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22 votes
4 answers
2k views

Environmentally sustainable electronics

I am part of my company's work to become more environmentally friendly and sustainable. On a high level for the company that means pursuing ISO certifications (such as ISO 14001) and working according ...
Lars Petersson's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
1k views

What exactly makes small quantity PCB production costly compared to large quantity PCB production?

The per-PCB cost of manufacturing a small number of PCB is 10 times or more compared to the per-PCB cost of manufacturing a large number of PCBs. So what is it exactly that adds to the cost? People ...
Vidit Katlana's user avatar
9 votes
3 answers
2k views

Anyone know the premise of this PCB assembly note?

The assembly note states: Bake bare PCBs in a clean and well ventilated oven prior to assembly at 125*C for 24 hours. Why is this necessary?
klamb's user avatar
  • 312
5 votes
3 answers
2k views

Question on "Parts should be used within 5 days after opening." statement on component shipping package

I've been given the task of verifying a batch of ICs from a chinese broker, to see that the chips the company has bought are what the broker claims they are. The package we've received looks like this,...
Lars Petersson's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
172 views

How do custom security certificates find their way onto mass manufactured products?

Amazon and Microsoft both have IoT services that manage message and state brokering. These sort of services generally require machines to have unique security certificates embedded into the firmware ...
Inc1982's user avatar
  • 239
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

Placing through hole and SMT on the same side

I have a design with huge push buttons (with 6 TH holes.) There's a few of them so they do take up quite a bit of space mechanically from the top. I was thinking of placing the majority of the SMT ...
Hasman404's user avatar
  • 757
4 votes
0 answers
45 views

Populating MOLEX receptacles at industrial scale

I am a manufacturing engineer charged with implementing process improvements that reduce the total time to build an article. Our volume is such that a one minute reduction in labour results in £1K-£2K ...
placebo_me_please's user avatar
3 votes
4 answers
336 views

What are the manufacturing difficulties for a large Li-Ion battery pack?

How is a large Li-Ion battery pack, such as in a car, manufactured? What makes it difficult to produce, if anything? This question is born from the high cost of Tesla Model S, which is around $70k. ...
DrZ214's user avatar
  • 1,077
2 votes
1 answer
209 views

Optimizing product tests?

I'm currently working for a company where I design and implement an automated test program to test our products. Currently our tests take quite a bit of time (several minutes per unit) and need to ...
ChewToy's user avatar
  • 155
2 votes
2 answers
148 views

Lifting Pins on SMT RJ45 Connector

I'm running into an issue with a specific RJ45 SMT connector where the I'm getting at least 1 pin lifting on >50% of the boards that run through our reflow oven. The rest of the components on the ...
timroberts's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
459 views

How were "old" chips manufactured, such as the 6502?

Recently, there have been several youtube vids (example) talking about how modern CPUs are manufactured. Basically, it's a complex nightmare of dropping molten tin and lighting it with light, which ...
DrZ214's user avatar
  • 1,077
1 vote
1 answer
2k views

What components have a MSL of 5 and 6?

Moisture Sensitivity Level (MSL) relates to the packaging and handling precautions for some semiconductors. Components with an MSL of 1 have an unlimited floor life, whereas components with an MSL of ...
philby's user avatar
  • 315
1 vote
1 answer
56 views

Electronics Manufacturing Engineers: What needs to meet IPC-6012 the finished copper or the starting copper foil?

I have a PCB that has a finished copper thickness of 1 oz on all layers and must meet IPC-6012 requirements for Class 2. Does this mean that the manufacturer can start with 0.5 oz copper foil then ...
AgentXq's user avatar
  • 111
1 vote
1 answer
76 views

Functional discrepancy within PCBA batch

When manufacturing a small prototype batch of an embedded system at EMS I have detected different behavior between the units. All units work as expected, except that some units fail to operate same ...
NoobPointerException's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
47 views

How to Design method to Program & Calibrate a Panel of PCBs

I'm designing a sensor-package PCB which needs to be programmed and calibrated while still in a panel of 10. I'd like to avoid a large bed-of-nails type setup for this step so that the panel can ...
Marzden's user avatar
  • 11

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