label: pcb Panelization,printed circuit board
Most design and manufacturing type folks wouldn’t dream of sending a 2” x 3” pcb out for high-volume manufacturing as a single board. It would generally be replicated up to a panel (also called an array by some) size that would fit the volume manufacturers equipment and would yield the largest number of boards.
In the prototyping world, though, that usually doesn’t make sense. With a prototype, it often makes sense to run just few boards in case there are design errors. That’s why we usually assemble single boards and don’t require any tabs, fiducials or things of that sort.
Sometimes we do get requests to assemble panels and we generally can do that without problem-provided we have the right information at the right time.
If you want us to assemble a full panel of boards, you should still quote the individual board. For example:
Your design has 25 different bill of material line items
You have two panels, each with ten boards
Each board has 45 smt placements on it.
On our website, you would quote the “Desired board quantity” as 20 boards, with 25 “Total # of manufacturer part #s” and 45 “SMT” placements.
Then, in the “Special Requirements / Comments for Assembly” box, tell us that the boards are panelized ten-per-panel and tell us if your Gerbers are panelized or single.
Family panels are another issue altogether and will be discussed in a separate posting.
