DFM Concurrent Costing® Software Tutorial

Printed Circuit Board Assembly Analysis

Introduction
The first step in the manufacture of the printed circuit board assembly is the fabrica�on of the bare circuit board, o�en
called a printed wiring board. The bare boards can have circuits on one or both sides and in many cases are laminated from
several layers with addi�onal circuits in the internal layers. The circuits are generally produced by photo-chemical processing.
Addi�onal steps are needed for the machining of holes through the board, solder masking, legend prin�ng and final PWB
tes�ng.
The PWB is then populated with electronic components using a combina�on of automa�c and manual opera�ons. The bare
board is first par�ally populated using equipment for automa�c placement or inser�on of electronic components. Items that
cannot be automa�cally inserted are then added manually at a workbench or at a semi-automa�c machine, which presents
items to the operator in the correct sequence for manual inser�on. The boards are then soldered using either wave and/or
reflow soldering methods. Following this, hand inser�on and hand soldering may occur for some items, together with the
addi�on of mechanical parts, such as screws, standoffs, and heat sinks.
The assembly of printed circuit boards can be analyzed using opera�ons in the Opera�on Library, together with the similar
opera�ons for any mechanical items. The individual electronic components are not iden�fied, only the number of items with
the same package style and numbers of leads. The Opera�on Library contains �me or cost equa�ons for the assembly of
various electronic packages by different assembly methods (automa�c, robot, semi-automa�c, and manual). Various secondary
opera�ons specific to printed circuit boards are also included in the library.
Analysis of a printed circuit board assembly is based on a list of opera�ons required for its assembly. The figure on the next
page shows the upper side of a small circuit board populated with through-hole electronic components. The electronic
components on the upper side are inserted first, by either automa�c or manual methods. This is followed by wave soldering
and cleaning of the board. One connector is then inserted on the lower side of the board and for this reason must be hand
inserted and soldered. Some mechanical parts are then added manually. Finally, in this design, the dual-in line-packages (DIPs)
are manually inserted into sockets.
Electronic packages of the same type, with the same number of leads, and inserted using the same method, are grouped
together. The table on the next page lists the assembly sequence for the sample board with the packages grouped in this way.
You will need to refer to this table during the exercise that follows.
The subject of this tutorial is the small video/game card from a PC shown below. This is a double-side mixed surface mount/
through hole board. The overall dimensions of the board are length 6.25 inches and width 2.5 inches. The board substrate
thickness is 0.062 inches.

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DFM Concurrent Costing® Software Tutorial
In addi�on to the electronic components there are 9 jumper caps to be added (snap fit) to the connector pins in various places
on the board.
The board substrate material is the standard FR-4 used for the majority of boards produced. The bare board has solder masking
applied to both sides, legend prin�ng on one side of the board and has gold plated contacts along one edge of the board. The
minimum conductor spacing is 0.006 inches and the minimum trace (conductor) width is 0.015 inches. There are 502 holes
through the board.

Package Style Number of Quan�ty Number of Average cost

leads, pins or different
pads components
Through Hole
Dual in-line 20 3 2 0.10
package (DIP)
Dual in-line package 14 7 4 0.10
(DIP)
Single in-line package 8 4 3 0.05
(SIP)
Single in-line package 6 1 1 0.05
(SIP)
Single in-line package 5 1 1 0.05
(SIP)
Radial 2 3 1 0.05
Can 2 1 1 0.10
Connector 10 3 1 0.05
Connector 3 1 1 0.05
Connector 2 1 1 0.05
Connector 24 1 1 0.10
Connector 40 1 1 0.15
Connector 34 1 1 0.10
Connector 25 1 1 0.10
Surface Mount
Chip 2 25 7 0.01
Quad Flat Pack 100 1 1 2.00

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DFM Concurrent Costing® Software Tutorial

Analysis steps
1. Start the analysis by entering PCB Sample for the Part name. Use the default Life volume of 100,000. Select the solid block
Envelope shape and enter the dimensions as shown below.

