YouTube Personality Robert Feranec Pays a Visit to Sierra Circuits
In a recent visit to Sierra Circuits, popular PCB designer and YouTuber Robert Feranec was given a comprehensive tour of the company's PCB manufacturing and assembly services. The tour, which showcased various aspects of the process, included the drilling area, slivers, teardrops, etch compensation, wires, copper, thermal relief, 45 and 90 degree angles, small copper dots, prepregs, thermal stress, baking PCBs, drilling, mask over Vias, assembling boards, minimum distance between two holes, checking the Gerber files, plating microvias, the coupons, and the price of a PCB.
During the visit, Feranec was particularly amazed by several techniques demonstrated, including the drilling part. The Design for Manufacturing Handbook, which was also a part of the tour, provides guidance on optimizing via design and covers annular rings, including how to avoid drill breakouts.
The Handbook, estimated to be a 45-minute read, is 40 pages long and offers valuable information about solder mask and silkscreen, including must-knows. It outlines best practices for trace width and space, and covers various aspects of the PCB manufacturing process in detail.
Sierra Circuits prides itself on its state-of-the-art equipment and capabilities. They can produce multilayer PCBs up to 30 layers with fast turnaround times, even offering 1-day lead times for certain runs. The company emphasizes thorough Design for Manufacturing (DFM) reviews to predict and avoid defects before fabrication, ensuring drill sizing, annular ring sizes, trace spacing, solder mask clearances, and component placement meet manufacturability and reliability standards.
For high-reliability applications, especially those requiring IPC Class 3 compliance, Sierra Circuits performs in-process cross-sectional analyses at every manufacturing stage. They use vision and Pluritec machines to verify material shifts, drill locations, plating, and soldering quality. Boards not meeting specifications are rejected and remade.
Sierra Circuits is known for its quick-turn prototyping focus, serving critical sectors like aerospace, medical, and defense. They provide end-to-end PCB services, including design rule checks, fabrication, assembly, and testing from their US-based facilities. The company's process ensures precision in manufacturing to meet demanding electrical and mechanical requirements, improved by advanced routing and signal energy path design methods.
In summary, Sierra Circuits combines advanced manufacturing technology with rigorous quality controls and design support to provide fast, reliable, and high-quality PCB manufacturing and assembly, with strong compliance to industry standards and focus on critical sectors.
- Feranec discovered a wealth of valuable information about the PCB manufacturing process, including guidance on optimizing via design, drill breakouts, and techniques for achieving optimal solder mask and silkscreen in the Design for Manufacturing Handbook.
- Sierra Circuits utilizes technology and gadgets such as advanced routing and signal energy path design methods, Pluritec machines for in-process cross-sectional analyses, and vision machines for verifying material shifts, drill locations, plating, and soldering quality, ensuring high-quality PCB manufacturing and assembly.
