PROCESS FLOW & DEFINITIONS

Definition of PCB

Printed circuit boards are electronic

circuits created by mounting electronic
components on a nonconductive board,
and creating conductive connections
between them. The creation of circuit
patterns is accomplished using both
additive and subtractive methods. The
conductive circuit is generally copper,
although aluminum, nickel, chrome, and
other metals are sometimes used..
Different types of PCBs
There are three basic varieties
of printed circuit boards:
single-sided, double-sided, and
multi-layered. The spatial and
density requirement, and the
circuitry complexity determine
the type of board produced
Applications

Printed circuit boards are

employed in the manufacturing of
business machines and computers,
as well as communication, control,
and home entertainment
equipment.
LIST OF PROCESS
1.Shearing
2.Drilling
3.Deburring and De smear
4. Viaking
5. Dry film
6. Electro plating
7.Strip etch strip(SES)
8.Solder masking
9.Hot air leveling
10.Legned printing
11.v-scoring
12.Routing
13.BBT
14.Visual inspection and mechanical inspection- ENIG/PEELABLE

15.Packing
Individual process
Explanations
1. Shearing
Big sheets of copper clad laminates
as per customer’s thickness and
copper requirements are drawn from
stores, and cut into individual panels
according to cutting plan given by
PPC. Entry and back up sheets used
during drilling also is cut to the panel
size. Copper clad laminates are then
edge mated to have smooth edges
and cured to remove the moisture
content.
Individual process
Explanations
2. Drilling
Panels received from shearing are added to single high,
2 high ,3 high or 4 high based on board thickness and
minimum drill diameter and stacked with entry sheet
on top (Acts as a coolant to drill bits also avoids
damages to panel ensures the proper entry of drill bits)
and back up sheet in bottom ( To eliminate the burr
during drill retraction also to eliminate bed damage).
Mounting hole is drilled on two width centre of the
panel and mounting pins are inserted in mounting hole.
This set up is fixed in drilling machine bed and drilling
is carried out as per customers drill program edited by
CAM for multiple arrays. Drill bits are chosen as per
drawing and cross checked fro correct diameters.
Different size of holes are drilled in different location
that enables the customer to insert the component
leads of the size requirements
Individual process
Explanations
3.De burring and De smear
This process is to remove the burr
created during drilling also to
remove the smear( Epoxy powder)
inside the holes
4.Viaking
This is to create connectivity
between top and bottom through
holes. A Graphite is deposited inside
the hole and over the surface by
chemical conveyor process
Individual process
Explanations
5.Dry film

Main object of this process is to transfer the

image of customer design into copper clad
laminate panels. First the panels are cleaned then
photo resist is covered over the panels by
lamination process onto which the photo tool is
aligned and the image is transferred to the panels
with the help of UV light. The photo tool has
opaque portion for wanted area and clear portion
for unwanted area. UV light does not pass on
Opaque area and hence those areas are not
polymerized. Clear area allows the light and hence
the photo resist in those area is polymerized. This
goes for developing after removal of Mylar
protection film , where the un polymerized
portions of resist is removed and polymerized
portions are remaining in the panel only.
 Individual process
Explanations
6.Electro plating
Deposition of copper (earlier in electroless
copper only 1.5 to 3.0 microns of copper
is deposited. Here around 25 microns of
copper is deposited) and tin is taking
place in the selective circuit area. Copper
deposition is to take care of customer’s
finished copper requirements and tin
deposition to act as etch resist during SES
process
 Individual process
Explanations
7.SES( STRIP ETCH STRIP).
Panels received from plating has both wanted
and un wanted copper. Wanted copper is
protected by tin and un wanted copper by
photo resist. During SES ,first the photo resist
is stripped so that the unwanted copper is
visible. Secondly the unwanted copper is
removed in etch process during this
process ,the wanted copper is not removed
as the same is protected by the tin. Finally
the tin is removed. Now the circuit portion of
PCB is ready.
Individual process
Explanations
8.Solder masking
This process is to cover all the portions of PCB other
than the area that are used for soldering. The
panels received from SES are cleaned, and coated
with ink on one side. This is pre cured for 20
minutes with 72 deg c and the second side is
coated with ink and then taken for solder mask
image transferring. After image transferring the
panels are developed where the ink in solderable
are is removed and all other area remains in
surface .These panels are final baked with 150 deg
c for 90 minutes so that the ink does not get
removed from surface. If any carbon printing
requirements are there then the boards are sent to
carbon printing from here where carbon is printed
by screen print method and cured.
Individual process
Explanations
9.Hot air leveling
This process is to cover the solder in
solderable areas in order to make the
assembly process easy and also to
eliminate the copper corrosion or oxidation.
Panels are cleaned, micro etched, fluxed
then hot air leveled. Hot air leveling with
tin lead or lead free is carried out as per
customer requirement. After hot air
leveling panels are cleaned with hot water
to remove the flux contents and dried.
Individual process
Explanations
10. Legend Printing:
All the component identifications
given by customer is made in the
form of photo tool called legend
film .From this film screen is made
and all the images in the screen is
transferred to the panels by ensuring
proper alignment and registration.
This is done by screen printing
method. After legend print the
panels are cured to improve the
adhesion property of the ink
Individual process
Explanations
11.V-Scoring
This is one method of breaking
individual circuits from array form or
panel form either after PCB
manufacturing process or PCB
assembly process. In this process the
finished thickness of the PCBs are
reduced by cutting them in V shape
and only small portion of the
thickness is left out that is used for
holding. The thin portion left out is
easy to break
Individual process
Explanations
12.Routing
The final size and the shape of the PCB
is routed from the production panels in
this process. The individual circuits are
routed with holding joints ,which on
latter stage is filed after breaking the
circuits into individual. Either individual
circuits or an array that consists of
many circuits are sent to customer as
per his requirement
Individual process
Explanations
13.Bare board testing

This process is to ensure that there are no

open circuits or short circuits, and the
boards meets customers design
requirements. This is basically a functional
test which is carried out either by
universal jig method (bed of nail) or Flying
probe tester, where customer original net
list is used as a reference and with respect
to that all boards are 100% tested
Individual process
Explanations
14.Final Inspection (Visual and Mechanical)
100 % Visual inspection to check for extra
particles, extra ink, scratches, dents, damages, SM
on pad, track exposure, copper visibility, annular
ring , and all visually observable defects are seen
during this stage and mechanical dimensions like
hole diameter, size of board, slot size ,thickness
are all checked as sample basis during mechanical
inspection. Final report is generated and sent to
customer along with the boards. If any special
requirement of surface finish like
ENIG,OSP,CHEMICAL SILVER AND CHEMICAL TIN
are sent from here and again inspected after
process. Similarly if the PCB requires Peelable
printing, then the boards are sent to Peelable
printing from here and received back inspected
and sent to packing
Individual process
Explanations
15.Packing
All the inspected ok boards are
properly counted ,stacked for qty
requirements ,kept in same
orientation and packed either
manually ,or with shrink wrap or
vacuum seal as per customer
requirement and sent to dispatch
section along with packing slip and
job card.