2. Now click the Select process and material bu�on. In the le� column of processes, choose Printed circuit board assembly.
For material, choose FR-4 in the Printed wiring board material category. Click the OK bu�on to calculate some preliminary
results.
3. Highlight the Bare board process entry on the Process Chart. We will replace some of the default informa�on used in the
original es�mate to improve the accuracy of the results. Accept the default data for the Basic data group. In the Board
processing data group, change the Number of holes to 502 and the Minimum trace width to 0.015 inches. Check the boxes
for Gold plated edge connectors, Solder mask required and Legend screen prin�ng. All other defaults can be used. Click the
Calculate bu�on and entries for Solder mask and Legend prin�ng will be added to the Process Chart.

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DFM Concurrent Costing® Software Tutorial

4. We now select the opera�ons for adding (inser�on or placement) the electronic components to the PCB. A minimum of
one opera�on for each package style and number or leads, pins or pads is required. To make it easier, an average cost for
the components covered by each opera�on is used. These costs are included in the overall material costs for the analysis. If
an exact component cost total is cri�cal, then instead it is necessary to use an opera�on from the library for each individual
component added, so that specific component costs can be entered. For this analysis, use the average component costs
given in the previous table.
5. Highlight the Pcb Assembly entry on the Process Chart. Choose Opera�on from the Insert menu to open the Insert
Opera�on dialog.
6. In the Printed circuit board assembly category, open the Through hole inser�on subcategory. Highlight DIP inser�on and
click the Insert bu�on twice to add two of these opera�ons to the Process Chart. In the same way, add the indicated
number of the following opera�ons from the Through hole inser�on subcategory:
SIP inser�on (3)
Radial inser�on (1)
Can inser�on (1)
PTH connector inser�on (7)
7. Expand the Surface mount placement subcategory and add one Chip placement and one Quad flat pack placement
opera�on. Close the Insert Opera�on dialog.

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DFM Concurrent Costing® Software Tutorial
Now that the opera�ons have been added to the Process Chart, we will highlight each one and adjust the default values
according to the informa�on on the parts list table.
8. Select the first DIP inser�on opera�on. Change the Number of pins to 20 and the Number of components inserted to 3.
A�er the 3 has been entered a new response for the Number of component types of this package style will appear. The
default of 1 should be changed to 2. Enter .10 for the Average component cost.

Highlight each addi�onal PCB assembly opera�on on the Process Chart and adjust the inputs according to the parts list
table.
9. Highlight Can inser�on on the Process Chart and select Manual for the Inser�on method. Since the can is bonded over
for a�achment to the outside of the board by hand soldering we will add a hand soldering opera�on. Open the Library
Opera�ons dialog and add the Hand solder opera�on from the Miscellaneous opera�ons subcategory.
10. Highlight the Quad flat pack placement on the Process Chart and select Robot for the placement method. Also check
Replacement component required? to indicate that during any rework a replacement component will be required.
11. The Whole board opera�ons are now added from the opera�ons library. With Quad flat pack placement s�ll selected on
the Process Chart, add the following opera�ons:
Solder paste-manual
Reflow solder
Wave Solder
Cleaning
Func�onal tes�ng
In-circuit tes�ng
The default responses can be used for all opera�ons in this case.
12. The final opera�on to be added is for the addi�on of the 9 jumper caps to some of the connectors on the board. These
should be added before Func�onal tes�ng in the sequence of processes, although the posi�on in the process chart will not
affect the results.
Highlight Cleaning on the Process Chart, then select Part from the Insert menu.
13. In the responses enter jumper cap for the Part name. Change the Repeat count to 9 and Material cost per part to 0.02.
14. With the jumper cap highlighted on the Process Chart, select Opera�on from the Insert menu. Open the Assembly category
and add Acquire and insert parts to the Process Chart. Close the Insert Opera�on dialog.
15. On the Responses Panel for the opera�on, accept the default of Non rota�onal part. Enter dimensions of Part length 0.4
inches, Part Width 0.2 and Part depth 0.1. Change the Repeat count to 9. In the group Symmetry 180 or less about select
One axis. For the Securing process select Snap/push fi�ng. Accept all other defaults.
You have now completed the PCB analysis. You can compare your results with the completed sample file video board.dfmx
included with your so�ware in the \data\samples subdirectory.

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