Excel
Electrocircuit, Inc.is a World Class
leader in Printed Circuit Board manufacturing technology.
From quote through delivery, every phase of every process is
performed by the optimal combination of highly experienced personnel
and dedicated machinery.
Excel remains
a leader as the first bare-board manufacturer in the United States to
implement a wide range of what have since become industry standard
technologies, including organic through-hole metalization and
environmentally safe lead-free processing.
Just
like their job title implies, "Customer Service" comes first. "It's incredibly rewarding at
the end of the day to reflect on how many people I've helped get
exactly what they need. We don't push product or services
they don't need - we just help them get exactly what they're looking
for- more like friendly advice. It's like we are an extention
of their company."
Members of Excel's Customer Service Team are highly
knowledgable experts and perform thorough technical review of
all data submitted for quote. Hands-on review provides realistic,
accurate first-time quotes, identifies potential
manufacturing complexeties and/or descrepancies, and
provides opertunities to offer discounts NOT attainable by
"on line quote" systems offered by some other PCB manufacturers.
ONE
Easy Step
to
Fast, Accurate Quote
E-mail
Request for Quote to sales@excelelectro.com with
Gerber data & special requirements docs as attachment.
Be
certain to include your contact info and to specify required quantities
and delivery schedule.
CAM,
Engineering, Job release
248.373.0700 ext. 28
Excel
Electrocircuit, Inc. has used Frontline Genesis 2000 (previously
known as "Valor") exclusively for all CAM data processing since
1998.
This highly customizable automated platform is interlinked with
in-house databases, the Production Control System, quote
specifications, customer-specific criteria database, and manufacturing
processes.
Any discrepancies between quoted values, IPC-600-A guidelines,
customer-specific requirements, or in-house manufacturing
capabilities are identified during the Design Analysis
phase. This facilitates rapid resolve of any significant
issues that might result in compromised functionality of your product,
and assures the product you receive from Excel Electrocircuit functions
per your design data.
Driven by a powerful and secure UNIX Operating
System, the two Sun
Microsystems Blade CAD servers provide unprecedented
stability. Combined with mirrored RAID drive configuration,
redundant power supplies, multiple CPU's, and duplicate workstations
and over-sized redundant back-up auxilary power, all seats have
recorded 100% up-time spanning several years.
At Excel, the CAD/CAM Engineering staff produces and is responsible for
not only performing Design For Manufacturing analysis on
customer-supplied data and creating multi-image lay up for
panelization, but is directly involved in directives that affect nearly
every subsequent process including CNC drill, rout & V-score
programming, film tool production, electrical test data creation,
design of the production steps & authoring of the job traveler,
multi-layer stackup recipe and electro-plating parameters.
Data files,
output from the CAM workstations by the engineering staff, are
transfered across a secured, isolated gigabit network to one of three Gerber Crescent 30 laser
photoplotters.
Isolated
in a temperature and humidity controled clean-room environment, each
plotter is capable of .0004" resolution.
Automated film handling is achieved by one Gerber/Barco Escort film
loader/unloader. Capable of delivering sheet film sizes up to 22x28",
this option has significantly increased efficiancy and reduced operator
intervention while reducing film surface and image defects.
Each plotter is driven by its own dedicated plot server computer and
used in rotation providing double-redundant capabilities
assuring
critical films will always be available the instant they are needed.
Finished films are
thoroughly inspected by a combination of
automated and manual optical methods using high-powered magnification.
Qualifying film tools are allowed to stabalize by re-equilibrating to
atmospheric conditions before verifying registration to a drilled
sample panel.
Registration
holes are then punched by either a Spartanic or Multiline machine with
semi-automatic video alignment to
facilitate pinned repeatability in imaging.
1
of 3 Gerber/Barco Crescent 30 Photo Plotters
Photo-Imaging
Expose & Develop
248.373.0700 ext. 28
Equiped
with six multi-drawer OLEC and ORC 5000+ WATT imaging systems... pin
registered
and/or automatically optically aligned WATT columnar light sources...
though-put... repeatability...
The AccuTray AutoAlign Imaging
System for Automatic Film Registration implemets
integrated cameras to optimize film image registration by recognizing
film features and drilled holes in the panel.
Both top & bottom films are adjusted automatically. Dimensional
changes caused by atmospheric conditions and process effects are
compensated within a pre-defined margin to render superior results
across the entire panel.
Imaged panels are developed in a horizontal orientation traveling along
a roller-conveyor system.
