PCB Production and Assembly
PCB production and assembly is a two-stage build. Production (fabrication) turns your Gerber data into a bare printed circuit board; assembly then sources the parts, places and solders them, and tests the result into a working PCBA. Most engineers searching for both together want one vendor accountable for the whole chain — because splitting fab and assembly across two suppliers is where schedules, yield and blame usually break down.
IPC-A-610 Class 2 & Class 3 workmanship
ISO 9001 · ISO 13485 · IATF 16949 capable production
Manufacturing partner operating since 2005 · 2026 edition
Definition
What is PCB production and assembly?
PCB production and assembly covers the complete manufacture of an electronic circuit board in two linked stages. Production, also called PCB fabrication, converts copper-clad laminate into a bare board with etched traces, drilled and plated vias, solder mask and surface finish. Assembly — the PCBA stage — procures components against your Bill of Materials, prints solder paste, places and reflows surface-mount parts, adds through-hole parts, then inspects and tests the finished board.
The distinction matters commercially, not just technically. A fabrication house quotes copper, drills and laminate. An assembly house quotes labour, placements and parts. When you buy them separately you own the interface between them: panelisation, fiducials, hole tolerance, board thickness and stack-up all have to survive the handoff, and when a joint fails nobody agrees whose problem it is. Buying PCB production and assembly as one scope removes that seam.
The second stage is where most of the risk and most of the cost sits. If you want a deeper technical treatment of placement, reflow profiling and inspection specifically, this walkthrough of PCB Assembly covers the shop-floor detail. On this page the focus is the commercial view: what to send, what it costs, how long it takes and how to pick the supplier.
| PCB production (fabrication) | PCB assembly (PCBA) | |
|---|---|---|
| Input data | Gerber RS-274X or ODB++, drill file, stack-up notes | BOM with manufacturer part numbers, centroid / pick-and-place file, assembly drawing |
| Core processes | Imaging, etching, lamination, drilling, plating, solder mask, surface finish, electrical test | Solder paste printing, SPI, pick-and-place, reflow, through-hole and selective solder, wash, AOI, X-ray |
| Output | Bare board, electrically tested, panelised or routed | Populated and tested board, or a complete box build |
| Cost driven by | Layer count, area, material, finish, hole density, tolerance class | Component prices, placement count, unique part count, setup, test coverage |
| Typical turn | 24 h – 10 days | 2 – 20 working days after parts |
Stage map
The eight stages, in the order they happen
This is the real sequence a job moves through in a combined fab-and-assembly factory. The numbering matters here because each stage gates the next — a DFM problem caught at stage one costs an email, the same problem caught at stage six costs a rebuild.
Engineering review and DFM/DFA
Your Gerbers, BOM and centroid data are checked against real process limits: annular ring, sliver traces, acid traps, courtyard clashes, missing polarity marks, footprints that do not match the specified part. Long-lead, obsolete and single-source components are flagged here, before anything is bought.
Component sourcing and kitting
Parts are bought from authorised distributors against your approved BOM. Where a line item is on allocation, an alternate is proposed under your substitution rules — must-match, preferred, or free to substitute. Kits are counted, verified and staged before the line is set up.
Bare board fabrication
Inner layers are imaged and etched, the stack is laminated, holes are drilled and copper-plated, outer layers are formed, then solder mask, silkscreen and surface finish are applied. Every bare board is electrically tested — flying probe for low volume, fixture test for production.
Stencil, paste print and SPI
A laser-cut stainless stencil is made from your paste layer, apertures tuned for fine-pitch and QFN thermal pads. Paste is printed onto the panel and 3D solder paste inspection verifies volume, area and offset on every pad before a single component lands.
SMT placement and reflow
High-speed placement runs from your centroid data — 01005 chips through 0.3 mm pitch BGAs, QFN, LGA and connectors. The panel then passes a multi-zone reflow oven on a profile matched to the board mass, thickness and alloy, lead-free or leaded.
Through-hole, selective solder and hand build
Connectors, transformers, electrolytics and any part that has to take mechanical load go in after SMT. Wave or selective soldering handles volume; skilled hand soldering handles odd-form parts and anything that cannot survive a solder pot.
