How Smart PCB Prototyping Revolutionizes Electronics Production

By Embedded Advisor | Monday, February 17, 2020

The face of PCB manufacturing for the electronics industry is changing rapidly as smart capabilities make their presence felt.

FREMONT, CA: Advancing technologies have managed to pull off a coup by enabling electronics manufacturers to transform many operational aspects. In the past, the lack of alternatives pushed electronics manufacturers to depend on contract-based manufacturing processes to produce integral components like PCBs. Although transparent, these processes slow down the manufacturing cycle. Besides, prototyping of PCBs would be a long drawn process as one PCB could sometimes take weeks or months to be readied. Today, the story is different since the design, engineering, as well as manufacturing processes of electronic components, have become convenient, efficient, and smarter.

Smart manufacturing capabilities that enable agile prototyping have emerged. As PCBs become densely packed and sleeker, the need for sophisticated design and fabrication are also becoming apparent. Every electronic device today requires a PCB. And the ability of rapid prototype development of PCBs is closely linked to smart factories. Smart factories have highly digitalized ecosystems and extensively connected equipment and machinery. Software solutions are deployed both at the front and the back-end of such factories, which allow effective automation to improve every aspect, including planning and product development. For prototype manufacturing, automated facilities are highly relevant since production speeds can be improved.

Electronics manufacturers are facing stiff competition in the market today. In such a scenario, faster prototyping capabilities are a competitive advantage. The sooner electronics manufacturers are able to get their hands on prototypes, the faster is the time-to-market for their products. Fast-growing industries are especially poised to benefit from the emergence of smart PCB manufacturing capabilities.

PCB prototyping companies that use smart factories have been able to produce batches of PCBs in the span of 3-4 days, which is a vast improvement. Apart from that, smart factories also allow enough flexibility that enables design insights to be incorporated. These abilities that smart manufacturing offers are bound to empower electronic designers and engineers to experiment and innovate to develop better electronic components and devices that are futuristic.