Aperture Information
This is a text file describing the size and shape of each element on the board. These are also known as D-code lists. These lists are not necessary if your files are saved as Extended Gerber with embedded Apertures (RS274X).

Annular Rings
Try using teardrop shaped pads. They allow for that drill wander and Image shift and will help keep a healthy (over .002) annular ring, at trace junction.

Aspect Ratio
Our standard aspect ratio of 6:1 has been figured into our quote forms. This equals the smallest hole size that can support plating. It is calculated by taking the board thickness divided by the smallest drill diameter.

Board Thickness
Our standard base thickness is 1/16 inch, which is also called out as 0.062" or 0.059". We also offer the following thicknesses on PCBpro: 0.031", 0.047", 0.093", and 0.125". A typical tolerance is within 10% of the given thickness.

If you require a thickness other than those listed above, choose "design check" option and choose the closest thickness on the dropdown menu. Include all layer thickness requirements on your drawing or "readme".

Technical information on our laminates can be found at: ISOLA

Build time
The cutoff time for receiving orders and files is 2:00 pm (PST) Monday through Friday for Full-Featured boards. Some files have been known to take 45 minutes to navigate the web, so please allow for this. Build time starts the following business day, unless a "hold" occurs.

Clearances
A clearance (or isolation) is a term we use to describe the space from power / ground layer copper to through hole. To prevent shorting, ground and power layer clearances need to be .020” larger than the finish hole size for the inner layers. This allows for registration, drilling, and plating tolerances.

Back to the top

Component Side
In order to prevent building a board inside out, we must be able to identify the correct orientation of your design. Component, layer 1, or 'top' layer should read in facing up. All other layers should line up as though looking through the board. Please use layer designators, pass through marks, or correct reading layer text.

Copper (Finished Copper)
This is how much copper your board will have on its surface. It is the copper foil thickness, plus plated copper, minus surface preparation. It is given in oz / per sq foot. 1 oz = a minimum of 0.0012”- 0.0014” thickness.

We offer finished copper of 1-oz., 1.5-oz., and 2.5-oz. If you need a different finished copper amount, please complete our online RFQ form.

Cut lines
The cut line is going to be used to program the router path and it represents the board outside edge. Our route tolerance is +/- 0.010". It is recommended to keep outer layer copper 0.01” and inner copper 0.020” from the cut line to avoid contact with the board edge.

Continuous Outline
[TEXT FROM PCBEXPRESS] 

Back to the top

Date Code (Full-Featured)
This selection will have us place the year and week of manufacture on your board. It can be etched on the board or part of the Silkscreen.

Design Check - Remove the Doubt
Try our "Design Check" option when placing your next order. While we are not design engineers, we do know what we do well, and use a set of design rules that will insure that your design will make it through our production process. In addition, we will contact you if the design may cause functionality problems.

Drawing or Print (Recommended for Full-Featured orders)
These usually include an outline of the board, dimensions, fabrication notes, a drill chart with legend.

The outline is used to program the router. The dimensions are used to insure proper scale and board measurement. The fabrication notes include other pertinent information (copper weight, board thickness, stack-up specifics, etc.). The drill chart contains symbols inside the outline that are used to mark individual drill sizes and corresponding board locations. The drill legend has the drill sizes, the needed tolerance, and if they are to be Plated or Non-plated (see “Plated through holes (PTH) – Non-Plated through holes (NPTH)).

Sunstone orders do not require drawings or prints. Many received by Sunstone are out of date, or have “Canned” notes that do not apply. Our order form is the governing document for orders placed on our web site. For our “Non-Design Checked” orders we dismiss any notes that are in conflict with the order form, or outside our stated process capabilities. In the event that a drawing is not sent, we will generate an in-house drill/fab drawing using the NC drill file for hole location and the center of the Gerber file outline ( or crop marks) to obtain overall board dimensions. If the board dimension listed on order form varies significantly from the Gerber outline, you will be notified.

Drill File (Excellon Drill File)
This is an example of an Excellon drill file. It will have X & Y coordinates with tool sizes viewable in any text editor. It is this file that governs your finished hole sizes.

