Tour of Sierra Circuits' 360 Facility
In the realm of printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing, Sierra Circuits stands out for its commitment to precision and quality. The company employs a host of state-of-the-art machines and advanced processes to ensure the production of high-quality PCBs.
One of the key areas where Sierra Circuits excels is in the control of impedance and drill location. Live monitoring systems are active during plating to ensure accurate copper and PH levels, a critical aspect of impedance control. For impedance calculation, Sierra Circuits offers a dedicated PCB Stackup Designer tool. This real-time design tool allows designers to specify stack-up parameters like dielectric constant, layer thickness, copper thickness, and plating thickness, enabling precise modeling of dielectric and copper layers to meet impedance specifications.
Regarding drill location optimization, Sierra Circuits performs in-process cross-section analysis at every manufacturing step. This rigorous inspection ensures drill vias and holes meet tight tolerances and positioning accuracy. The cross-sectioning lab examines every board for quality assurance, measuring copper, dielectric thickness, etchback, wicking, and good hole wall plating.
The company also provides a Design for Manufacturing Handbook, containing 10 chapters, 40 pages, and a 45-minute read. This comprehensive guide covers topics like annular rings, vias, trace width and space, solder mask and silkscreen, providing valuable insights for designers.
The solder mask lab at Sierra Circuits hand-mixes any colour needed and screens the mask with a machine for consistent thickness. Before pick and place, an automatic solder paste deposition machine is used. After pick and place, AOI and X-ray are used to ensure good solder joints. Both sides of the board are tested simultaneously in the testing lab to ensure successful current flow for a given net, using IPC 356A.
Sierra Circuits' PCB assembly process uses Juki pick and place machines for improved flexibility and production quality, ideal for quickturn prototypes. The lab offers all surface finishes in-house, including gold, ENIG, ENEPIG, and silver. Additionally, these machines are used to drill micro vias down to 3 mils.
LDI is used to image the mask for a tight solder mask dam, further enhancing the quality of the PCBs produced. These processes highlight Sierra Circuits’ integration of design tools with strict manufacturing quality controls to handle impedance and drilling challenges effectively within their PCB manufacturing and assembly workflow.
Technology plays a crucial role in Sierra Circuits' operations, with data-and-cloud-computing systems streamlining various processes. For instance, the company's PCB Stackup Designer tool is a cloud-based, real-time design tool that allows designers to precisely model dielectric and copper layers to meet impedance specifications.
Moreover, the company's use of advanced machines and automated processes in PCB manufacturing, such as Juki pick and place machines and automatic solder paste deposition machines, can be considered a testament to their embrace of technology, aiming for improved flexibility, production quality, and quickturn prototype production.
