PCB Manufacturing — Production
From design file to finished board: precision PCB production
We manufacture bare printed circuit boards through a fully controlled production process — front-end engineering, imaging, lamination, drilling, copper metallization, surface finishing, and electrical verification — built to IPC standards and repeatable at volume.
Our Process
What PCB production actually involves
PCB production turns a digital design package — Gerber, ODB++, or IPC-2581 files, drill data, and stack-up specs — into a bare, fully tested circuit board ready for assembly. It's a tightly sequenced chain of imaging, chemical, mechanical, and electrical operations, and each stage has to hold tolerance before the next can begin. A defect introduced early — a misregistered layer, an under-etched trace — won't surface until testing, which is why process control matters as much as final inspection.
Below is how a board actually moves through our production floor.
See It In Action
Watch a board move through the line
A short walkthrough of the fabrication floor — imaging, lamination, drilling, and plating — shows the process better than any diagram can.
Production stages
Our PCB production process
Ten controlled stages, each holding tolerance before the next begins.
Front-End Engineering & DFM Review
Every job starts as data, not material. Before a single panel enters production, our engineers run a full Design for Manufacturability (DFM) review — checking trace width and spacing, annular ring size, drill sizes, solder mask clearances, and controlled-impedance requirements against your design files. Catching a manufacturability issue here costs minutes; catching it after lamination costs the panel.
Learn More About DFMInner-Layer Imaging & Etching
Internal signal and power layers are built first, since they'll be buried once the board is laminated. Copper-clad cores are imaged with Laser Direct Imaging (LDI) — no phototools, registration held to roughly ±0.001 in — then etched clean on a Develop-Etch-Strip (DES) line. Every inner layer passes Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) before lamination, so defects never get buried inside the board.
More about Semiconductor ATELayer Stack-Up & Lamination
Inspected inner layers, prepreg, and outer copper foil are stacked in the exact sequence defined by the stack-up, aligned with tooling pins and optical registration. The stack is then pressed under controlled heat, pressure, and vacuum, curing the resin into one rigid structure. Alignment accuracy here determines whether every buried via lines up correctly for the rest of the build.
More About Board Types & MaterialsDrilling
Holes are drilled to connect layers electrically. Mechanical CNC drilling with carbide bits produces standard through-holes, guided by X-ray registration to hit buried targets accurately. Laser drilling — CO₂ for dielectric, UV for copper — produces the microvias used in HDI designs, connecting only adjacent layers.
More About HDI & Microvia CapabilitiesHole Metallization
A freshly drilled hole isn't yet a functioning via. Hole walls are deburred and desmeared to clear drilling residue and resin smear that would otherwise insulate the internal copper. Electroless copper deposition then adds a thin conductive seed layer across every exposed surface — including the hole barrel — without electrical current, setting up the hole for full-thickness electrolytic plating.
More About Via ReliabilityOuter-Layer Imaging & Pattern Plating
Outer layers are imaged like the inner layers, but built with the opposite logic: pattern plating adds copper only where traces and holes belong, rather than etching it away. Electrolytic copper plating builds trace, pad, and via-barrel thickness to spec, then a temporary tin layer protects the pattern while background copper is etched away and stripped clean.
More About Our Manufacturing CapabilitiesSolder Mask, Legend & Surface Finish
Liquid Photoimageable (LPI) solder mask is applied, exposed, and cured, protecting copper while leaving pads open for soldering. The legend (silkscreen) is then UV-inkjet printed with reference designators and orientation marks for assembly. Finally, a surface finish is applied to the exposed pads to preserve solderability.
More About Surface Finish OptionsElectrical Test & Inspection
Every board is electrically verified against the original design netlist before shipment. Prototype runs are typically tested with flying-probe systems, while higher-volume production uses bed-of-nails fixtures for fast, simultaneous testing. High-speed and RF boards additionally undergo controlled-impedance verification using test coupons built alongside the panel.
More About Quality AssuranceDepanelization & Final Inspection
Boards are separated from the panel by CNC routing, V-scoring, or tab routing, depending on the design. Final inspection then checks dimensions, hole sizes, solder mask registration, and overall workmanship, with microsectioning available for higher-reliability applications.
