Video Transcript
Surface mount LED components are available in a fast-growing range of wavelengths, with smaller size, higher efficiency and lower cost – so we’re seeing more and more of them in the electronic products we manufacture. Let’s look at what that means for our contract design and manufacturing teams.
PCBA (PCB Assembly) Manufacturing
For manufacturing, the first thing is that the LEDs have to be handled with care throughout the manufacturing process. Any damage to the silicone dome can cause a latent failure in the field.
That means we use special nozzles in the pick-and-place machines to gently pick the LEDs from the tape and place them on the printed circuit boards, and we create our own custom vacuum-formed trays to protect they boards as they move through production, inspection, and shipping to our customers.
Second, because our products are destined for commercial or industrial use, we have to meet higher standards than consumer product manufacturers do.
For example, one customer requires a uniform intensity for all the LEDs on each board we make for them. Since LEDs do not have intensity tolerance narrow enough to meet this requirement, we added a robotic binning system to our manufacturing process. The robot tests the LEDS and sorts them into bins, with a narrower range of intensity.
Finally, boards with LEDs need a lot of metal on the substrate, to dissipate the heat. That makes it a lot harder to heat the substrates in the reflow oven to a high enough temperature for the solder to flow properly. At Z-AXIS we optimize the conveyor speed and oven temperature for each board design, to get the right curve for heating the substrate and allowing it to cool, in order to create excellent solder connections without damaging any components.
PCB Design and Layout
For our engineering team, the increasing use of LEDs plays to our design strengths.
We have a long history as experts in high-power electronic products, and as a result have developed a great deal of expertise in managing thermal issues in board layout. This expertise is put to good use on boards with a lot of LEDs, where thermal management can be a real an issue.
We make decisions such as choosing metal clad or FR4 substrates, whether the metal board should have an aluminum or copper core, what copper weight to specify if an FR4 board is used, and how to lay out the traces, vias and layers to distribute the heat.
LED Applications
Let’s look at some of our customers’ applications that use LEDs.
- We use visible wavelength LEDs in industrial lighting, commercial signage, machine vision, tactical flashlights, aircraft and more.
- We use infrared LEDs in products for night vision, sensing and communications.
- And we use UV LEDS – which have really proliferated over the last five years – in products to stimulate phosphorescence, cure adhesives, and sterilize things.
Contact Z-AXIS
If you need help designing a product with LEDs, our design team can help you. And If you already have a board designed, we can build it.
Contact us to learn more about design and contract manufacturing of PCB assemblies in the USA. More videos on YouTube.