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Engineering Services

Engineering Services

The SMTC engineering services team delivers a full range of design, engineering and manufacturing solutions across all our market sectors.

The integrity of a product's design is partly determined by its functionality. Does it do what it was designed to do? The other side of a product's design is its manufacturability and testability. We have the toolset and experience base to create and implement ICT and functional circuit testing (FCT) with a customer, as well as conducting DFM, DFT, BOM life cycle analysis and BOM crosses in support of our customer's new designs.

We maintain manufacturing equipment and tools to the highest calibration standards possible. And we follow a comprehensive preventative maintenance program.

Customers rely on our full range of design services - from industrial design to electronic design and PCB layout to mechanical design and product packaging. We partner with our customers to deliver innovative manufacturing solutions aligned with their business objectives. We offer everything from full-service, turnkey product development and manufacturing to on-site engineering support.

Every business is obliged to meet legal requirements designed to protect the environment.

SMTC offers RoHS-compliant manufacturing services, with standardized processes for all component and assembly procedures.

PCBA facilities are IPC certified and have achieved Class 3 lead-free validation. SMTC partners with industry-leading services to provide access to more than 15-million-part number databases.

Solutions, Services & Capabilities:

  • Robust EOL (End of Life) and PCN (Product Change Notification)
  • Supply chain viability
  • EU RoHS and China RoHS information
  • Process and component engineering information and resources.

Complete, precise and dependable test results can ultimately reduce costs, reduce downtime and improve yields. SMTC test engineers apply the most advanced, automated test equipment and processes to satisfy even the most complex OEM test requirements. Our in-house expertise enables us to provide custom test development services to our customers and to implement their product-specific tests.

Solutions, Services & Capabilities:

  • Flying head probe/fixture-less test
  • AXI –2D and 3D automated x-ray inspection
  • AOI –automated optical inspection
  • ICT –in-circuit test
  • FEA –Finite Element Analysis
  • ESS –environmental stress screening
  • EVT –environmental verification testing
  • FT –functional and system test
  • High-speed digital
  • RF –Radio Frequency
  • Precision analog
  • Power
  • Thermal
  • CTO –configure-to-order
  • Diagnostic and failure analysis

We have the experience and ability to perform test engineering and test development for your products. SMTC is a strong advocate of test and validating the PCBAs or Box Builds we manufacture is deemed an essential aspect of ensuring the reliability of our clients’ products. After all, the integrity of a product’s design relies on three core elements:

  • Functionality
  • Manufacturability
  • Testability

Using our test engineering and test development capabilities, we create and install meaningful tests for our customers. This includes in-circuit tests (ICT), flying probe tests, and functional circuit testing (FCT).

We also specialize in design for manufacturing (DFM), design for box build assembly (DFA), and design for testing (DFT) capabilities. We conduct DFM, DFA, DFT, BOM life cycle analysis and BOM crosses/extensions in support of our customers’ new designs.

Additionally, we are capable of various environmental tests as well as bare board micro-sectioning to ensure the reliability of our customer’s designs, our supply-chain adherence to specs and our workmanship.

In-house test engineers, trained by the specific equipment manufacturers for the chosen systems, perform all test functions. This allows us to sustain and support test changes and modifications. We can perform these changes and modifications without contracting third-party development sources.

The In-Circuit Test (ICT) uses a “bed of nails” vacuum fixturing to test each component assembled in the circuit. SMTC’s basic ICT test detects and isolates manufacturing-related defects. These defects include shorts, opens, missing components, wrong components and wrong orientation of components.

We will design the actual fixtures as well as program them to meet the test parameters and coverages the customer’s design allows.

Flying probes perform basically the same outputs as ICT testing, but without the high cost of a mechanical fixture. This testing is used for smaller volume products where a higher recurring cost doesn’t off-set the investment of an ICT fixture.

SMTC will design the custom programs needed to conduct this type of board level testing.

SMTC also offers functional testing. We develop all test software programs using industry-standard applications like LabView and Microsoft .Net applications.

We will design the mechanical fixturing. We will design and build the test interface circuits as well as design and develop the test software.

Since today's electronic designs use programmable and custom components, the functional test development approach requires a collaborative effort between the customer and our team.

A boundary scan tests interconnect (wire lines) on printed circuit boards and sub-blocks within an integrated circuit. A boundary scan can also be used as a debugging method. This allows our engineers to watch integrated circuit pin states, measure voltage and analyze sub-blocks in integrated circuits.

SMTC has the capacity to develop boundary scan test programs for our customers.

SMTC’s design for manufacturing (DFM) services offer our customers a unique advantage. Our ability to analyze Valor software outputs, organize a detailed and accurate report, and then offer prioritized recommendations is a manufacturing asset.

Our customers rely on us for assembly, process and test expertise. Understanding how a Valor output is interpreted and communicated sets our tools apart from the competition. With an initial investment in the DFM process, we have the ability to serve difficult manufacturing challenges for many years.

When optimizing the final box (high-level assembly) design, many decisions involving hardware, PEMs, cable assembly routing, and other electro-mechanical components should be considered to minimize the possible human error in the assembly of complex systems.

SMTC’s experience building a wide variety of high-level assemblies enables us to offer a strong collaborative effort with our customers at their critical design review, right before a final design is solidified.

SMTC offers a comprehensive design for test analysis service. We review designs from a variety of native CAD systems, IPC-356A and Gerber files.

Our DFT analysis outlines the points on the assembly which can be probed by either a standard in-circuit test or flying probe system. Reporting features include nets to be probed, non-probed nets and DFT rules violated, which caused the net to be inaccessible.

A schematic design review identifies DFT elements that can impact the test coverage of the board, opportunities for boundary scan testing and cluster testing, with the ultimate goal of optimizing test coverages using point to point test methods.

Our DFT report can also be expanded to produce test coverage results by varying probe sizes as well as design change recommendations to increase test coverages.

When designing new products, optimizing the electrical and test characteristics are very important, but the difficulty of supporting long product life cycles with obsolete or near life-end components has to also be considered.

SMTC offers BOM Scrub and BOM expansion services in addition to those other services mention previously. RoHS verification, conflict mineral compliance, stock availability and alternate sourcing are also aspects of the material / BOM services we support our production clients with.

There are many variables we consider when setting up a customer’s unique supply chain for raw materials. The tool sets we deploy are the best-in-class available to the electronics industry today and have immeasurable benefits supporting the demands of the SMTC customer base.