Inspection and test
Automated optical inspection on every board, X-ray on every hidden joint — BGA, QFN, bottom-terminated parts. Then electrical test to the level you specify: flying probe, in-circuit test on a bed-of-nails fixture, or full functional test on a fixture built for your product.
Conformal coat, box build and shipping
Optional conformal coating or potting for harsh environments, firmware and IC programming, enclosure and cable-harness integration, final functional check, serialisation and ESD-safe packing. Traceability records and a certificate of conformance ship with the batch.
Have a design ready to move?Send Gerbers and a BOM and get a DFM review with the quote — no charge, no obligation.
Start a quote →Commercial models
Turnkey, partial turnkey or consigned?
Every PCB production and assembly quote rests on one decision: who buys the parts. Get this wrong and the quote gets rebuilt twice before you see a real number.
Supplier buys everything
Boards, components, stencil, assembly and test on one purchase order. Fastest path, one throat to choke, and the supplier absorbs sourcing risk. Best when speed and simplicity matter more than squeezing the last few per cent out of part prices.
You supply the critical parts
You keep control of expensive, allocated, pre-programmed or contract-priced items; the supplier sources the ordinary passives and semis. The usual choice for teams with existing distributor agreements or a strict approved-vendor list.
You supply the full kit
You ship a complete kit and pay for setup, placement and test only. Cheapest per unit if you already hold stock — but every shortage, wrong reel or damaged part in your kit stops the line and the clock.
Which sourcing model fits your build?
3 questionsAnswer all three to see a recommendation.
RFQ package
What to send for an accurate quote
An incomplete data package is the single most common reason a PCB production and assembly quote comes back slow, wrong, or hedged with assumptions. Five files remove almost all of the guesswork — and every one of them should be at the same revision.
- Gerber RS-274X or ODB++ — all copper, mask, silkscreen and paste layers, plus the drill file. Protel .PCB and Eagle .BRD are also accepted.
- Bill of Materials in Excel — reference designators, manufacturer part numbers, quantity per board, and a substitution rule per line. Mark do-not-populate lines explicitly.
- Centroid / pick-and-place file — X-Y coordinates, rotation and side for every placed part.
- Assembly drawing (PDF) — polarity, orientation of anything ambiguous, special handling, torque and coating requirements.
- Build quantities and test spec — prototype count, expected annual volume, and whether you need AOI only, X-ray, ICT or functional test.
Is your RFQ package quote-ready?
tick what you haveTick the files you already have. Anything missing below will be quoted on assumptions rather than facts.
Schedule
How long PCB production and assembly takes
Three clocks run in a combined build: fabrication, component procurement and assembly. Fabrication is the predictable one — 24 hours to about 10 working days depending on technology. Procurement is the clock that actually decides your ship date, because one allocated regulator can hold a whole kit. Assembly itself is fast once the kit is complete.
As a planning baseline: prototype quantities of one to ten boards usually land in about 7–15 working days including sourcing; small batches of ten to a hundred run 15–25 working days; volume production is quoted against component lead times rather than a standard table. Expedited builds compress fab and assembly, not procurement.
Indicative lead-time estimator
planning guide onlyCost drivers
What actually moves the price
A PCB production and assembly quote is not one number; it is four stacked numbers — bare board, components, one-time engineering, and per-unit assembly labour. Knowing which one dominates your build tells you where to push.
Components
Usually 50–80% of a turnkey PCBA price. Driven by part choice, not by the assembler. Consolidating part numbers, avoiding single-source and exotic packages, and accepting approved alternates does more for cost than any negotiation on labour.
Bare board
Layer count and area first, then material, finish and tolerance class. Going from four layers to six, or FR-4 to Rogers, moves the board price far more than a slightly larger outline does.
Setup and NRE
Stencil, programming, feeder setup, first-article inspection and any test fixture. Fixed per build, so it dominates prototype pricing and disappears into the noise at volume — the main reason unit price falls so sharply with quantity.
Assembly labour and test
Counted in placements and solder joints, not boards. Double-sided reflow, mixed technology, odd-form hand soldering, conformal coating and functional test each add a real, quotable step.
