PCBA Tech - What is the difference between PCB vs PCBA?

I believe that many people are not unfamiliar with the electronic industry-related terms such as PCB circuit board and SMT chip processing. These are often heard in daily life, but many people do not know much about PCBA and often confuse it with PCB.

PCB is the Printed Circuit Board. It is the support of electronic components and the carrier of electrical connection of electronic components.

PCB production process

Contact the manufacturer-cutting-drilling-copper sinking-graphic transfer-graphic plating-removing film-etching-green oil-characters-gold-plated fingers-forming-test-final inspection

PCBA is Printed Circuit Board Assembly, which is PCB + component assembly. It is called PCBA, which can also be understood as a finished circuit board.

PCBA production process

Solder paste printing-solder paste thickness measurement-placement machine placement-AOI inspection-DIP plug-in processing-wave soldering-post-soldering cleaning-functional testing-finished product assembly-finished product inspection

PCB vs PCBA

The difference between PCB vs PCBA

From the above introduction, we know that PCBA generally refers to a processing process, which can also be understood as a finished circuit board, that is, PCBA can be counted after all the processes on the PCB board are completed. The PCB refers to an empty printed circuit board with no parts on it.

With the high-speed, high-performance, and ultra-miniaturization of electronic equipment, packaging technology has achieved rapid development. Chip size packages CSP and BGA packages are developing towards multiple lead terminals and narrow lead pitch, and bare chip (Bare Chip) packages have also been put into practical use. Due to the advancement of these packaging technologies, new requirements are also put forward for the Printed Wiring Board (PWB) (to adapt to high-density packaging and high-speed requirements).

In the past, electronic product manufacturers had to complete the production of a complete circuit board, usually after purchasing the PCB first, and then contacting the chip manufacturer for processing, the process was very troublesome and costly. Nowadays, many manufacturers are willing to choose PCB manufacturers to process patches at the same time as PCBs, or let patch manufacturers replace PCBs. Both methods save a lot of trouble and speed up production efficiency. PCBA manufacturers can realize these two fast and effective processing methods.

PCB procurement and patch processing are two different production methods. Many electronic manufacturers only specialize in one of them. This requires electronic product manufacturers to comprehensively consider the strength of the manufacturer when choosing a PCBA processing manufacturer, and choose rich experience and outstanding performance. PCBA manufacturer who have completed the entire processing process.