The importance of CAD in electronics manufacturing

One of the most common requests an Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) provider will make before starting on a new assembly project will be for Computer Aided Design (CAD) data. And one of the most common responses to this request is "why"? As an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) this is confidential information - the essence of your product design - so why should you hand this over to your EMS partner, particularly in the early stages of a new relationship? Let’s think about Printed Circuit Board Assemblies (PCBAs) first. Things have moved on considerably during the last few years. Gone are the days when PCBs were laid out with masking tape. Gone too are the days when surface mount (SMT) machines had to be manually programmed or test fixtures drilled by "digitising" the PCB, or from an x-y placement file cross referenced to a parts list. Sure, it can still be done – but why would you when modern tools make it so much easier and more accurate?

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