Dozens of individual precision spray nozels arranged in several banks
emit high preasure ammonia based developer. The panel travel
rate, developer concentration, and nozel condition are all critical
factors which must be maintained and carefully controlled to render an
exacting degree of resist removal.
OLEC AT-30 with AccuTray
Auto Align System
1
of 4 ORC two-drawer exposure units
Process Control / MRP
248.373.0700 ext. 28
Custom
built from the ground up exclusively for Excel Electrocircuit, the
Production System centralizes most business functions including MRP and
real-time job tracking. Based
on Microsoft techonologies, the original database continues to evolve
with in-house development, scaling to meet ever changing demands.
The Production System supplies the interface for nearly every process
beginning with quoting through shipping, including resource planning and in-process job tracking.
It also provides the interlink between Sales and
CAM/Engineering.
Linked to the highly automated Frontline Genesis CAM system, the
database both provides criteria as quoted and receives
feedback
identifying descrepancies.
Multilayer
248.373.0700 ext. 28
Two
semi-automatic hot-oil presses facilitate rapid through-put by allowing
simultaneous processing of jobs with differing build receipes.
Since press cycles have a finite capacity and fixed dwell,
utilizing two seperate presses not only assures a
constant work
flow, but means YOUR job will never be late due to equipment failure.
Excel Electrocircuit, Inc. builds multilayer printed circuit boards up
to 24 layers in-house, including blind and/or burried via sequencial
build technologies and is certified up to 10
layer military-class.
OEM Multi Layer Press
Drilling
248.373.0700 ext. 28
State-of-the-art
mechanical drilling is lead by the Pluritek
Giga-8888. This CNC
eight-station drill machine houses 4 stations in front and 4 in the
rear. Combined with 150,000 RPM spindles and 320 tool pallets
at
each station, this machine alone out-performs 4 typical machines common
to outher board houses. In addition, each tool is
automatically
laser-checked for correct size and run-out before usage.
Combined
with automatic depth check and broken tool detection, this machine
produces unprecedented hole quality and consistancy for your critical
product designs.
Supplementing the drill force is one Excellon System 2000S
with six
120k spindles and 5 faceted 600 tool magazines. This machine
is
also fitted with laser tool verification.
For smaller jobs, Excel uses two Excellon
MK Series CNC drill machines
with 5 spindles each and one Excellon Uniline single-spindle machine
ideal for fast through-put of proto-type jobs.
1
of 3 Excellon MK Series Drills
with CNC-6 controllers
Excellon
Uniline drill
In 1994, Excel was the
first PCB manufacturer in Michigan to
connect all machines to a networked file server for fast and reliable
delivery of CNC programs.
Pluritek
GIGA8888 eight station 150k RPM CNC drill machine
Excellon
System 2000S
Plating / Wet Process
248.373.0700 ext. 28
Wet
process is the heart of printed circuit manufacturing. Every
phase is critical and must be closely monitored and maintained.
From surface and hole preparation through etching through final
plating, each stage
must be fine-tuned to hold tight tolerances and exceed
specified
electrical properties.
This mandates a combination of robust machinery, automation, and
carefully trained operators all coordinated with qualified on-site
chemists.
For multilayer construction, each pair of inner layers on an adjoined
core, is first processed individually. Dependant on
customer preference or feature density, the exact stages each
core is processed through might vary.
At minimum, each core is imaged, developed, etched,
and subjected to an oxide surface treatment. Only then can it
be combined under heat and pressure in a press.
Once
pressed, panel processing is similar to double-sided
treatments.
Common to both double-sided
circuit boards and multi-layer constructions, several steps through the
wet process area are required to create plating in the hole barrels and
finished surface circuitry.
These steps begin after drilling all of the holes in
the entire panel which will require conductive plating in the
barrel.
Deburr Immediately after thru-holes
are drilled, the panels are first run through an abrasive
mechanical deburring machine. This improves the hole shoulder
and removes minute defects and oxidation which might
exist on the copper surfaces.
Desmear for multi-layer
construction interconnects Multi-layer
constructions must also undergo a "desmear" process. This
involves submersion in heated permanganate solution, which removes the thin
coating of resin from the inner layer connections that is produced by
the heat and motion of the drill bits as they create the holes.
Removing the resin smear improves the electrical connectivity.
Plasma Etch Teflon-based materials and/or
thick constructions with relatively small holes (aka,
high aspect ratios) mandate substitution of plasma etch (see article) for the more typical
chemical desmear.
