pcbpcb-fabrication
Exploring some fab houses and I came across this statement from https://www.viapart.com/PCB/Explain
"Minimum slot aperture
Mechanical drill 0.6mm The tolerance of groove aperture is±0.1mm"
Does this mean that the smallest hole they can make is ~24mils with an annular ring of ~4mils ? If not, what does Minimum Slot Aperature mean ?
How could one extract annular ring size from their description ?
A reputable PCB house will solidly deliver their minimum standard track & spacing.
Some will let you try finer at your risk and some will reject your work outright if under spec.
I assume that you are using a temperature controlled iron. If not, do.
If you are not confident in your own soldering abilities and you have plenty of room then fattening up tracks and especially pads associated with through hole parts does no harm. I'd give the through hole headers as much copper as you reasonably can - especially if the board is NOT PTH (plated through hole). With PTH you get substantially more strength. If the board is single sided (probably not, but ...) then you want to take great care with through hole pad soldering and due care with everything else.
SMD part pads should be suited to the part and you have to learn to accommodate them rather than them accommodating you.
PS: Others feel free to contradict or improve anything I've said. I have very substantial soldering experience but there is always good stuff and ideas to learn. ________________________________
Related: This excellent reference -
TI Analog Engineer’s Pocket Reference - 4th edition
as well as a vast amount of other useful material
it provides some useful information on PCB track current/ voltage drop / heat / fusing issues. Especially pages 55-68.
Like Olin said.
Making a layout of the PCBs on a panel is called a panelization. In most cases V-cuts will be made between PCBs, so they can easily be separated by bending the panel. Care must be taken with high components (e.g. connectors) close to the edges, that they don't prevent the bending.
Alternatively a panel may be milled so that the PCBs are only connected at a few points. These connections are perforated so that they are also easily separateble. Milling is more expensive but may be required for the PCB; they are more precise than V-cuts, and also if your boards isn't rectangular you'll have to mill the edges.
A panel will at least have a couple of edges on opposite sides where the PCB manufacturer will place fiducials.
These are small marks, as copper circles, which are used by the pick-and-place machine as reference points to know where the parts should be placed. Here there are just 4 fiducials on the edges, but I've seen them as two rows at the top and bottom of the panel.
Panels will often have a number of identical PCBs, but you can make a panelization of different PCBs:
Best Answer
I would interpret this as the smallest slot they can make is the equivalent of a 0.6mm hole, dragged along the line of the slot. As in, the smallest tool they'll use for a slot is their 0.6mm drill, and they're putting a 0.1mm tolerance on the width of that slot.
Not necessarily. They may have smaller drill sizes available for vias and non-slot holes.