Category Archives: Process


Jun26
What is Environmental Stress Screening (ESS)?

Environmental Stress Screening (ESS) is a method used to apply certain environmental and operational stresses—such as power on/off cycles, bias voltage, pressure, thermal cycling, and vibration—to new or repaired products (usually electronics or components). The idea is to expose hidden … Continue reading

Jun05
Tumble Test: How to Prevent PCB and BGA Failures in Electronics Manufacturing

From what I remember, one of the earliest and most frequent requests for tumble testing came from Motorola. Since some of Motorola’s mobile phones and products were designed for military use, their reliability and quality standards were exceptionally strict. However, … Continue reading

May29
Uncovering the Culprit: How CAF Turned Out to Be the Hidden Cause Behind PCB Micro-Shorts — From Suspicion and Analysis to Solutions

Workingbear’s company was having a tough time with a strange issue: intermittent micro-short circuits inside the layers of the PCB. Since the shorts didn’t show up near any components, it was really hard to figure out what was wrong. Recently, … Continue reading

May08
The Deep Dive: BGA Pads: SMD vs. NSMD (Strength, Voids & Design Considerations)

Hey folks, welcome back to the blog! Today, we’re diving deep into something absolutely critical for the reliability of almost every electronic gadget out there: BGA solder joints. You know, those tiny connections that hold complex chips onto our printed … Continue reading

Mar27
Does PCB Solder Mask Misalignment Lead to BGA Soldering Defects?

Recently, our company started a new project, and the R&D team has been pushing PCB layout requirements to the extreme. As PCBs size get smaller, the solder mask (S/M) design must also shrink accordingly. However, our current PCB manufacturers struggle … Continue reading