Sample:

M48
INCH,LZ
T01C0.015
T02C0.031
T03C0.034
T04C0.037
T05C0.052
T06C0.058
T07C0.062
T08C0.065
T09C0.11
T10C0.068
T11C0.11
T12C0.12
T13C0.051
T14C0.04
T15C0.058
T16C0.054
T17C0.042
%
T01
X00165Y-03805
X0018Y-03235
X00265Y-00704
X00281Y-01349
X00302Y-03816

Drill Tool Description
This is a text file describing drill tool number, corresponding size, quantity, and
if the holes are to be plated or non- plated. (see “Plated through holes (PTH) – Non-Plated through holes (NPTH))

Back to the top

Electrical Test
(1-sided / 2-sided)
Testing is used primarily to test for opens and shorts. We recommend testing for all surface mount boards and multilayer orders (3 layers & up). Depending on whether your order is a prototype or a production run, we may elect either to build a permanent test fixture or use a "flying probe", which is a fixtureless way of testing.

PROS to fixtureless = less expensive
CONS to fixtureless = if you reorder, there is no fixture archived

Excellon Drill File - see drill file

Back to the top

Files: Gerber
Our Industry standard format for files used to generate artwork necessary for circuit board imaging. PCBpro's preferred Gerber format is RS274X, which embeds the apertures within the specific files (see Aperture information). If files are not saved in RS274X, PCBpro will need “One” aperture list sent with the files.

When your software outputs more than one list, there is a risk of the wrong D-codes being applied, or risk of an added cost to you if we need to hand enter the values. It is recommended you download Viewmate. It is file viewer that will allow you to preview your Gerber files as interpreted by our plotting software.

Files: Ivex
We can output the Gerber RS274X and Excellon Drill files from your Ivex .brd file for an additional charge. If you choose this option, we will hold your order until you approve the gerber files we generate. It is recommended you download Viewmate. It is a viewer that will allow you to preview the production files as interpreted by our plotting software.

Files: Eagle
We can output the Gerber RS274X and Excellon Drill files from your Eagle.brd file for an additional charge. It is recommended you download Viewmate. It is a viewer that will allow you to preview the production files as interpreted by our plotting software.

Files: Protel
You can output the Gerber RS274X and Excellon Drill files from your Protel file for an additional charge. It is recommended you download Viewmate. It is a viewer that will allow you to preview the production files as interpreted by our plotting software.

File Submission
Extra files add confusion and missing files add delays. When ordering a 4-layer board with Soldermask and One side Silkscreen, send in 7 layers and a drill file. A missing file layer will mean a delay. Extra files will delay if they contain information in conflict with the order form i.e. print, readme, old tool file which was not changed etc. Sending in every thing that the program will output will only add confusion and possible delay.

Back to the top

Gerber Viewer Recommendations - Viewmate
Use the parameters on our pcb capabilities page to learn about our manufacturing capabilities prior to layout of your design, and prevent processing failures. By setting the pad sizes, clearances, minimum traces and spaces so your design will make it through the manufacturing process and will prevent board failures.

Use the free viewer: http://www.pentalogix.com/Download/download.html to confirm your files will be interpreted correctly prior to sending. If you can load them using "Viewmate", then we can too.

The amount of time you spend setting up your software outputs, and confirming they load correctly, will insure a working board that will be shipped when you need it.

Gold Fingers (Linear Inches)
We can plate your edge connectors with Gold. (Approx. Ni / Min. 30 Au). The We base our pricing on the distance between the outside edges of the outermost tabs.

With your gold selection, a standard 30-degree bevel will be added to your edge connector. We can also bevel at 15 or 45 degrees upon request. For multi-layer boards please insure adequate back set for the bevels. Please mention this in the special instructions when placing your order.

Due to the nature of gold tipping and unique board designs, we require the design review on all orders with gold fingers. Also note that pricing adjustments might be made based upon review of your files. We will notify you immediately if this is the case.

HAL (HOT AIR LEVEL)
The process of putting solder on exposed copper of the circuit board. Approx. 60/40 Tin/Lead mix is used. Also known as a SMOBC which is an acronym for Solder Mask Over Bare Copper.

Internal Signal Layers
We may remove any pads that are not connected to traces on your internal signal layers in order to expedite the imaging process. Many customers send their files to us with this step already done, which helps to speed up the tooling process. If for any reason, you do not wish us to remove the extraneous pads, please use our design check option and clarify this by listing it as a drawing note, or in a "readme" file.

Inspection Guidelines
Our inspections are based upon a pictorial guide “IPC-A-600” that we use for our defect determinations. To see the steps we take to insure the quality of our boards, see our IPC inspection page.

Internal Power and Ground Layers
These are usually solid copper plains of a multiplayer board that carry power or are ground. Make any clearances on these layers .020” over the drill / tool size. This will prevent shorting from occurring with layer shifting on inner layers. 