More About IPC Standards & CertificationsPackaging & Shipment
Finished boards are sealed in ESD-safe, moisture-barrier packaging with desiccant and humidity indicators, and shipped with full traceability documentation — ready for assembly or direct integration into your product.
Board types and materials
we work with
Rigid, Flex & Rigid-Flex
From simple double-sided boards to constructions combining rigid and flexible sections in one board.
Multilayer PCBs
4 to 40+ conductive layers, laminated into a single structure.
Quality & Compliance
Quality assurance and standards
Planning Your Order
Typical lead times
| Board Type | Typical Lead Time* |
|---|---|
| Standard 2–4 Layer PCB | 3–5 business days |
| Quick-Turn Prototype | 24–72 hours |
| Multilayer PCB | 5–15 business days |
| HDI PCB | 1–3 weeks |
| Rigid-Flex PCB | 2–4 weeks |
| Custom PCB Project | Depends on design and requirements |
*Actual lead time depends on layer count, material availability, panel complexity, and testing requirements.
Ready to move your design into production?
Send us your Gerber, ODB++, or IPC-2581 package and we'll run a full DFM review before your first panel goes to fabrication.
For Engineers & Procurement
Technical glossary
Common PCB fabrication terms used throughout this page.
Annular Ring
The ring of copper surrounding a drilled hole that maintains electrical connection to the plated barrel.
AOI (Automated Optical Inspection)
Camera-based inspection that compares a fabricated layer pixel-by-pixel against the design data to catch opens, shorts, or etching defects.
Bed-of-Nails
A fixed test fixture with spring-loaded pins contacting hundreds or thousands of test points simultaneously, used for high-volume electrical test.
Blind Via
A via connecting an outer layer to one or more inner layers, but not passing through the entire board.
Buried Via
A via connecting two or more inner layers only, fully hidden within the finished board.
Controlled Impedance
A trace design and manufacturing requirement ensuring a transmission line's impedance stays within a specified tolerance, critical for high-speed and RF signals.
DES (Develop-Etch-Strip)
The inline process sequence that develops exposed photoresist, etches unwanted copper, and strips remaining resist to reveal finished circuitry.
Desmear
Chemical or plasma treatment that removes resin smear from drilled hole walls so copper plating can bond directly to exposed internal copper.
DFM (Design for Manufacturability)
Engineering review of a design against fabrication capability and process rules before production begins.
Electroless Copper
A thin conductive copper layer deposited by chemical reaction (no electrical current) to seed hole walls for subsequent electrolytic plating.
Electrolytic Copper Plating
Copper deposition driven by electrical current, used to build trace, pad, and via-barrel copper to final thickness.
ENIG / HASL / ENEPIG
Surface finishes applied to exposed copper pads to preserve solderability.
Fabrication Traveler
The master instruction document that follows a job through every production stage, specifying stack-up, materials, and process parameters.
Flying Probe
An electrical test method using movable probes rather than a dedicated fixture, typically used for prototype and low-volume boards.
HDI (High-Density Interconnect)
PCB construction using microvias and fine-line circuitry to achieve higher routing density in a smaller footprint.
IPC Standards
Industry-published specifications (e.g., IPC-6012, IPC-A-600) that define acceptable design, fabrication, and inspection criteria for PCBs.
LDI (Laser Direct Imaging)
A patterning method that exposes circuit images directly onto photoresist using a computer-controlled laser, eliminating the need for phototools.
Lamination
The process of bonding inner-layer cores, prepreg, and copper foil into a single multilayer structure under heat and pressure.
Microvia
A small laser-drilled via, typically connecting only adjacent layers, used in HDI designs.
Pattern Plating
An outer-layer process that adds copper only in defined circuit areas, rather than etching copper away from a solid sheet.
Prepreg
Partially cured fiberglass-reinforced epoxy resin sheet used to bond layers together during lamination.
Solder Mask
A protective polymer coating applied over copper circuitry, leaving only solderable pads exposed.
Through-Hole (Plated Through-Hole / PTH)
A drilled and copper-plated hole that provides electrical connection through the full thickness of the board.
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