Visit the SFC website: Radio Frequency Printed Circuit Boards (RF PCB)
Unmanned vehicles have many everyday applications including agriculture, package delivery, scientific exploration, photography and toys for entertainment. As a result, the demand for both high volume production and high performance parts has increased.
RF PCB production requires a deep understanding of the underlying physical properties of the board and how it interacts with both itself and its environment. Expense, performance, and durability are difficult to balance. Multi-layer stacks and flexible PCBs add increasing levels of complexity. Moisture absorption is a critical concern, especially for drones used in outdoor environments.
San Francisco Circuits turns around small volume, prototype boards as fast as 24 hours from a layout file, which is an important capability in the competitive environment of the UAV industry.
The ISO 9001-2008 certified company meets or exceeds military spec applications such as MIL- PRF-55110, MIL-PRF- 50884, and MIL-PRF- 31032 for PCB fabrication and PCB assembly. San Francisco Circuits offers single or double sided FR4 solutions, and Rogers 3000/4000 is used for high performance boards up to 40 layers of complexity using copper thicknesses up to the 4-6 oz. range. Production-grade, high volume needs are met with Kapton and FR4 materials. 1-12 layer boards are made with copper thicknesses between 0.5-3 oz. Micro sizes are also available down to 3 mil traces for flexible circuit boards.
PCB assembly services are provided on a turnkey or partial turn-key basis, both at quick turn prototype and production level. Average lead times for procurement and assembly are 1-5 days for just PCB assembly and 10-16 days for turnkey PCB assembly.
To provide the high level of reliability required for drones and other unmanned systems, San Francisco Circuits offers extensive testing capabilities, including 3D X-ray testing, automated optical inspection, in-circuit testing, functional testing analysis at board and system levels, and flying probe measurements for small scale features.
