Author Topic: PCB manufacturers capabilities  (Read 3001 times)

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Offline Richard HeadTopic starter

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PCB manufacturers capabilities
« on: May 02, 2014, 07:16:51 am »
I routinely layout my own PC boards and have come up against a limitation.
I would like to make more use of smaller smd components such as 0603 and 0402 but find it pointless due to the PC board manufacturers track width and spacing limitations.
The PCB manufacturers that I use have a 0.2mm minimum track width and spacing and a 0.4mm minimum hole size limitation.
This means that when one uses components smaller than 0805 you can't fit a track between the leads without violating the 0.2mm limitation.
I know using a multilayer board would solve the routing problem but I try not to use them due to their high cost.
Well inspecting commercial PC main boards and found them to have extremely thin tracks. How do they get away with such thin tracks on such a large scale?
Is the 0.2mm width/spacing rule of my PCB manufacturer unnecessarily conservative? 

Dick

 

Offline Neverther

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Re: PCB manufacturers capabilities
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2014, 07:40:13 am »
They produce a load of the boards, they can afford to use (and incase of the PCB has errors, redo as many time as they need the templates) high quality/precise setups as they are ran trough the same setup multiple times. The volumes are on completely different scale so the costs per board arent that bad.
And they can afford to test and reject some boards as they are being constantly made.

When you use prototyping services/small houses, they might not have enough precision on their machines to do so, or the cost of manufacturing precision boards comes cost ineffective (failed templates, small batches, one run with some failed boards -> possible need for another run to produce enough boards, etc).
You can always ask the manufacturer if they can and how much it would cost to have smaller clearences.
 

Offline mikeselectricstuff

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Re: PCB manufacturers capabilities
« Reply #2 on: May 02, 2014, 07:48:30 am »
Different manufacturers have different capabilities - It is not uncommon to find specs down to 4 mil (0.1mm) track/space with drills down to 0.1mm, e.g. PCBcart, but you will pay extra for it.
Don't expect OSHpark/iteadstudio type pricing, but there are poolling services that offer fairly fine pitches, e.g. Eurocircuits
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Offline poorchava

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Re: PCB manufacturers capabilities
« Reply #3 on: May 02, 2014, 08:18:14 am »
Chinese low cost board houses like itead and elecrow offer down to 6/6 mils which is 0.15/0.15 mm. With some adjustments to the footprints you can pass tracks underneath 0603 without problem.
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Offline Allen393

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Re: PCB manufacturers capabilities
« Reply #4 on: May 02, 2014, 09:11:41 am »
process capability with min 0.2mm trace width/spacing and min 0.4mm hole size is limited indeed, most of china pcb manufacturers are able to achieve min 0.127mm trace width/spacing and min 0.2mm hole size nowadays, and it's low cost with this spec..

Offline Richard HeadTopic starter

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Re: PCB manufacturers capabilities
« Reply #5 on: May 02, 2014, 09:56:27 am »
The feedback is much appreiciated. Perhaps it's time I looked around for another manufacturer.
 


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