PCB Assembly

Pad2Pad offers the following assembly services:

PCB assembly is the next step after you design and have your PCB made.

During PCB assembly electronic components are soldered to the bare board to create the final circuit. PCB assembly usually comprises either or both the attachment of through-hole devices - devices with wires; and surface mount devices which mount directly to the copper pads without the use of holes. In both kinds of construction, PCB assembly requires component leads to have good mechanical and electrical connection to the bare board.

Assembly of PCB components to boards can be done in several ways. The lowest volume and most time consuming method employs the use of a soldering iron. Parts as small as 0201 packages (0.02" by 0.01") can be soldered by hand under a microscope, using tweezers and a fine tip soldering iron. High volume PCB assembly production is usually done with robotic machines that position parts and wave soldering or reflow ovens that create the solder joints.

Frequently both through-hole and surface-mount devices are present in a single PCB. This is because many devices are available only in one format or the other. Through-hole mounting provides additional mechanical integrity which can be useful for such items as connectors and switches. Components not needing extra mechanical strength take less space and are more economical to assemble when provided in surface mount format.

Surface-mount technology began in the 1960s and gradually became widespread by the mid 1990s. Components previously in thru-hole wire format were redesigned to have small metal tabs or end caps that could be soldered directly on to the PCB surface during assembly. A large advantage for PCB assembly, surface mount components are easier to place using automated equipment and do not require the post-solder step of clipping leads. With surface mount components devices became much smaller providing more complex circuits in small spaces ranging from phones to smart sensors. During PCB assembly surface mount components are provided on carrier tapes which are fed into automated PCB assembly machines. Surface mount devices can be as little as a tenth the size of thru hole devices and simple devices can be as low as a quarter of the cost of thru hole devices. ICs however usually do not have a significant advantage in price as compared to thru hole devices due to the overhead cost of the chip.

Pad2Pad offers PCB assembly services to a wide variety of customers. As an added convenience, the Pad2Pad CAD software provides a small library of parts stocked at our factory. This minimizes the need for customers to take the extra step of ordering components prior to assembly.