Apr29
How to design LCM gasket/cushion for manufacture?

The gasket/cushion went outside of LCM

The LCM (LCD Module) is a common component for the electronic products. Almost of the LCM was made by glass and it is brittle and  break easily while hit or drop on the floor due to handle careless. As product design we will install a rubber gasket or cushion locate between the glass and plastic case or metal bezel to prevent it from squeezing due to press or careless hitting.

Although this kind of rubber gasket is a simple design but if the gasket didn’t design well then the installation will be a big challenge in manufacturer. We often see the gasket go outside of the display view area. If this is a touch panel product then it will result the touch function fail. If this kind of issue happens in filed then we will get big trouble.

Therefore, this article attempts to look for the rubber gasket design methods.

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Apr27
How EMS fabricate a PCB Assembly?

How EMS fabricate a PCB Assembly?

How EMS (Electronic Manufacturing Services) fabricate a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) Assembly?

This article is writing for the people who still not yet really under what is the PCB Assembly. Because WorkingBear found there are many people just come to this EMS area and still not yet well understand what is SMT (Surface Mount Technology) and what is Wave Soldering.

The PCB Assembly is a very popular technology in modem electronic industry.  For example, the cell phone, Tablet, Computer, Television, Remote toy car, etc. all have the PCB Assembly module  inside. The  invention of PCB Assembly technology is really help the electric products development trend to small size and multi-function.

So, how EMS fabricate a PCB Assembly? It is almost automatic production line now through SMT or wave soldering process to solder the electronic components on the board to instead of hand soldering by iron. Of course, you still can hand solder all electronic components on the board as manual by yourself but you must take high risk for the poor solderability quality and can’t do it mass production. Besides, the 0201 small chip are hard to be hand soldered on board and some of the package that design the soldering pads under the package body can’t be hand soldered. For example BGA, QFN, LGA package.

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Apr24
How to select a good actuator design for right angle connector?

Right angle connector or flip lock connectorAs my personal feeling that Right-angle FPC ZIF connector is really more easily to use than Drawer type of ZIF connector. Even right-angle connector is good but do you know how to select a good design of this kind of right angle connector?

Recently my company met lots of component broken troubles for the electrical connector call “right angle connector” or “flip lock connector” in manufacturing production line. We found almost the defect connector broke at the ACTUATOR portion while operators first time tried to lift it after SMT high temperature reflow process. I’m sure the connector works fine before reflow.

I did a study on the connector and found it was caused by the connector itself while through SMT high temperature reflow process as below two reasons:

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Apr23
The benefit to use shielding clips to instead of shielding frame

SMT can clipFor almost of the frequency radio apparatus, the Printed Circuit board must design the shielding frame/can to prevent the EMI (Electromagnetic Disturbance Interference) effect. The regular design will apply one shielding frame to mount on PCB by solder and another shielding can to cover on the frame to isolate the RF.

That means there will be two press tools cost before implement this solution. Beside, the shielding frame must be mounted on the PCB by SMT process. It requires lower flatness specification to keep the solder joint well. Most of the shielding frame asks its flatness meet 0.12mm maximum. Some of the shielding frame even asks the flatness must lower than 0.10mm maximum. Because of current stencil thickness is around 0.10~0.127mm only. It brings more difficult to form the shielding frame and raise its cost.

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Apr23
How many dimple need to be used for keypad metal dome?

metal_dome_5_dimplesLast article I mentioned that my company applied the metal dome without dimple as keypad contact solution just like the cell phone but we had trouble and met keypad press insensitive  issue. Now we solved the problem by adding the dimple back to the metal dome and still reach 1,000,000 (one millions) times of finger press cycle life.

We did some failure analysis and found the keypad insensitive defect was caused by two major issues.

  • One is the foreign contamination, include dust and fiber, that I mentioned at last article.
  • Another one is the oxidation show on the immersion gold finished surface on the ENIG board pads.

We found the oxidation particles look like the chemical of Phosphorus (P) exuded from base material of PCB. The P is one of the major element for the ENIG fabrication process. So we only can control less P but can’t remove it from the board.

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