Only after all components are places and reflow soldering is complete does a printed circuit board (PCB) become a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA). TATTCOM utilizes our own in house PCBA capabilities to fill our prototyping and production needs. Lower turn around and higher quality were the main driving factors to bring this process in house.
STEP 1 - Solder Paste
First a metal stencil is used to mask off the areas of the circuit board the solder paste is not to be apllied to. The paste is wiped across the stencil to evenly spread it across the surface of all exposed pads. When the stencil is lifted a clean application of solder paste is left, and is ready to accept compenents in the next step.
STEP 2 - Pick and Place
The pasted circuit board is moved to the pick and place machine. Here 2 vaccum heads pick the correct component from the tape reels and place it in the correct location on the circuit board. The pick and place uses computer vision alignment to acheive the highest accuracy possible.
STEP 3 - Reflow
The circuit boards and components are placed into the reflow oven where they are heated through a controlled temperature profile to permanently solder the components to the board.
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