This applies to both fabrication and assembly. If your board house offers flexible lead time options, you can offset some of the fabrication costs by extending your lead time. Price and lead time tend to follow an inverse relationship: one goes up while the other goes down. ![]() After you’ve verified your board matches their capabilities, there are other metrics you should use for comparison: Price vs. Most manufacturers are pretty competitive in this area and can reliably fabricate down to something like 4 mil traces, 8 mil vias, and few mil spacing on standard stackups. To start, look at the manufacturer’s capability limits. There is a lot of overlap between different services in terms of price and lead times, but there are multiple metrics you should use to compare different services. When you’re looking at engaging with a PCB manufacturing service, you’ll find a lot of information on their website to use for comparison. How to Choose Your PCB Manufacturing Service However, there is a lot more that should go into choosing a PCB manufacturing service than just price. While experienced designers can spot bogus manufacturers from afar, there is always a temptation to go with the lowest priced, supposedly fastest overseas company you can find. Some companies will spam you with offers like “2 to 48 layer HDI RF metal core PCB” or something similarly absurd. If you’re searching for a new service provider, it can be hard to compare all of them and find the best manufacturer that meets your needs. There are plenty of PCB manufacturing services you can find online, and they can all start to blend together. I understand that companies need to get their names out there and want to win business, so this post isn’t meant to denigrate those companies. ![]() When you run a design firm, there’s one type of email you’re bound to receive more than any other: sales emails from PCB manufacturing services.
0 Comments
|