What Factors Can Affect the Manufacturing Cost of PCB?

What factors will affect the cost of PCB manufacturing? This is a topic that every PCB practitioner is very interested in. In the customer feedback received by NCAB, the mention rate of this topic is also among the top. In this article, we will delve into the issue of "money" in PCB manufacturing in detail. Overall, 80% -90% of the total cost of PCBs is actually in the upstream stage of the centralized supply chain, which is the stage before suppliers (EMS factories, PCB manufacturers) see the final design of PCBs. The hard cost factors of PCB manufacturing inevitably include some of the most basic factors, such as PCB size. The larger the size, the more materials required, and the higher the cost. In addition, there are also some important factors that affect the cost of PCBs.

Material Selection

The cost of high-grade plates (M4, M6, etc.) is higher than that of ordinary FR4. Usually, we suggest that customers add the option of "or equivalent material" when specifying a certain type of board, so that they can reasonably allocate the use of materials to meet customer needs and avoid excessive board procurement cycles.

The Complexity of PCB

When you adopt standard multi-layer boards and add blind holes, buried holes, or blind buried holes, the cost will definitely increase. The engineer needs to understand that if a blind buried hole structure is adopted, it will not only increase the drilling period, but also increase the compression time. In order to produce blind buried holes, it is necessary to press, drill, and electroplate the circuit board multiple times, resulting in increased production costs.

Splicing

The method of splicing will affect the utilization rate of materials. If necessary, leaving too much space between the circuit board and the process edge can lead to waste of the board. In fact, minimizing the space between circuit boards and minimizing the distance between the edges can improve the utilization rate of the boards. If the circuit board is in a straight or rectangular shape, then using the V-cut method with a "0" spacing to assemble the board will maximize the utilization of the board.

Line Width and Line Spacing

The wider the line width and distance, the higher the requirements for the production process, making production more difficult and prone to scrap. If the wiring in circuit board design is complicated or circular, the likelihood of failure will increase, ultimately leading to an increase in costs.

Number and Aperture of Boreholes

Excessive aperture or too many holes can increase the cost of the circuit board. The chip removal groove of larger drill bits is also larger, which limits the number of circuit boards that can be drilled in one drilling cycle. At the same time, the short diameter of the drill bit groove limits the number of circuit boards that can be drilled in one go. Due to the need for multiple operations on CNC drilling machines, labor costs will also increase. In addition, it is also necessary to consider the diameter of the hole, drilling holes on thick plates will increase costs, and there are certain requirements for the process energy of the material.