Printed Circuit Board production (PCB production)

The Printed Circuit Board (PCB) production requires many different steps in fields of mechanical, galvanic and chemical processes. The complete process of Printed Circuit Board production (PCB production) for a double layer PCB is as follows: (For detailed information of each process please click on the links)

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1. Incoming order
2. Data inspection
3. Files okay?
4. Call back customer
5. CAM preparation
6. Prepare operation chart
7. Plot films
8. >2 layers
9. Cut (package)

   PCB base materials are mostly produced and delivered to the PCB supplier in large boards (too big for production). The supplier has to cut them into the production size with a punch cutter. Damageable PCB base materials e.g. ceramic materials for high frequency applications have to be cut with a routing machine. The size of the panel depends on the production processes and the machine capacities of the PCB manufacturer. Serial production suppliers usually produce bigger panels (around 500 x 600 mm) whereas prototype PCB productions use panel sizes around 300 x 400 mm. Some PCB manufacturers have fixed panel sizes (mostly serial production) which exactly match each machine configuration in the production. To save time, the base material panels are sometimes put into packages prior to drilling. E.g. 2 to 4 panels of 1,6mm base material with a thin 0,15mm aluminum cover on top and a 2mm pressboard on the bottom make one package. This allows drilling several PCBs in one process.

   The packaging is mainly limited by the drill diameters. Small drill sizes limit the package thickness. This is one reason, why small drill sizes are more expensive in mass production (e.g. smallest drill <0,6m drill = 2-panel package / >=0,6mm = 3-panel package). The aluminum cover on top is responsible to "grease" the drill tool for a straighter hole. The pressboard on the bottom keeps the distance to the machine table so to prevent the tools from drilling into it.

10. Drill
11. Deburring (scrubbing)
12. Laminate photo resist
13. Laminate etch resist
14. Etching
15. Strip etch resist
16. Inspection
17. Solder mask
18. Surface finishing
19. Silk print
20. Produce screen for silk print
21. Print silk print
22. Electrical test
23. Okay
24. Final routing
25. Final inspection
26. Dissapprove
27. Packing/shipment
28. Inner layers
29. Inner layer inspection
30. Activate surface
31. Layer stack-up and pressing
32. Etch back epoxy resin and desmear
33. Through hole plating (PTH)
34. Copper build-up

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The processes in Printed Circuit Board production (PCB production) can be divided into further processes. The industrial PCB production of a simple double layer PCB amounts to around 100 single steps.

A simple process chart about PCB production, you can find here.

You can download the flowchart of the PCB production process as a *.PDF document.

Downloads:
PCB production process (3,5 MB)
Flowchart of the production process (154 KB)