SMD Line
The PCBA and video card manufacturing process. The printed circuit board (PCB) starts the process and solder paste is applied were SMD components will be installed. Then the board goes to the SMT insertion line (SMD and S
MT are practically synonyms; while SMD refers to the components, SMT refers to the soldering technology). In this line robots pick and place SMD components in their proper location. After SMD components insertion, the board goes to an oven, where the solder paste will be melted, soldering the components to the board. After this process and in several point during the whole manufacturing process employees visually inspect the board looking for errors.
DIP Line
After quality control from the SMD line, the board go to the manual insertion line, also known as DIP. In this line bigger components that require conventional soldering are inserted, like sockets, connectors, electrolytic capacitors, slots, etc. The board goes on a mat that runs in front of many employees from this section. Each employee is in charge of inserting a single component to the board. The board goes thru this line until all components are inserted. After this, the board goes to a soldering tank, where all components are automatically soldered. After that the quality control crew comes in action checking if all soldering spots are perfect or not. After this step employees install BIOS, battery, the chipset heatsink and eventually other components that cannot enter the soldering machine. After this the board is ready to be used.
After the board is manufactured, the next step is to test it, in a process called functionality testing. In this testing the PCBA is turned on and all its components are tested. This is a compulsory test and all boards are tested.
In compatibility testing, we tests 10 pieces per day of each model that is being manufactured to check the compatibility of the product with several operational systems and components from different vendors, in order to check if there is any compatibility or conflict issue with the product being tested.
Burn-in test is done by sampling, where 10 pieces per day of each model that is being manufactured are tested running several testing programs on ambient temperature for 24 hours to check if anything wrong happens.
