An amusing PCB... - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: hamster_nz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2019, 12:16:08 am
content: I saw this in @RueNahcMohr's twitter feed. Thought others might like to feel a bitYes, all the wide passives have been installed side on!

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2019, 01:09:52 am
content: The side-on passives are possible for hand-assembly, but not pick-and-place. You will never see it on anything made in volume.

author: Mr. Scram
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2019, 01:12:14 am
content: Interesting technique. I had seen upright through hole components, but not the SMD variety.

author: HalFET
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2019, 02:04:20 am
content: I wonder if you could stack upright SMD passives

author: aargee
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2019, 02:16:25 am
content: Interestingly, I wonder if it was an older type of P&P, the components have the classic red glue blobs under them and this looks like a TV tuner module which would indicate possibly made in the thousands?

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2019, 02:31:19 am
content: Quote from: aargee on March 04, 2019, 02:16:25 amI didn't even notice thatYou're right, it was mass produced and was wave soldered. I don't know what type of automated machine could place components on-edge like that.

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 04, 2019, 02:51:25 am
content: Did they ever make a pick and place machine with a tweezer style gripper? That would make sense.

author: IconicPCB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2019, 03:23:14 am
content: conventional pick and place can do the job provided the components are presented that way on the tape

author: bsfeechannel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2019, 03:47:02 am
content: Looks like a cemetery.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2019, 03:47:48 am
content: That's fascinating. Definitely mass produced, and wave soldered.I wonder how they avoided solder blobs between closely adjacent components?In all the years I've been disassembling such things for curiosity, I never saw that.Quote from: bsfeechannel on March 04, 2019, 03:47:02 amOne dimension short of a field of tombstones.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2019, 04:14:01 am
content: That's one way of saving space... probably comes from a time when smaller SMD were not yet available.

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2019, 04:30:33 am
content: Got the footprints wrong.

author: dmills
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2019, 12:09:49 pm
content: The **SERIOUS** RF people sometimes actually do this even now, turns out a MLCC or Porcelain capacitor is better behaved at high microwave if the plates are vertical rather then horizontal for reasons having to do with SRF, and that this actually matters sometimes.Pain in the arse for assembly, but at 24GHz and up, you do what you gotta do.IIRC American Technical Ceramics have a short note on it.First time I have seen it done in a consumer product however, and ALL the parts at that!Regards, Dan.

author: shakalnokturn
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2019, 03:21:00 pm
content: Quote from: Mr. Scram on March 04, 2019, 01:12:14 amQuote from: HalFET on March 04, 2019, 02:04:20 amThe real fun begins when you start doing through-hole SMD(SMD components as Vias? Anyone have photos to illustrate?)Did the tweet say who manufactured the tuner? I'd bet on ALPS...

author: dmills
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2019, 03:28:47 pm
content: No photos, but I will admit to a MELF diode stuffed into a NPTH hole once as a 'make it harder to copy' sort of measure way back in the day.I had it setup so the processor could sense the diode and would throw creatively weird crashes in its absence, I hope someone wasted a lot of time trying to figure that one out.Regards, Dan.

author: Dielectric
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2019, 03:36:04 pm
content: I think that's called "billboarding" in the assembler's parlance. I saw it considered once when they couldn't get a particular package size, but a slightly different component would fit if you billboarded it. I haven't worked on really high frequency RF but they do some wacky stuff so I'm not even a little surprised that it would be a little more common there.

author: Nauris
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2019, 07:13:22 pm
content: Quote from: helius on March 04, 2019, 01:09:52 amBut then if you make it in real big volumes, all kinds of strange things become possible. I have seen those side mounted passives in old japanese tv-tuner module, definitely made in the tens of millions units or more.

author: OwO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2019, 02:59:25 am
content: Quote from: shakalnokturn on March 04, 2019, 03:21:00 pmUsed to do that all the time on home etched RF boards, where every time I need a capacitor to ground I would drill a hole and stuff a 0603 cap into the hole, then solder both sides. I remember the 0603 length is exactly 1.6mm which is the same as the board thickness. It was very convenient for power plane decoupling. I don't have photos because it's completely invisible after the fact, all you see is solder plating on both sides.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2019, 05:01:02 am
content: That's what's known in the industry as GMTGangster Mount Technology

author: electromotive
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2019, 05:28:23 pm
content: What a mess!