Electronic Glossary

Acceptance Quality Level (AQL). On any given production run of printed circuit boards there is an acceptable amount of defective boards, also known as AQL. These are removed during the test and inspection process. The level is closely monitored to …

Arduino is an open-source hardware and software company, project and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers (MCU) and microcontroller kits for building digital devices.

In PCB manufacturing, the artwork is the electronic data (see CAM Files) that is used to produce the artwork master. This data is usually scaled and not a 1:1 representation.

When the artwork is sent to the plotter it creates a photo image that is a 1:1 scale of the circuit that will be used in manufacturing. From there the image can then be applied to the copper clad laminate …

American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) is a text and control-code character set used in computers. Pronounced “ASS-kee.” ASCII is a simple text based format, nothing more. There can be numerous ASCII format files produced relating to PCBs and …

Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) is an integrated circuit that is custom designed for a particular application. ASICs may be designed by interconnecting existing circuit sub-circuits (functional circuit building blocks that already exist in a library) or by developing and connecting …

What Is the Aspect Ratio in PCB?   Aspect Ratio (AR) is the ratio of the drilling depth compared to the drilling diameter of the smallest hole drilled in the same PCB. The drilling methods can be either CNC mechanical …

A drawing indicating the locations, outlines, polarity, 1st pin of components, with their reference designators, on a printed circuit board. Assembly drawings are important data for PCB assembly.

A manufacturing facility for placing and soldering components to printed circuit boards.

Automated Test Equipment (ATE). Programmable equipment used for various testing operations within the EDR fab and assembly process. Component ATE automatically checks individual components for correct value and operation; In-Circuit Test (ICT) equipment checks assemblies for correct assembly and for …