Shadow Line
for Plated Through Hole treatment
Panels are then processed horizontally through a roller-conveyor driven
Shadow Line process, which evenly deposites conductive carbon in the
drilled hole
barrels.
This will facilitate copper bonding in subsequent plating
processes, resulting in electrically conductive plated-through
holes.
Next, panels are press-coated
on both sides simultaneously by a
cut-sheet laminator, applying a 2-4 mil thick UV sensitive imaging
resist.
Panels are forwarded to the
imaging area, where a positive image film
with circuit detail is held in intimate contact by vacuum during
exposure to ultra-violet light.
After the panel imaging process, the product must have non-exposed
areas, which were protected by the imaging film, removed by an alkaline
developer with precision spray
heads.This is accomplished by an
enclosed conveyor
system in a semi clean-room environment. The result is an
imaged panel with what will become the final circuit details
un-protected
while the balance of the panel, which will become bare substrate, still
protected by semi-hardened photo-resist.
Imaged Panel after develop
Now ready for electroplate, the panels are racked
vertically and processed by the automated plating line.
First, additional copper is electroplated to stregthen the hole barrels
and build up the thickness on the panel surfaces.
After copper, tin is plated to all copper surfaces.
in The tin adheres
to the visible copper tracks and does not attach to the remaining
photo-resist material.
[ ]
Once
the copper
tracks (a.k.a. traces) are coated with tin plate, the entire panel is
then processed through a conveyorized developer then etcher
which first
disolves the remaining photo-resist material, then (checmical) is
sprayed at high preasure from precision nosels in multiple stages to
disolve the under-lying copper surfaces. The final circuitry
remains protected by the tin plating applied in the previous phase.
[
]
Inner
layer (cores) after etching
The
entire panel
is now coated on both sides with Liquid Photo
Imageable resist, cured by
infared heat until the surface is hard enough to handle without
smearing, then undergoes another imaging step smilar to primary image
process. However, only pad surfaces intended to become
solderable
are protected by the image film and remain soft while the balance is
exposed to ultraviolet light activating the polimarization process.
A subsequent developing process removes the non-hardened
resist.
Constant monitoring of
processes is an essential part of quality assurance in a
world-class
manufacturing environment. Excel's lab is well equiped by a
team of
qualified and experienced chemists and technicians to support such
vital services in-house. Equipped
with more than the necessary tools and equipment,
AOI/Inspection
248.373.0700 ext. 28
Barco AccuMatch Automated Optical
Inspection unit coupled with Barco UCAM & INSPECT
software packages compares CAM data to actual panels or
films. Capable of resolution as critical as 1/4 MIL
(.00025"), even very minute defects are identified and corrected before
they become "built-in".
Solder Resist
248.373.0700 ext. 28
Circuit
Automation DP2500automatic
vertical double-sided screen printer coats both sides of panel
simultaneously with liquid photo-image ("LPI") solder resist.
All parameters including squeegee speed, pressure are computer
regulated for consistent and repeatable coating thickness.
Legend Screen Print
248.373.0700 ext. 28
Component
placement legend is applied manually to each side of the panel by
conventional silk screening techniques, one panel at a time.
If legend is required on both panel sides, the panel is tact-cured
after the first side is printed. The panel can then be
handled to
screen the second side.
The epoxy-based marking ink is cured completely on a horizontal travel
infrared oven.
Excel offer silk screen nomenclature legend in white, yellow, black,
and any conceivable custom mixed colors to customer order.
Final Finish
248.373.0700 ext. 28
Excel was the first PCB shop
in the United States to offer in-house lead-free hot-air leveling as a
final metal finish.
Environmental
concerns have driven the industry in search of alternatives to the
classic tin/lead solder coating process. Fortunately, research rendered
tin-based alloys that do NOT include lead, and provide several
advantages including:
(1) Superior surface planarity
(2) Extended shelf-life compared to classic tin/lead
(3) Improved topography, especially on fine pitch and small surface
mount features. This leads to improved gasketing for solder
paste applications reducing shorts and solder balling during assembly.
The new higher tin content alloys also offer superior solderability for
final assembly, and require absolutely NO adjustments in processes or
parameters by the final assembler.
The advantages are many and all
conversion is implemented entirely by the bare-board manufacturer.
Equipped
with dual Lantronic HAL
machines, you now
have the option of standard tin-lead or RoHS finishes with the same
delivery time.
