ELECTRONICS MANUFACTURING CAPABILITIES

PRINTED CIRCUIT ASSEMBLY

Being able to assembly parts onto a PCB is the primary skill that most electrical engineers should have in order to progress their ideas into reality. I have a range of equipment to support assembly capabilities and can easily solder most IC packages and passives onto a PCB with no issues. Large BGA packages with my kit will still be a struggle, but not impossible, I’m planning to pick up a pre-heater and reflow oven in order to better meet this requirement. Although it’s rare to see boards that require that type of equipment to need to be loaded by hand due to the expense that usually comes with bigger BGA packages it’s still a skill I would like to have. The tools below are the ones that I use in assembly of circuits:

• Range of Soldering Irons

• Stereo Microscope

• Hot Air reflow oven

• Soldering Consumables

• Cleaning tools

CIRCUIT ANALYSIS

Test and verification of design is paramount to determining if you have made the circuit you were aiming to make.

• Oscilloscope

• Portable DMM

• Bench DMM

CIRCUIT MODDING

Nothing ever goes to plan. Any circuit that is solving a complicated problem is bound to have unknowns that were being debugged. The ability to fix circuits insitchu and not need to start from scratch when the unknows start showing up is a great way to close the loop in the problem solving process. Along with the tools used in assembly and analysis the tools below are some that I use in the modding of circuits:

• Wire-wrap wire

• Scalpel

• Tweezers

• Epoxy and Silicone

PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARDS

Being able to make your own PCBs is a huge deal for being able to quickly turn a concept into reality. This step can help reduce the chances that you will need to perform modifications when you make a prototype or production PCB. Watch this space because I’m working on a Direct Laser Printing Set up for PCB manufacture.