Practical levers that work on almost every design: order in batches large enough to spread setup, keep parts on one side where the design allows, standardise on common package sizes, avoid fine-pitch where nothing requires it, and allow standard lead times instead of paying an expedite premium on every build.
Want the four numbers for your board?A parts-included quote comes back after a free engineering review of your BOM and Gerbers.
Request pricing →Quality system
Inspection, test and the standards that govern them
Workmanship on an assembled board is judged against IPC-A-610. Class 2 covers dedicated service electronics — industrial, consumer, most commercial products — where uninterrupted service is desired but not critical. Class 3 covers high-performance hardware where downtime cannot be tolerated: medical, aerospace, automotive safety, defence. Class 3 tightens fillet, void and cleanliness criteria and increases inspection effort, and it should be specified in your RFQ rather than assumed.
| Stage | Method | What it catches |
|---|---|---|
| Bare board | Flying probe or fixture E-test, AOI, microsection | Opens, shorts, plating and lamination defects |
| Pre-reflow | 3D solder paste inspection | Insufficient or excess paste, offset prints, bridging risk |
| Post-reflow | Automated optical inspection | Missing, skewed, tombstoned or wrong-polarity parts |
| Hidden joints | X-ray inspection | BGA and QFN voids, head-in-pillow, opens under the package |
| Electrical | Flying probe, in-circuit test, functional test | Wrong values, faulty parts, real behavioural failures |
| Environmental | Burn-in, thermal cycling, hipot | Infant mortality and marginal joints before they ship |
Capability envelope
Production and assembly capabilities
Published limits from the partner factory used for enquiries from this site — a 20-year Shenzhen manufacturer running fabrication and SMT under one quality system.
| Parameter | Capability |
|---|---|
| FR-4 layer count | 1 – 56 layers |
| Min trace / spacing | 3 / 3 mil |
| Board thickness | 0.4 – 6.0 mm |
| Copper weight | 1 – 20 oz |
| HDI | 4 – 48 layers, blind & buried, any-layer |
| Flex & rigid-flex | 1 – 8 layers, from 5 days |
| RF materials | Rogers, Taconic, Isola, PTFE, hybrid |
| Surface finish | HASL LF, ENIG, ENEPIG, OSP, Imm. Ag/Sn, hard gold |
| Fastest turn | 24 hours |
| Parameter | Capability |
|---|---|
| Technology | SMT, through-hole, mixed, odd-form |
| Min component | 01005 |
| Min BGA pitch | 0.3 mm |
| Package types | BGA, µBGA, QFN, LGA, POP, CSP, connectors |
| Volume range | 1 – 50,000+ units, no MOQ |
| Solder process | Lead-free and leaded, selective, wave, hand |
| Added services | Conformal coating, potting, IC programming, BGA reballing |
| Integration | Cable harness, box build, enclosure, final test |
| Standards | IPC-A-610 Cl 2/3, ISO 9001 / 13485 / IATF 16949 capable |
Supplier selection
How to compare PCB production and assembly suppliers
Two quotes for the same board can differ by a factor of two and both be honest — because they are pricing different assumptions. Normalise these before you compare unit prices:
- Sourcing scope — full turnkey, partial or consigned, and who owns excess stock from full-reel purchases.
- Test coverage — AOI only versus AOI plus X-ray plus functional test is a real cost difference, not a rounding error.
- Workmanship class — Class 2 quoted against a Class 3 requirement will always look cheaper until first article.
- NRE treatment — amortised into the unit price, or listed separately.
- Lead-time assumptions — whether the quoted date includes component procurement or starts from kit-complete.
- Documentation — first-article inspection reports, material certificates, traceability records and a certificate of conformance.
Beyond the paperwork, the practical test is engineering responsiveness. A supplier that returns a DFM report with the quote, flags an end-of-life part before you order, and questions a footprint that does not match the specified package is worth more over a product life than a small unit-price advantage.
Industrial & power
Motor drives, PLCs, inverters, welding and machine-vision controllers — heavy copper, thick boards and mixed technology.
Medical & instrumentation
Class 3 workmanship, conformal coating, 100% X-ray on hidden joints and full traceability documentation.
