To help you quickly access the services we offer, the following is a guide to the preferred requirements for producing quality Printed Circuit Boards.

Can be supplied as artworks, penplots, photoplots or photoplot files, so long as the quality and registration of the images is of a standard that will enable a good quality board to be produced. Another important criteria is the presence of orientation marks within the boundary of board. These marks could be the board reference so long as it cannot be read from the other side. (This is for your protection to prevent the boards made inside out).

Images should comply with design rules that will result in a board that will meet performance and cost requirements. (Refer to CID-015 for information on Design Guidelines).

Artworks
Scale must be given, tapes securely stuck to the backing sheet, track to pad & track to track joints complete and the backing sheet clean.

Penplots
Scale must be given and be at least 2:1. Plots must also offer sharp edge definition and traces dense enough for blocking light when photographing.

Photoplots
Preferred on 7mil (178mm) thick base for stability. Films should be plotted on laser photoplotter or on vector photoplotter using a minimum resolution of ½mil (13mm).

Photoplot Files
Preferred in Gerber® format although accepted in other formats. (Refer to CID-014 for information on Documentation in Digital Form).

Photoplots or photoplot files are the only acceptable form of supplying images for multilayers and boards with fine (0.2mm or smaller) tracks.

Drawings

Drawings must be supplied with each new job and should contain the following information to ensure that the finished board is to your requirements.

Hole Sizes
Always required even when a drill file is supplied, to enable inspection of panels immediately after drilling and finished boards prior to despatching. Hole sizes must be clearly represented with distinct differences between each size. Tolerances are not required unless different to our standard of +0.1 / -0.05 mm.

Mechanical Sizes
Preferred with overall mechanical dimensions including notches, cutouts and slots. Also preferred is a positioning (datum) dimension (drilled hole is best). Tolerances are not required unless different to our standard of + / -0.25 mm.

Manufacturing Information
Other information required for all boards includes:

• board thickness (standard = 1.6mm)
• base copper thickness (std = 18mm)
• solder mask colour (std = green)
• solder mask type (std = liquid photoimageable)
• component legend colour (std = white)
• bare board testing requirement (std for multilayer and fine line production runs)

Extra information required for multilayers includes:

• special dielectric spacing requirements (if important)
• copper thickness of internal layers (std = 35mm except for track width <0.25 mm )
• lay up sequence (if important) numbering component side as layer 1.

DRILL & ROUT FILES
Welcomed with CAD generated designs, except with pen plotted artworks due to calibration differences between penplotter and the highly accurate CNC drilling machines.

Preferred in Excellon® format although accepted in other formats. (Refer to CID-014 for information on Documentation in Digital Form).

Contact us if you need clarification on documentation or advice on designing cost efficient boards.