Develop And Design Rigid PCB Panels

When a hardware designer designs a PCB, he will consider the electrical signal and the layout of components on the circuit board and pay attention to the function of the product. PCB manufacturing and assembly are less considered. In order to make PCB production go smoothly, especially SMT assembly, special attention should be paid to PCB assembly design.

The PCB panel is a combination of multiple PCB unit boards with various possible connection modes, as shown in the figure below.

The Reason of PCB Panel

• 1. Improve SMT assembly efficiency. The more PCB unit boards a panel contains, the less the average time of on orbit transmission and operation of a single PCB, and the higher the utilization of bonding equipment, which can greatly improve the production efficiency of SMT.
• 2. Improve SMT production quality and prevent adverse problems in the production process. The distribution density of PCB components is high, and some components such as edge connector contour may exceed the edge of PCB. Before reflow soldering and wave soldering are completed, all these components are removable. Therefore, it is necessary to disconnect additional guide rails and increase the area of the whole panel to prevent these edge components from being affected by external factors and reduce the assembly quality.
• 3. It is easy to operate and prevent damage. The design of the panel is also convenient for the operation of the production line. PCB assembly requires many steps. Finished PCB or semi-finished PCB shall be put into the turnover box, and these PCBs shall be transferred, stored, and transported by the turnover rack. These operations require specific process edges to prevent damage to components on the PCB board.

Type of Panel

No matter what kind of PCB, a panel structure is usually required. However, there are many ways to design panels. It is sometimes difficult to determine which method and the number of panels to use.

PCB panels are usually made in a variety of ways, such as ABAB, ABCD or AAAA. It is difficult to generalize. Which type of panel is good needs to be determined by comprehensively considering the density and distribution of components on the board and the configuration of equipment. All these types of panels have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Combined panel (ABCD):

This type of panel has some advantages. First, it is applicable to the manufacturing mode with multiple PCB combinations in household appliances, toys and other products. Secondly, it is conducive to improve production efficiency, reduce costs, greatly reduce product turnover and semi-finished product inventory, and meet the needs of customers for rapid shipment.

However, this type of panel also has disadvantages. On the one hand, in the process of assembly line operation, product differentiation is difficult to manage, resulting in product confusion. On the other hand, when a board in the combination is of poor quality or even scrapped, the total number of panels will decrease, which is not conducive to manufacturing remedy.

Combined panel (AAAA):

As a common method, AAAA combined panel is the most widely used panel method. Many advantages contribute to its current leadership. First, this type of panel is suitable for all situations, regardless of the manufacturing conditions and product portfolio of SMT manufacturers. Secondly, the order panel is not affected by the manufacturing quantity, and the maximum number of panels can be effectively realized according to the maximum number of SMT equipment, so as to achieve the highest manufacturability in all panel combinations. Third, in the process of printing template design, the printing quality will not be reduced due to the influence of the pad direction of special components, and the operation will not be too difficult.

Factors Affecting PCB Panel Price

• 1. Cost of substrate and film. For the sample order, the panel with the default size of NEXTPCB less than 100 * 100mm shall not contain more than 10 single PCBs. For example, when a customer places a sample order, his requirement is that the panel size is 100 * 100mm, but the panel contains 14 veneers, so we need to charge substrate fee and film coating fee.
• 2. Number of boreholes. If the number of holes required by the customer exceeds the number specified by us, the cost will increase. For example, by default, the number of holes in each 100 * 100 mm area should not exceed 500. If the number of holes required by the customer exceeds 500, we will increase the cost according to certain rules.
• 3. V-number of cuts. If the quantity of V-CUT required by the customer exceeds the quantity specified by us, the cost will increase. For example, by default, the number of V cuts per 100 * 100 mm area should not exceed 10. If the number of V-cutting required by the customer exceeds 10, we will increase the cost according to certain rules.
• 4. Electrical test. As for electrical testing, different orders will have different test charges. If the standard is exceeded, the cost will increase.
• 5. Emergency expenses. Generally, our products will arrive at the customer within 3 days after the customer pays, but if the customer needs to hurry, we will charge a certain fee.