Please clarify the correct polarity of your ground and power layers. If you believe this could be confusing based on your design. Any splits in planes should be at least .010 wide.

Back to the top

Layers
The plains of copper connected by the plated through holes. On board text such as company name, logo, or part number that is correct reading on the top layer will insure the layer are placed correctly.

The pcb quote form can quote up to 8-layers. If your board has a higher layer count, please complete our online RFQ form.

Layer Sequence
Please include a layer sequence or layer designators so that we are able to build your order with the correct stack up.

Back to the top

Layer Stack Up for Multilayers
Please let us know your layer stack up. A number in the layer name, layer designators, or a "readme or print" is helpful. If no stack-up information is provided, your order will be placed on hold. See "construction" for our standard stack-up parameters.

A readme file listing what you are ordering, a list of files, their order (stack up) if a multiplayer board and any special needs will help. While you are at it, if this is a first time order for you say “use your default parameters for this product line, disregard any of my notes that say otherwise “, will be greatly appreciated (and keep the order moving along), if you are ordering non-design checked boards.

Lot Code
Some Customers require a manufacturer's lot code to be placed on the board for future tracking purposes. A drawing can specify the location, what layer and if it is to be in copper, mask opening, or silkscreen. This option is available on the Full-Featured instant quote.

Minimum Traces & Spacing
Traces are the “Wires” of the Printed Circuit Board (also known as tracks). Spaces are the distances between traces, the distances between pads, or the distances between a pad and a trace. How wide is the smallest trace (line, track, wire), or space between traces or pads? Whichever is less of the two governs the order form selection.

See our manufacturing capabilities chart for more information.

Non-Plated Holes
We recommend that you include a drill drawing to identify the non-plated holes in your design.

Number of Holes
This is the total number of holes in the board. It has an influence on price if it increases the total drilling time. Please be aware that prices might change if there is a significant difference in the number of holes.

Back to the top

Pad Sizes
Your outer layer pads need to be 0.017" larger than the finish tool size (0.010” for vias). Your inner layer pads need to be 0.018" larger than your finished tool size. If your design has any pad to trace junction minimum requirement, add that to the above numbers [0.017" pad + 0.002" junction should have 0.019" pad].

Part Number
The name or number associated with your printed circuit board. We use your part number throughout the entire order process for your convenience.

Plated Through Holes
Plated through holes (PTH) / Non-Plated through holes (NPTH) (2-8 layer boards)
Holes that have copper plating in the hole barrels are defined as PTH’s.
Holes that do not have copper in the hole barrels are defined as NPTH’s

All drill sizes will be treated as PTH unless NPTH is specified in the Drawing, Print, Drill file, drill tool description text file, or identified with a special note i.e. “ .125 holes to be non plated”. In addition, unsupported holes identified in Gerber files in the following ways will be treated as non plated: holes without pads, holes designated with a crosshair target, or holes with a significantly smaller pad (i.e. .125 holes with .050 unsupported pads).

If drawing or tool description is different than the size specified within the drill file, we will use the drill file to determine finished hole size (For “Design Review” these errors are reported for customer clarification before manufacturing can begin).

Plated through holes (PTH) – Non-Plated through holes (NPTH) ( 1 layer boards)

All orders placed as “1 layer” will be treated as single sided and the holes barrels will be non-plated.

Back to the top

Quantity
Enter in the number of boards you need. If you do not know your desired quantity, enter in an approximate amount for pricing. At any time, you can choose any of the other prices in the Price Matrix for your desired needs.

The pcb quote form allows quoting for all quantities up to 15,000 pieces. If you need larger quantities or would like to schedule out shipments, please use our online RFQ.

Readme File
A text file included in the zip file, which provides necessary information needed to manufacture your order. Phone numbers or email addresses of designer or engineer contacts for this project should be included to expedite resolution of any potential manufacturing problems that could delay your order.

Below is a sample Readme:

Sunstone Order # (insert order number)
ABC Company
P/N AB C125 Rev A

Please build a quantity of 100 pieces of this 6-layer board. We are requesting 1/2-oz. base copper weight, 0.062" thick on FR4 material, green solder mask, and white legend.

