Review Of On Line Printed Circuit Board ( PCB ) Manufacturing Services
The good old days
In the good old days the options available for the hobbyist to make
PCB
s were limited to various self etch systems. If you played with PCBs, you kept quantities of fairly
noxious chemicals around the house, got moaned at leaving brown ferric chloride stains
in the sink and got used to having the finger colour of a heavy smoker.
Good quality PCBs were out of reach of most, due to the high cost involved in the
manufacture of small quantities of PCBs.
Also etching your own PCBs limited the number of layers in the PCB to just two and
that was a difficult and long winded process. Plus you didn't get the niceties such
as a silk screen or the necessities like a solder mask.
Come forward to now. Several companies have come up with offerings for the gifted
amateur or the small business to manufacture good quality PCBs at reasonable prices
in numbers down to just one. The low cost is achieved by sharing the production costs amonst many buyers.
Having used these companies there is no way I would
want to return to the good old days.
PCB Cost sharing Systems
So how does it work - well the problem in the old days was the
NRE
- that's Non Recurring Engineering cost or set up charge. The PCB manufacturer would
charge a fixed ( large ) fee to setup his production facility to make your board.
If you are making loads of boards the cost is spread, if your making only one board the
cost was usually prohibitive.
The idea now is that the PCB manufacturer accepts designs of a similar type - same
layer count and board thickness etc. - from many customers. All the designs are then
placed in to one big PCB. The big PCB is then made and split up into each
customers requirement. Each customer is charged for the area of PCB used.
There is still a setup charge, but the cost is spread amongst all the customers.
The disadvantage of this approach is that if you want to repeat the order you pay again
for the setup charges.
Technical Specifications
There are now many companies on the Internet who offer these services. The range of
product offerings is sufficient for most, ranging from simple single layer PCBs, upto
complex 6 layer beasts. All the companies I use provide these facilities in the basic
price :
unlimited drill sizes.
unlimited numbers of holes.
complex board shapes.
solder mask.
silk screen.
Minimum trace widths = 0.15mm ( 6 mil )
Minimum hole diameter = 0.3mm ( 12 mil )
All the PCB companies offer extended technical specifications such as blind/buried vias,
micro vias, gold plating at extra cost.
Pricing
Generally the PCBs are priced on the quantity of material used. It is worth checking
the prices across several companies, as they have different pricing structures.
There are cost estimators on all the web sites which allow for easy price comparison.
Where can I get this done ?
This is a list of the companies I have used offering a shared PCB service to individuals
and to companies. I'm deliberately only considering EU based companies as it makes the customs and excise stuff much easier to handle.
You don't get any nasty surprises when the goods arrive.
PCB-Pool
Don't be put off by the web site there is a serious business hiding away here. Setup to handle the hobbyist as well as professional markets. The big plus for the
hobbyist is the number of different file formats that can be used. They will accept
design files from many different PCB layout tools,
gcpreview files
, as well as industry
standard
Gerber (RS274-X)
. It is worth checking that both your PCB tools and version are supported before using this bit of service though.
They also provide a free PCB pool version of
TARGET 3001
PCB layout software.
Offer a range prototype PCBs
1 to 6 layers in standard 1.6mm thick FR4.
any shape pcb as standard.
PCBs are priced purely on the quantity of PCB used, with a minimum area of 1dm2 .( that's a PCB 100mm by 100mm).
Other build options are available on request.
Accept a full range of credit cards.
Personal Review
Excellent service, good quality boards and spot on with delivery times. The staff are good and ask questions if they spot errors in the design.
Pricing is good, but is less cost effective for bigger PCBS.
The 1dm2 minimum size can be restrictive for smaller designs.
They are more aimed at the professional prototype market and will only accept data in
Gerber (RS274-X)
format. The shared PCB concept is slightly different here, in that here you have to catch a 'train'.
Each train is a PCB type, for example 4 layer 1.6mm is a train. Trains depart on different days of the week.
Popular trains leave everyday, less popular maybe only once a week. All the delivery times are from when a
train leaves not when the order is placed.
Offer a wide range of products :
1.6mm FR4 (upto 6 layers )
0.8mm FR4 ( to 2 layers )
flexible PCB ( to 2 layers )
any shape pcb as standard.
Prices are a mix of setup charge and area, an on line estimator is available.
Minimum board size is 10mm x 10mm.
Other build options are available on request.
PCB assembly is also available. ( which is very useful if fine pitch SMD devices are being used)
Accept a full range of credit cards.
Personal Review
Excellent service, good quality boards and good delivery times.
Pricing is good, less cost effective on 1 offs, cost effective for bigger PCBS.
The assembly service is a very good way of getting bigger SMD devices down without tears.
The assembly cost includes free resistors and capacitors. They do BGA as well, but its expensive.
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