[Board Guide] 10 tips to reduce PCB cost!

Many PCB buyers or engineers always think that the price is high when looking for PCB manufacturers to make boards, but they don't know where the cost is too high, and they don't know how to optimize the cost on the premise of ensuring the quality of the circuit board. They can only shop around and give it to whoever has the lowest price.

Today, Xiaobian shares a super practical PCB procurement guide-10 tips to reduce PCB cost! It is strongly recommended to collect!

1. Plates
Different brands of plates have different prices. For example, if the TG value is ≥ 150, and the dielectric thickness of multilayer board and pp sheet is more than 0.2mm, Guoji will be cheaper than Jiantao, Shengyi and Nanya, but Guoji is generally used to make more single and double sides, so it is not recommended to make multilayer board. There are also some unknown brand-name plates, which are cheaper and can be used, but their performance is relatively poor, and the probability of quality problems will be higher.

If you make a PCB with more than 8 layers, you need to choose a board with better performance. It is suggested that Jiantao TG170 is better and more cost-effective.

2. Ink
 ink consider two points: color and brand. In terms of color, the most common color is green oil, but if you want to use special color inks, such as blue oil, white oil, butter, black oil, etc., the price will generally increase.

In terms of brand, Sun Ink is the best at present, which is mainly characterized by high viscosity, stable dielectric constant, good insulation and oxidation resistance, but it is more expensive. Other brands of ink will be relatively cheap, but the quality is not particularly stable. If it is used on products in batches, I personally recommend using Sun Ink, which has stable quality and relatively stable product operation.

3. Film
If it is a simple material, the manufacturer will choose to use film for the batch board with a line width spacing of more than 5/5mil. The larger the size of the board, the higher the film cost, and the general minimum cost is between 100 and 200. (Low-batch sample production usually uses LDI exposure machine instead of film; In order to pursue production capacity in batches, film will be used first, and then traditional LED exposure will be adopted. )

4. The thinner the line width, the higher the price.
If the line width is less than 5/5mil, the price will generally be increased. Because the thinner the wire is, the higher the precision of the equipment and the quality of chemical reagents are required, and the yield is relatively low, which leads to higher costs. However, the thinner the line, the higher the price, which is not absolute. For example, some board factories may engage in activities and do not charge extra fees for thin lines.

5. Drilling data
The smaller the hole, the higher the price, and the price will increase if the diameter is less than 0.3mm; The more holes there are, the higher the price will be, and other special holes will also increase the cost, such as half holes and PTH holes larger than 6.0 mm. Because of the small hole, only one board can be drilled at a time when punching holes in PCB material, which is inefficient, and the possibility of cutter breakage of drill nozzle is also great, which leads to higher cost.

6. Finish copper thickness
If the surface copper is more than ≥2oz thick and the hole copper is more than 25μm, the cost will increase. Because the price of copper itself is relatively expensive, the thicker the copper, the higher the price. In addition, the cost of extra copper leads to the overall price increase.

7. Finish plate thickness
The price of PCB with thickness of 1.2 mm and 1.6mm is not much different, but if the thickness is 2.0mm or even thicker, its cost will increase accordingly. The thicker the board, the more sheets of glass fiber cloth, so the cost will increase accordingly.

8. Profile data
If there are many gongs, and the gongs are smaller than 1.0mm, the cost will increase. This is because most of the boards with many gongs and grooves are shaped, which leads to the prolonged processing time. In addition, if the width of the grooves is small, the milling cutter can not be cut too fast, so the processing efficiency is low and the natural production cost is increased.

9. Surface technology
Our common surface treatment technologies include:OSP (oxidation resistance), lead-free tin spraying, lead-free tin spraying (environmental protection), gold plating, gold precipitation and some combined processes. The more expensive the above processes are, namely: OSP (oxidation resistance) < lead-free tin spraying < lead-free tin spraying (environmental protection) < gold plating < gold precipitation.

It is worth mentioning that lead/lead-free tin spraying is generally used because of its high cost performance. But some manufacturers' OSP process is even more expensive than tin spraying! This is because for the sake of cost, the sample factory will put together the boards of the same process from several customers for shipment, but because OSP is difficult to tin, there is less demand from customers, which leads to the difficulty in assembling the boards of OSP process and can only be shipped separately, so the price will rise by tens of dollars.

10. Mold fee and test fee Mold fee
If it is proofing or small batch, the general board factory uses drilling and milling shape, and there is no need to add milling fee. However, if it is a large batch, it is necessary to open a mold to punch the plate, resulting in a set of mold costs, and the plate factory generally quotes more than 1000 yuan. Test fee: If it is proofing or small batch, flying needle test is generally used, and the cost ranges from 100-400 yuan (depending on the number of test points in the document). If it is a large batch, it is necessary to open a test stand to test, with high efficiency and lower comprehensive cost! The cost of the test rack is generally between 1000-1500 yuan. Summary: To sum up, the cost should be fully considered before manufacturing the board.

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