The Gerber files included in this zip:

File Name (description):
SR125.CMP Layer 1 (component side)
SR125.gnd Layer 2 (ground layer)
SR125.IN1 Layer 3 (internal signal)
SR125.IN2 Layer 4 internal signal)
SR125.VCC Layer 5 (power layer)
SR125.SLD Layer 6 (solder side)
SR125.CSM (Component-side solder mask)
SR125.SSM (Solder-side solder mask)
SR125.TSK (Component-side silkscreen/nomenclature)
SR125.BSK (Solder-side silkscreen)
SR125.DRL (Excellon drill file)
SR125.TOL (Drill tool description)
SR125.APT (Aperture information)
SR125.DWG (Drawing or print)

Any technical questions can be referred to johndoe@abc.com (your email address).
My contact number is 555-555-1234 (your number).

Recommendations
Our goal is to provide design tips to help you build better boards. We want to help eliminate potential problems so your board can run through our shop (or any circuit board manufacturing shop) without hassles or delays. We hope you will find these tips helpful and beneficial to your PCB needs. 
 
View your Gerber and Excellon files with a separate viewer--not just your design package. We recommended you try Lavenir's freeware Viewmate program. This step may identify any of your software's output abnormalities.
 
 
Check to make sure the board shops capability and capacity is in line with what you will need. Find out their tolerances and change the outputs of your design package to reflect those. That way your design's requirements for traces, spaces, thickness, tool sizes, or a particular standard, are accounted for.
 
 
Audit your outgoing files to be sure the purchase order information matches your drawings and readme notes. All duplicated information (part numbers, quantity, part size, readme text, file labels, etc.) should match up. Don't forget to include your name, phone number, email & available times for a contact to help save time.

Revision
If you have the same drawing number but updated revisions, please enter it here. This will avoid any confusion for manufacturing your desired boards. Please make sure that your revision number is included with your drawings in your Readme file.

If you are a user of revision numbers (a great idea), check your drawing, file text and order number for the correct one. When revision numbers are different, it forces us to confirm which is the correct one. Most of the missed changes occur in the document header, or a generic print that was not updated.

Back to the top

RoHS (Lead Free) Compliance
[NEED TEXT ADDED FOR LEAD-FREE BOARDS]

Silkscreen, Nomenclature, or Legend (Artwork)
Marking ink is used to identify components during later assembly and troubleshooting processes. This can be placed on one or two sides (in yellow or white), depending on the board design and application. We can include your company logo if it is provided on the drawing specs.

Minimum line width for legible printing is 0.007". Anything smaller may result in missing or illegible marking on your boards. White is our standard color but we also offer yellow.

When outputting your Silkscreen layer, be sure that the lines used are at least .007” or you may not see them on the board. This is due to our ability to print through the silk screen.

Silver
[NEED TEXT ADDED FOR LEAD-FREE BOARDS]

Single-Sided Boards
All you need is a one sided job. Therefore, you output a drill layer "abc.txt" and a copper layer "abc.top". You think to yourself, “This should be an easy job". Upon reading it into Viewmate (a free download from the people at http://www.lavenir.com/) you see that a drill file and copper layer shows up. Job done! You zip it up and send the file in.

On the receiving end, our job is to produce the films and decide how this board will be built. Quick multiple choice…would we:

a) Place the copper layer on the top side of the laminate
b) Place the copper layer on the bottom side of the laminate
c) Mirror the image (Y axis) and place the copper layer on the top side of the laminate
d) Flip the image in the X-axis and place the copper on the bottom side of the laminate.
e) Build the job 4 different ways and hope that one of them is what the Customer had in mind.

To avoid your job being put on hold, please use text to label your board. That way if your software packet mirrors upon output, or you view your work from the solder, top, component, bottom, layer 1, layer 2 or whatever, we will build it right.

Size X & Y
All dimensions are in inches. If your board is in metric, please convert to inches. Please note, our maximum X & Y configuration is 14" x 18". This means if the width (X) is 14", then the maximum length (Y) is 18".

If your require greater dimensions, please contact us directly and explain your needs in more detail.

Smallest Hole
This is the final size of the hole. We will select a drill larger than the specified hole size to allow for plating thickness. Hole sizes greater than 0.020" do not incur special costs. However, we can provide a hole down to 0.010" if desired, but this affects the overall price.

Please make sure that all of your holes are defined and included with your drawings in your Readme file.

Back to the top

SMOBC
Acronym for Solder Mask Over Bare Copper. After boards have been coated with soldermask, the process of Hot Air Leveling will distribute solder to all areas of copper that are not covered by mask (see HAL).

Solder Mask
Used to protect the board and circuitry during the assembly and packaging operations. Among other things, the solder mask helps prevents solder bridges between adjacent pads and traces during the wave soldering process.

Liquid Photo-imageable (LPI) is our default process and the color is green. However, we also offer additional colors of red, blue & black.

