
The importance of PCB packaging
Learn about how proper PCB packaging allows you to preserve the usability and performance of PCBs while waiting for the assembly processes.

How a resilient supply chain delivers Reliable PCBs
Reliability begins with a resilient supply chain. A product is only as reliable as the materials, processes, and people behind it.

PCB Fabrication Drawing
Fabrication notes, Drill Table, Scaled Drawing, Stackup Drawing and Array Drawing are all parts of a PCB fabrication drawing. But – what is a fabrication drawing – and why do you need it?

Manufacturing of PCBs for railway applications – four critical processes
When producing PCBs for railway applications it’s important to use the right parameters, equipment, and processes to ensure PCB reliability.

What is a PCB?
A PCB is built by non-conductive materials such as fiberglass or epoxy and has conductive pathways etched or printed onto its surface.

PCB Solder mask
Learn about the complexities of PCB solder mask and equip you with essential insights for your manufacturing endeavours.

PCB Bow and Twist: Challenges, Causes, and Solutions
Bow and twist are two types of deformations that can occur in the PCB. Bow refers to there being an upward or a downward curve in the middle part of the PCB. Twist refers to there being one corner higher or lower than the other corners of the board.

Reliable PCBs for Fire Safety applications
For desired reliability in PCBs for the fire safety industry, you need robust design, get maximum performance out of factories, and, go beyond IPC Class 2 requirements in your PCB specification.

PCB Requirements for the Aerospace Industry
The design and performance of the aerospace PCB, a key to all aerospace systems, must be impeccable. Learn more here.

Recycling PCBs: Navigating Challenges and Embracing Opportunities
Learn about the concept of circularity in PCB production and its significance in creating more sustainable printed circuit boards, the challenges of recycling PCBs, and the potential of reusing organic PCB residues for new products.

PCB design for extreme environments
PCB design for extreme environments – challenges with thermal management, altitude and shock and vibration events.

The Evolving Landscape of Medical PCBs
Important things to know when constructing a medical PCB! In this guide, we’ll cover how to design medical PCBs, the latest medical PCB trends etc.

Data Matrix and QR Codes for PCB Information and Traceability
Data Matrix codes offers high data density in a very small size, making them an ideal solution for marking PCBs where space might be limited.

How an efficient engineering process can impact your PCB’s total cost and reliability
An efficient engineering process is key for your PCB´s total cost and reliability. Learn how we work to clarify any uncertainties from the very start.

Ultra HDI PCBs put high demands on technology and manufacturing
Ultra HDI printed circuit boards are extremely dense boards with conductor width and isolation distance and dielectric thickness of less than 50 µm. Read more here.

PCBs for the Railway Industry – what you need to consider and know
When producing PCBs to the Railway Industry, there are certain requirements that need to be considered, fire and testing are key words to this. Learn more about it!

Buying PCBs with support from a local team – does it make a difference?
NCAB local customer teams support you when buying PCBs, and are also a link between you and you and our partner factories.

PCB designs with high-power applications – demands and considerations
High-power applications are those that require a lot of power to operate. This is usually because they are used in devices that need to be able to run for a long time without being plugged in.

New energy vehicles vs. traditional – what is the difference in relation to PCBs?
The automotive industry is undergoing a revolutionary change. The electronic part in the new energy vehicle is more involved and advanced, and with this in mind, the demands on the PCBs will increase in various ways.

PCB Etchback Processes
PCB etchback is a process applied within to maintain optimized routing signals between multiple layers within printed circuit boards.

Semi-Flex PCBs vs. Flex PCBs
When choosing PCBs that can bend into place, electrical engineers have a choice between using flex and semi-flex PCBs. Following is a basic overview of how these two types of PCBs differ and their uses in modern electrical devices.

Electronics are transforming the world
Electronics trends in general and electrical vehicle charger in particular – learn more about important driving trends within electronics.

How to get the optimum out of a PCB factory – 7 important tips from our Factory Management
Learn all about what to think about to get the optimum out of a PCB factory.

Via Hole Design – a cautionary tale
Imagine you are a start-up company. You spent a year designing a product from start to finish. You have built the prototypes; there were some snags along the way but ultimately, the end product is perfect. You’re finally ready for volume production. Once you use multiple suppliers pricing out your bare board, you discover there’s […]

NCAB and the Sustainable Development Goals
Through our sustainability work, and with our stakeholders, we are working towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with our main contribution being to 9 out of the 17 goals. The Global Goals document, and its targets, will serve as an important guide in our work to further build our sustainability strategy and thus develop […]

HDI – high density interconnect PCBs – design trends
Electronic products are becoming more and more complex. The miniaturization of electronic components pushes the evolution of printed circuit boards towards complexity that was unthinkable only a few years ago. The need arises when one no longer thinks of an object that has a single and simple function, but of objects that are evolving in […]

Thermal management in electronic systems is becoming increasingly important
In today’s electronics industry there are increasing calls for special thermal management solutions. NCAB’s experts tell about the methods available.

