Can GUSTECH create a Printed Circuit Board for us

Can GUSTECH create a Printed Circuit Board for us?

Since 2004 GUSTECH has pr= ovided in-house printed circuit board layout services in our attempt to become a “one-stop-shop” Engineering Services organization. We now have two primary paths for hardware P.C. board prototype development.

For designs that require:=

Ø controlled impedance micro-strip traces and lands due to the extremely high frequencies involved in the hardware design= ,

Ø or for those that prefer to use their own printed circuit board layout services (in-house or under a separate contrac= t),

Ø or for those extremely complicated designs t= hat require high density, more-than-4-layers (two for traces, two for power and ground planes) to accomplish,

Ø or for designs whose components and/or design goals (such as those that may occur within “anti-tamper” design= s) require the use of hidden vias or very high density ball grid arrays with extremely tight tolerances,

Ø or for designs that require unusual notching, non-rectangular shapes, materials different than the standard FR4 laminates= and stack-ups,

then, we generally perfor= m the Schematic Capture operations with our ViewLogic (ePD3) tools, providing a netlist that is usable by nearly all printed circ= uit layout tools as a design input file. This path provides the most portability. We do not offer, at this time, pri= nted circuit board layout services for these kinds of designs, and will gladly h= ave the board(s) designed for the customer if they don’t already have acc= ess to these services.

The vast majority of our prototype (and small production run) projects are significantly accelerated= by doing, in-house, all of the Schematic Capture and Printed Layout Design work. Design revisions and th= eir immediate board layout changes occur almost instantly; there are never revi= sion tracking problems since the tools are a tightly integrated package.

There are, of course, some limitations to using this cheaper and faster design path. Chief among them is that the blank boards can only be manufactured at one facility, limiting purchasing option= s to a sole source. The great bene= fits include very quick turn-around, low prices, dependable service and support,= and physical board specifications that are broad enough to permit most designs = to be targeted towards these processes without limitations.

The ExpressPCB boards can= be single or double sided, with all holes plated-through. There are twenty-three holes sizes ranging from 0.014” to 0.251” (after plating finished hole diam= eters). Etching resolution is 0.006” minimum trace width and 0.006” minimum space width. Their laminate is 0.062” FR-4 epoxy glass with a dielectric constant from 4.2 to 5.0, and a finished copp= er thickness of 0.0017” (about 1-1/4 ounce copper). The largest board size is 12”= ; x 14” while the smallest is 0.63” x 0.63”. The optional top and bottom solder= mask layers are green LPI, and the optional silkscreen is white. If a four-layer board is desired/n= eeded, the two inner layers are solid copper planes (not trace planes), which are generally used for power and ground planes.

ExpressPCB Board Manufac= turing Options:

Service Type	# of days	# of Layers	Silkscreen	Solder Masks	Notes:
Standard	1	2	Ñ	Ñ	1 day for 1-24 board= s; 2 days for 25-50 boards; 5 days for 51+ boards.
MiniBoard	1	2	Ñ	Ñ	Only 3 boards of 3.8= ” x 2.5” (CHEAPEST)
Production	2Û10	2	ü	ü	Production oriented = 2 layer boards
ProtoPro	2	2	ü	ü	Only 4 boards, which= must be smaller than 21 square inches, and the longest dimension must be 12 inche= s or less.
4 Layer Standard	3	4	Ñ	Ñ	Smaller quantity pro= totype oriented.
4 Layer Production	3Û10	4	ü	ü	Larger quantity prod= uction oriented.

The pricing structure is = quite fluid, depending upon service type, number of layers, size, quantity, silkscreen and solder masks, number of boards (if optional), number of days= to delivery (if optional), and the number of through-holes. For a quick turn service, they are= quite competitive.

More and more of our cont= racts are using ExpressPCB for prototype boards, and we will continue to evolve t= his portion of our business to assist our clients in every way that we can.