Solder Mask (Artwork)
To generate your soldermask artwork, add your smallest space measurement to the pad size. For boards with 0.006" spaces, use a pad size up to +0.006" up to 0.010" for 0.010". Spaces larget than 0.010" should have a pad size of +0.010".

Please note: While we make every attempt to leave a mask "dam" between surface mounts, fine pitch areas will be relieved in strips. Our manufacturing process needs at least 0.005" mask "dam" between pads in order to adhere to the board. Pad-to-pad spacing less than 0.013" may not have soldermask between them.

Solder Mask Color
LPI Green is our default solder mask color. We have options on the PCBpro Website for additional colors of blue and black. Please note that there is an added charge for these other colors, and they can add an extra day to your build time due to the additional processes needed for the non-standard colors.

If you require a color other than green, blue, or black, please contact us directly and explain your needs in more detail.

Back to the top

Surface Mount
The pitch of the surface mount is defined as the dimension in inches from center to center of surface mount pads. Standard pitch is >0.025", fine pitch is 0.011"-0.025", and ultra fine pitch is <0.011". As boards contain finer pitch, processing and test fixture costs increase. Please note: the ultra fine pitch is not suited for the Full-Featured quote.

Tooling and test costs are influenced by the number of surface mount sides. If there is no surface mount, the same solder mask film can be used on both sides of the board. If there are surface mounts, we need to produce different films for top and bottom side, as well as potentially require electrical testing on both sides.

If testing is required on a two-sided surface mount, then please note the parameters for the test fixtures that we can quote on. (See Electrical Test).

Tab Routing (with & without perforation holes)
Rather that completing the route path around the board edge, “Tabs” are left so as to leave boards attached in pallets for ease in assembly.

When this is selected on the order form “We” will take your one up board files, and step and repeat as many images as will fit into a 12"x14” (approximately) pallet. These Pallets will have a standard space of 0.1” apart, with 4 (0.1”) tabs positioned at our discretion along the edges, and surrounded by a 0.5" boarder.

If you have any directions as to how many boards across and down, or have special requirements like “Perf” holes, Fiducials, or tooling holes you will need to send in a detailed pallet drawing of what you need along with your other files, and select “Design Check” on the order form. See our assembly house requirements before submitting your order.

Top Side
In order to prevent building a board inside out, we must be able to identify the correct orientation of your design. Component, layer 1, or 'top' layer should read in facing up. All other layers should line up as though looking through the top side of the board.

Back to the top

Tolerances
In the printed circuit board production process there is: drill machine X & Y true position capability, drill bit deflection, image film stability, Multilayer layer to layer shifting, rout tolerances, and plating allowances. These will be different depending on what board production facility you have chosen (and thanks for choosing us at PCBpro.com).

We have added up our entire machine and process tolerances and ask that circuit board designs allow for these processes (to list just a few):

- Outer layer pads should be 0.017” more than the drill holes (if you have to go a mil or two less try using teardrop shaped pads to limit the amount of breakout that could occur at the pad / trace junction).
- Inner layer clearances should be 0.025” more that the drill holes.
- Copper features should be 0.010 away from the rout line for outer layers, and .025 for inner layers.

Traces (& Spaces)
These can also be called lines or tracks. These are the conductors of the circuit board. PCBpro online quotes can process down to 0.006” trace/space.  For 0.005” trace/space  we ask that you place a direc quote please complete our our pcb request for quote . 

Due to processing considerations, for our customers design files that use cross hatching, our limit for online orders is .010” line/ .010” space cross-hatch pattern.

UL (Design Check only)
Identified as a recognized component for Underwriters Laboratories Inc. UL File Number E58527. Approved down to 0.005" trace width, minimum board thickness is 0.025" with LPISM, 0.062" with DFSM. Maximum 3-oz. copper weight on inner layers is used. We will mark your boards with our UL identification.

Vias
Non component holes that move current from one side of the board to the other.

V-Scoring
Rather than completing a route path around the board edge, the edges are "scored" to allow breaking boards apart after assembly. This is another way to palletize / panelize the boards (see Tab Routing).

This method creates two beveled scoring lines along the perimeter of your boards. This makes it easier to break apart the boards at a later date. You would receive your boards in panel form like tab routing (see Tab Routing). Be sure to check with your assembly house for any special needs they might have.

Zip File
All files needed for the processing of your order must be compressed in a zip file. Due to the large amount of orders received, we are not able to accept individual layer files sent to us. Winzip or Pkzip can be downloaded from our pcb links page.

Back to the top

r-060330