Do you ever wonder what drives the cost of your PCB design?
PCB Cost is a very common discussion. With the push for miniaturization and the need to do more in less space, designers are frequently performing a cost vs. benefit analysis for increasing the technology requirements in their PCB designs.
The list below should in no means be considered an all inclusive list of cost drivers, but it should cover the basics and spark discussion.
Low Cost Adders:
- Complex routing and scoring (process time, set-up, tool life)
- Drilled hole quantity (process time)
- Thicker or thinner material (>.093”, <.030”)
- Via Plug – button print
Medium Cost Adders:
- Drilled hole size (< .010”, smaller diameters limit throughput and stack height)
- Embedded Resistor Technology
- Non-FR4 Materials (Teflons can be 10X to 20X FR4 cost)
- Laser Drilling
- Edge Plating
- Cavities
- Milled Edges
- Filled Vias (conductive and non-conductive)
High Cost Adders:
- Advanced Technologies (< .003” line/ space, .4mm BGA)
- Number of lamination cycles required
- Layer Count (> 30 layers)
- Material/ Panel Utilization (test coupons and board size/configuration)
- Selective Plating
- Hole to copper ( < .008”)
Order dependent considerations:
- No X-out requirement
- IPC Class 3
- Source Inspection
Please contact us if there are ever any questions we can answer. Buying and purchasing PCB’s should not be difficult!
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