RF, IoT & automotive
Controlled impedance, Rogers and hybrid stack-ups, fine-pitch BGAs, AEC-Q-aligned parts and PPAP documentation.
Frequently asked
PCB production and assembly questions
What is the difference between PCB production and PCB assembly?
Production, or fabrication, builds the bare printed circuit board: laminate, etched copper, drilled and plated holes, solder mask and surface finish. Assembly populates that finished board with components and solders them into place, then inspects and tests the result. Production output is an empty board; assembly output is a working PCBA. Both stages use the same design data but different files — fabrication needs Gerbers and a drill file, assembly needs a BOM and centroid data.
What files do I need for a PCB production and assembly quote?
Five items cover almost every build: Gerber RS-274X or ODB++ with the drill file, a BOM in Excel with manufacturer part numbers and quantities, a centroid or pick-and-place file, an assembly drawing showing polarity and special instructions, and your build quantities with the required test level. Protel and Eagle native files are also accepted. Keep every file at the same revision and zip them into one archive.
How long does PCB production and assembly take?
Fabrication runs from 24 hours for simple FR-4 boards to about ten days for HDI. Component procurement typically adds five to twelve days on a turnkey order and is usually the critical path. Assembly and test then take two to twenty working days depending on quantity and complexity. In practice, prototype runs land in roughly 7–15 working days, small batches in 15–25, and volume production is scheduled against component lead times.
Is there a minimum order quantity?
No. Builds run from a single prototype board up to 50,000+ units. What changes with quantity is the cost structure, not eligibility: setup and engineering charges are fixed per build, so they dominate the unit price on a five-piece order and become negligible in volume. That is why a prototype can cost more per board than a production run of the identical design.
Is turnkey or consigned assembly cheaper?
Consigned looks cheaper on the quote because it only prices setup, labour and test — but you carry the sourcing cost, the shortage risk and the schedule risk. Turnkey bundles procurement in and usually wins on total landed cost and time, since the assembler buys full reels, holds distributor relationships and manages substitutions. Partial turnkey is the middle path: you supply the controlled or contract-priced parts and the assembler sources the rest.
Can one supplier handle both fabrication and assembly?
Yes, and it is the reason most buyers search for the two together. With both under one roof the fabricator panelises the board for the assembly line, adds fiducials and tooling holes correctly, and matches thickness and finish to the solder process. It also removes the transit leg between vendors and, when a joint fails, removes the argument about whether the board or the build caused it.
What is the difference between IPC-A-610 Class 2 and Class 3?
Class 2 is dedicated service electronics: continued performance is expected, but occasional downtime is acceptable. Class 3 is high-performance hardware where failure is not tolerable — medical, aerospace, automotive safety and defence. Class 3 applies tighter solder fillet, void, alignment and cleanliness criteria, and requires more inspection and documentation, which is reflected in the price. Specify the class in your RFQ so both sides quote the same product.
What happens if a component on my BOM is out of stock?
The sourcing team flags it at quote stage rather than after the order. Depending on the substitution rule you set for that line, they will propose a form-fit-function alternate from an authorised distributor, quote the lead time for the original, or hold the line for your decision. Marking each BOM line as must-match, preferred or free to substitute is the single most effective thing you can do to protect your schedule.
How are BGA and hidden solder joints inspected?
Optically they cannot be — the joints sit under the package. X-ray inspection is used instead, checking for voids, opens, bridging and head-in-pillow defects on BGA, µBGA, QFN and other bottom-terminated components. On Class 3 and medical builds, X-ray on every hidden joint is standard rather than sampled, and it is paired with in-circuit or functional test to confirm the board behaves as designed.
Do you handle box build and cable assembly as well?
Yes. Box build extends the scope past the populated board to enclosure fabrication, wire harness and cable assembly, mechanical integration, firmware loading, system-level functional test, packaging and shipping. For many hardware teams this is the point of buying production and assembly together — a finished, tested product ships from one supplier instead of three vendors and an internal integration step.
Get a parts-included quote for your boardSend Gerbers and a BOM. An engineer reviews the data, returns a DFM report with the price, and confirms a real ship date before you commit.
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