom circuit board or, in short - PCB.
When designing a PCB or PCBA board, you'll need to use different PCB design services to accompany different designs and requirements. This article will explain how to get started and choose the right PCB design service for your next project.
In this article, we'll explain different PCB design services and methods, from a circuit board design of layout and schematic to purchasing components and fabricating the project using a PCBA service. Every project has different specifications and demands, but the general procedure and required PCB design services usually stay the same.
Concept design and prototyping
Before heading to create your custom printed circuit board, it wouldn't be a bad idea to check whenever it can work. Usually, printed circuit board designs are irreversible once produced, making every mistake during the pcb design process. And you'll need to produce a new PCB to correct that mistake.
In order to lower the risks and the time, before going for production and actual printed circuit board design, it is highly suggested to prototype using direct components and breadboard. PCB design services will often recommend the same before approaching a design. They would like to custom circuit board design requirements according to the customer. The idea is feasible and workable.
PCB Design services
Once you validated your circuit board design idea, the first stage is to design a printed circuit board. The PCB design has two main steps: PCB circuit board design (also called PCB Design Services - from idea to a product.) PCB schematic design services to fulfill your needs. The second is PCB layout design. We combine these two stages into one final design. The result after manufacturing will be a printed circuit board (PCB).
The PCB design service provider will use a PCB design software such as Altium designer or Eagle. The software is just a tool, and each hardware designer will choose the one he is familiar with. The decision of which software to use will usually not affect the quality of the PCB design.
PCB schematic design
In the circuit board design process, the engineer will first understand the logic of the board and its function. He will choose which components to use, which integrated circuits (IC) to embed, and create the logic which will result in the functionality of the circuit board design. This stage is crucial and is directly connected to the board functionality and the behavior of the final product.
In this stage, it's also important to consider the environment that will expose the PCB circuit board, such as excessive heat or cold radiation. Based on those parameters, the PCB designer could choose suitable components for either industrial or commercial use. To avoid costly mistakes, it's essential to communicate with the design service provider (individual engineer or a company) sufficiently to make sure that the design fits the end-case use of the final product.
PCB layout design
The PCB layout design follows the schematic design. Once we finish the PCB circuit board design and the schematic, it's time to lay out the components. This stage complexity depends on the number of layers that the printed circuit board design includes. The more layers, the more complex the task will be. While the layout is usually easier than the initial PCB schematic, there are many things that the engineer or the PCB design service provider should consider. Such as components' location and orientation, correct grounding, antenna placement, and high-speed data transfers, which might require specific circuit board design requirements.
The printed circuit board designer will consider other more technical approaches, such as making sure that the board nodes are accessible and providing clear orientation for the components to avoid mistakes in production. PCB Design Services that from idea to a product will fulfill your needs.
In the layout process, the circuit board designer will be able to put a layer of silkscreen. This layer is visible and often used to place texts and logos on the printed circuit board. In this case, it would be a great idea to provide your designer or engineer extra content such as project or company logo and other information that should be visible on top of the final printed circuit board.
PCBA services
When the printed circuit board layout and schematic design are finished, it's time to approach the production stage. During the printed circuit board assembly service, we'll handle the production of the finished printed circuit board design. This includes purchasing and placing components, applying solder paste using custom stencil steel mesh, and performing multiple tests to ensure product quality.
We are at PCBasic to provide a turn-key solution for PCB and PCBA services, including but not limited to all the above. Let's read the details of such complicated fabrication services to understand what is going on behind the scenes.
Components purchasing
To facilitate the custom circuit board, we need to purchase the required components. At PCBasic, we'll take care of that by offering a turn-key solution from PCB to PCBA production. Components purchasing might sound like an easy task, but that's far from the truth. The market is suffering from components and integrated circuit shortages. Finding suitable suppliers and at a reasonable price is not an easy task. Another issue when purchasing components is to avoid counterfeit parts, resulting in the entire design malfunction and loss of profits. Although such cases' implications are severe, we can avoid those problems by using a trusted supplier and service provider.
Stencil Steel-mesh
Every printed circuit board contains electronic components. Those can be few components and sometimes hundreds of different parts. Usually, the industry uses a solder paste to apply the components into the printed circuit board. Stencil steel mesh is used to distribute the solder paste eventually across the entire printed circuit board. A single stencil can be used thousands of times, which is also a cost-effective approach for a finalized design.PCB Design Services - from idea to a product, PCB/PCBA services to fulfill your needs.
Printed circuit board assembly
Once we have the printed circuit board, the components, and the stencil steel mesh in place, it's time to head over to our published circuit board assembly procedure or, in short - PCBA. The PCBA is the final stage in the printed circuit board design, and the result is a final working electronic board that behaves based on the designer's expectations.
PCBasic offers such PCBA services to ensure smooth, reliable, and fast printed circuit board assembly fabrication, providing the customer the maximum quality in the minimum time. Whenever it's a single sample or mass production of thousands of circuit boards, PCBasic can fulfill your needs and demands.