Alternate finishes are
available by traditional plating technologies, including:
ENIG (Electroless
Nickel/Immersion Gold)
White Tin
Immersion
Silver
Electrolytic NI
Conductive
Carbon ink
"Hard" Gold
(Electrolytic)
Soft Bondable Gold
Gold edge connectors
("Fingers")
Machining
248.373.0700 ext. 28
A total of FOUR dedicated Excellon MK-5 router
machines equipped with CNC-6
Controllers provide 16 spindles of profiling power and plenty of
over-head capacity and redundancy to guarantee on-time delivery.
Every machine is connect by ethernet and Distributed Numeric Control to
a centralized file server facilitating the fastest and most reliable
error-free file transfer and loading to further improve through-put and
quality.
"V-Score" for break-apart
profiling is provided in-house by two Telmec
SL 13.9 Automatic CNC Scoring
machines both with Jump Score ("skip
line") capability.
Each is capable of scoring up to 30 lines per minute while
maintaining
within .005" positional and .005" web thickness accuracy.
These, too, are linked by ethernet to the centralized file
server and
database for the fastest and most reliable program loading.
V-score
programs themselves are output directly from the Genesis 2000 CAM
system from graphic drawing data with no manual programming. Excel
was the first company world-wide to implement this
custom level of
automation coordinated between Genesis and Telmec back in 1994.
Excel has three 60-100 ton
punch presses for high-volume piece production where pressure profiled
edges are preferred. Each can accommodate either single hit or
multi-stage progress dies.
1
of 2 Telmec SL 13.9 Automatic CNC
Scoring machine
Electrical
Test
248.373.0700 ext. 28
Equipped with three New
Systems moving grid, two Mania SPEEDYflying probe, and
two
Everett-Charles 9090 electrical test machines, Excel
deploys plenty of
capability to perform 100% NET-based continuity testing on every board
manufactured without incurring production bottle-neck.
Everett-Charles9090
New Systems SPEEDY
Final
Inspection
248.373.0700 ext. 28
Every
PCB undergoes critical visual critiquing before packaging for shipping
or inventory. This is the best way to identify cosmetic
imperfections not identified by prior automatic and functionality tests.
Qualified Final Inspection
personnel check the final product against customer specifications to
verify material thickness, mask color, nomenclature legibility, hole
sizes, board feature presence and dimensioning, and over-all
cleanliness.
Shipping
248.373.0700 ext. 28
Excel used UPS for as
the default shipper. FedEx or other available carriers may be used
based on your preference.
Unless specified or requested otherwise, Excel ships by standard Ground
service but may elect Air or Over-night to meet deadlines for critical
on-time delivery.
Bar-coded labeling and reliable & proven software
interfaces
exchanging data directly with carriers assures easy tracking of
packages in transit and provides feedback directly to the in-house
Production Control system for reduced duplicate input resulting in
cost-effective and reliable reporting of part numbers and order
details, including support for multiple ship-to destinations.
Nearly any conceivable packaging requirements are available to meet
your custom needs. By default, Excel ships in air and
humidity
tight shrink wrapped bundles.
Information
Technologies / MIS
Excel's data center is
powered by two Dell
Poweredge servers. One is dedicated to business
critical accounting functions while the other manages the balance of
business functions, including network security, IIS, data
warehousing,
and back-up/archiving.
Each server implements RAID configured internal hard drives allowing
scalable storage capacity and redundant data storage.
Furthermore, each server utilizes multiple Xeon or AMD 64-bit capable
CPU's and redundant internal power supplies.
Additionally,
each server utilizes redundant multi-Terabyte external data back-up.
Each server's power supply receives pre-conditioned voltage
supplied
by both conditioned dedicated circuits and multiple APC 1500 back-up
power supplies providing always on performance.
Excel's internal network is
gated from external/Internet through an enterprise class Dell dedicated
firewall regulating traffic to and from the Internet.
Data from the servers is
distributed to domain office desktops, shop workstations, and
CAM/Engineering through two Cisco
enterprise-class 24 port Gigabit managed
switches. Of the 65 computers in operation on a
daily basis, 89% are
Dell Optiplex and Dimension business class desktops with the balance
comprised of Lenovo/IBM, HP
enterprise class, and Sun Microsystems.
Excel
maintains a hydrogenous 76%
Microsoft 24% Linux/UNIX environment with
migration toward Open Source applications, utilities, Linux
operating
systems, and green technologies such as diskless workstations utilizing
thin client workstations.
