Radio frequency or RF circuitry was unheard of on PCBs a decade or so ago. That was generally due to its high cost and limited application.

There are still people in our business believing that the same thermal profile is adequate and can be used for each and every PCB assembly project. But again, not all thermal profiles are created equal. Each thermal profile is designed specifically for a single PCB project.

If you are planning on joining a new group of early adopters and thinking about moving to package-on-package (PoP) for your upcoming products, a top consideration for you is to partner with a contract manufacturer (CM) or EMS Provider who can provide you both design and assembly services to avoid costly issues.

These days, you have to scratch your head and wonder what type of component packaging will pop up next. Speaking of pop, that’s exactly where the industry is heading – package on package or PoP – and it's well on its way now.

Newer and newer PCB technologies are steadily coming into being and package-on-package (PoP) is among the latest gracing our boards. Actually, PoP isn’t that new for a number of early adopter OEMs. But the technology that is new is 0.4mm ultra-fine pitch BGAs used on the next round of PoP technology.

The most important and difficult aspect of PCB designs using 0.3 mm ultra-fine pitch BGAs is the layout of their lands and fan-outs. PCB lands are where device balls sit and get soldered to. Fan-outs are traces from the device lands to adjacent via. A via is required to distribute the I/Os, powers and grounds from the device to the peripherals and typically there is one via per land.

Today, x-ray technology is making greater progress in PCB assembly than ever before simply due to the fact sub-assemblies and the components and devices populating them have become increasingly smaller to meet market demands. Today’s level of PCB and component shrinkage is to the point that conventional or standard x-ray is having difficulties detecting flaws and defects.

These days, it is crucial for EMS Providers to be qualified to properly deal with aviation and aerospace PCB applications. In particular, you’ve got to be well armed with AS9100 certification, have RoHS expertise, and be expert at spotting counterfeit components.

You may be one of those OEMs that mostly deals in large, traditional size PCBs and hardly ever develops a small sized product or systems. But get ready for them. Based on technology trends and market demands, smaller PCBs are increasingly being developed spurred on by the escalating demands from mil/aero, industrial, computer, communications, and medical electronics markets.

Maybe you haven’t been paying too much attention to co-planarity. But the fact of the matter is it is a moving target. And it’s not moving at the usual rate as before. Now, with the advanced technologies OEMs are adopting on their PCBs, co-planarity is definitely and rapidly escalating to new levels and like the old saying goes, “it’s taking on new meaning.”