Electronic – How to specify orientation of devices during PCB assembly

pcbpcb-assembly

Generally when I build stuff on a PCB I create a small legend with a circle for pin 1 and I use this to manually orient the IC. I was watching a couple of youtube videos on automated pick and place SMT assembly , and was curious as to whether there is any other file which specifies the orientation of the device. As far as I know I have only heard of gerbers and a BOM file. Is there an extra file which needs to be supplied to a PCB house for handling orientation for IC's as well as other devices(like tantalum capacitors etc)

Best Answer

Yes there is, it's called a "Pick & Place File". It specifies the component position, pad references, layer, and rotation (among other specifications) for placement. Below is a snippet of the P&P file for a board I did recently:

Designator Footprint                  Mid X         Mid Y         Ref X             Ref Y         Pad X         Pad Y TB      Rotation Comment        

R1         RESC3225M_1210_KOA-SPEER   36.44mm        7.649mm       36.44mm       7.649mm       36.44mm       6.099mm  T         90.00 3.3            
C7         CAPC1608M_0603_MURATA      26.7462mm     -1.568mm      26.7462mm     -1.567mm      26.7462mm     -0.768mm  B        270.00 0.1 uF         
C8         CAPC1608M_0603_MURATA      25.273mm      -1.566mm      25.273mm      -1.567mm      25.273mm      -2.366mm  B         90.00 0.001uF        
C2         CAPC2012M_0805_TDK         41.635mm       8.746mm      41.635mm       8.746mm      42.935mm       8.746mm  T        180.00 0.15uF         
C1         CAPC3216M_1206_TDK         38.945mm      20.006mm      38.945mm      20.006mm      37.145mm      20.006mm  T        360.00 1.5uF          
C4         CAPC1608M_0603_MURATA     26.7565mm      9.1188mm     26.7565mm      9.1178mm     26.7565mm      8.3188mm  B         90.00 0.1 uF         
C5         CAPC1608M_0603_MURATA      25.259mm       9.099mm      25.259mm       9.098mm      25.259mm       8.299mm  B         90.00 0.001uF        
C13        CAPC1608M_0603_MURATA      15.351mm     -7.9714mm      15.351mm     -7.9724mm      15.351mm     -8.7714mm  B         90.00 0.1 uF         
C12        CAPC1608M_0603_MURATA      16.834mm     -7.9684mm      16.834mm     -7.9694mm      16.834mm     -8.7684mm  B         90.00 0.001uF

You can see that it calls out the rotation of the component in one of the last columns.

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