OT: PCB Assembly service in europe

These people (UK) are very good for SMD assembly:

You really need to discuss the board with your assembler before finalising the layout - things like fiducials need to be acceptable to them.

They can just mount the 'dificult' chips for you, it won't be all that expensive.

Leon

Hello Sylvain,

For just 15 boards it can sometimes be less expensive to hire a temp from a local labor pool company. But it should be a technician who is experienced in fine pitch prototype build-up.

If you are still at Louvain University there may even be an institute that has technicians and could do it for a cross charge fee (or for the promise to throw a nice party...).

Regards, Joerg

Hi Joerg !

Soldering BGA's by hand ?

I'm still around but from what I've seen they hire sub-contractors for such jobs. They're "in-house" capability for producing/assembling PCBs is quite limited (or they're hiding it well ;).

As for throwing a nice party, a few bottles of "Chimay bleue" certainly make wonders around the ELEC departement ;)

A+,

Sylvain

Hi Leon,

Thanks, they already were on my list of "to-ask" ;)

Could you tell me what "fiducials" are ? Google translate isn't of much help ...

Yes that would be nice. I can mount the few thru-all or quite large pitch SMD myself. But BGA, finepitch and 0402 caps are trickier ;)

Any vague idea on the price range ? I had a quick quote from a local company that was about 350$ per board which is quite high in my opinion ... (or am i mistaken ?)

Sylvain

Sylvain,

Just add to what Rich said, a fiducial translates to "une mire" in french.

Not really. I've had a "regular fab" build as few as three stuffed boards at a time. "Regular fabs" like money too. ;-) ...and it really wasn't all *that* expensive, as far as prototypes go.

Hello Sylvain,

Not with a solder iron, of course. But we did quite a few in the lab. Some technicians become very proficient with the heat gun or with ovens.

It's just that it will be tough to convince a regular fab to do a run with a mere 15 units.

I'd ask around to find out which subs can do these job. But for tough jobs such as BGA you'd almost have to talk with someone at another institute about their results and not just rely on the usual "preferred partner" listing.

For Valentine's day my wife and I treated ourselves to a nice bottle of "Diabolique". I think it was more than eight "volts" and the usual smoke came out after popping the cork.

Regards, Joerg

Thanks to both of you for the translation.

Sylvain