Applications of PCBs – use field engineering experts on your design
Have your PCB supplier involved early in the design phase First, let’s discuss a resource like this. At NCAB Group, they are field application engineers (FAEs). The benefit here is an experienced field application engineer will have worked on many PCBs for a variety of applications and have the capability and knowledge to recommend […]

The changing world of PCBs
What impact will the upcoming technical trends have on the PCB industry? Chris Nuttall, COO NCAB Group gives his view about this.

Our technical team – always ready to support you
Jeffrey Beauchamp – Technical / Engineering Manager at NCAB Group USA Jeffrey has been with NCAB since 2003. What are your responsibilities as Technical / Engineering Manager? I am responsible for supporting our customers with technical guidance, mentoring and assisting our team of technicians across North America and qualifying and maintaining our Domestic supplier base. […]

Soft cost drivers in PCB production
Soft cost drivers – an important factor That reason is whether your role is managerial, commercial or technical there is a good chance that you have an interest in ensuring that the printed circuit boards you are purchasing, designing or assembling are as efficient as they can be in terms of achieving what we […]

KTH Formula Student
Why is this project of interest for NCAB? “NCAB strive to fill up with new expertise in the field of technology and hence a broad recruitment base is needed. We want to attract all young people regardless of who you are and where you come from, both to encourage young people’s technological interest and at […]

Copper coin PCBs – efficiency and reliability in thermal PCB management
Copper coin PCB and MCPCB technology are ways of managing heat within PCBs. Learn more about the growing technology of copper coin PCBs.

The 5G networks are here – what effect will this have on society, businesses and the PCB industry?
The transition to the new generation of mobile communications, 5G, has already begun in Asia and the United States. We take a closer look at 5G in general and what the effect it will have on the PCB industry in particular.

Hard Cost Drivers in PCB production
Where do costs originate? Well, 80-90% of all costs are built into the project in a very early stage of the chain – before suppliers (EMS companies, PCB suppliers, etc.) have sight of the design. We always recommend involving your suppliers very early in the design stage. In order to tackle the subject. We have […]

Qualities of medically applied PCBs
PCBs in medical applications In this blog post we will discuss the details of PCBs used in medical applications, highlighting some of the differences in terms of demands and how the design must be handled. We have seen electronics become increasingly significant in the medical field. Advancements in medical technology have provided dramatically improved diagnostics […]

The Current Material Situation
Due to an increased demand for advanced materials to support the growth in 5G applications, many laminate manufacturers have increased the production and output of high-performance or high-speed material at the expense of standard performance materials. The current situation is having a negative effect on the supply of standard performance material (low-to-mid Tg). The consequence […]

Reliable PCBs – key factor that determines the quality of the end product
Reliability is a key factor right from the start of the PCB production process. If a PCB has a reliability issue, the end product itself is at risk. The important thing is getting it right first time. Trying to improve reliability once the product is designed and in production can lead to massively high costs […]

Understand RF PCB Design – view and solutions
Understand RF PCB design by reading how RF circuitry is today crammed into a large variety of commercial products.

NCAB Group – Making PCBs cool since 1993
Michael Larsson VP Sales, Group Function How would you describe a PCB to a child? It’s flat and often green, with a lot of small holes. You almost never see it, but it helps you get to soccer practice, keeps your ice cream cold and your Snapchat functioning. It make all the difference for […]


Bypass the PCB Broker?
This article has been published in the October 2016 edition of the magazine “Printed Circuit Design & Fab Circuits Assembly” and is a response to Greg Papadrew´s column “Shortening the supply chain” published in the same magazine in August 2016.







More design tips – get it right from the start
COMMON DESIGN PROBLEMS REGARDING HDI PRODUCTION PROBLEMS DEPENDING ON THIS BEST SOLUTION Too tight demands on the thickness of overplating of plugged vias. (POFV or VIPPO) Affects the flow of the process, at a reasonable thickness of the overplating all the vias can be drilled in the same operation, which makes the process much […]

The benefits of multi-sourcing of PCB factories compared to single sourcing
They had to have audit staff, technicians, quality-, logistic- and purchase staff to be able to get the correct boards. They have to use 6-7 factories to get the absolutely best offer. This was fairly easy to handle when the factories was in the vicinity and price wasn’t such a big issue. Then transition started […]

Close cooperation – a source of inspiration
The main task this time is to perform an audit, a very good tool for checking the status of the factory, finding improvement areas and go to action. I’m travelling together with two PCB experts, our Group Quality & Technical Manager and our Technical Manager in Sweden. I’m very proud having this strong team when […]

The world is running faster, or is it really?
We know for sure that information is travelling faster, and thanks to this, the world has become a little smaller. We can communicate with all different parts of the world in real-time and we can send goods pretty quick between regions. But looking in a longer perspective – is it really that much faster today, […]

PCB DfM – a pathway to lower overall cost
It’s all about connections, not simply those that the designers make to define the circuit or the ones that circuit board manufacturers create to fab the PCB. It’s about connecting the design intent with PCB manufacturing capabilities and assembly requirements. Without these connections, the PCBA will not have the manufacturing robustness or process yield needed […]

CSR – an important issue for the future
Still there are differences between the environments our future generations grow up in – with our well appointed NCAB UK offices & warehousing based here in Wiltshire, in open countryside – it is a stark contrast to the industrial zones of southern China where many of the PCBs consumed by global electronics markets are made. […]