The causes analysis what affect PCB price difference

The cost calculation of the PCB industry is the most special and the most complicated in all industries. From blanking, laminate, forming,to FQC, packing and WIP completion, required step-by-step accounting the material cost, the labor cost, the manufacturing cost and so on according to each process. and then based on the order product number to cumulate product costs.

And different types of products, the standard rate of their processes will be different. For some products such as blind buried, ENIG, Cu-base, because of its process or the specialization of used materials, require using some special calculation method. Similarly, the drill size used in drilling process will also affect the cost ,which have a direct impact on WIP costs, scrap costs calculation and evaluation.

Here, a special finishing about the factors of PCB price to share with you, for reference only.

First, PCB materials used in different caused the prices diversity.

For example, ordinary double-sided board, the sheet is generally FR-4, CEM-3, thickness ranging from 0.6mm to 3.0mm, copper thickness from 0.5Oz to 3Oz ,all of these in a sheet on a Resulting in a huge price difference; in the solder resist ink, these is a certain price difference between the general heat-solid and light green oil.Thus, the different materials caused the price diversity.

Second, different PCB production process caused the prices diversity.

Different production processes can cause different costs. Such as gold-plated board and HASL, the milling and punching for board forming ,the use of wet film and dry film for outside graphing,

will result in a different cost, causing price diversity.

Third, the difficulty of PCB itself brings the prices diversity.

Even if the same material, the same process, but the difficulty of PCB itself will cause different costs. Such as two kinds of circuit boards have 1000 holes, one’s hole size is greater than 0.6mm and another is less than 0.6mm will form a different drilling costs; such as the two same circuit boards, but the line width is different, one is greater than 0.2mm, one is less than 0.2mm, will also cause different production costs, because the difficult board scrap rate is high, costs Inevitable increased , resulting in price diversity.

Fourth, different customer requirements will also cause the price difference.

The level of customer requirements will directly affect the pass rate of boards,such as a board according to IPC-A-600E, class1,has 98% pass rate, but according to class3 may only 90% pass rate, resulting in different costs of the plant, and finally lead to changes in product prices.

Fifth,different PCB manufacturers caused price diversity.

Even if the same product, but because of different manufacturers have different technology and equipment, will form a different cost, nowadays many manufacturers like to produce gold-plated board, because the process is simple, low cost, but there are also some manufacturers, produce gold-plated board resulting in higher costs, so they prefer to produce HASL,so their HASL offer is lower than the gold plate.

Sixth, different payment ways

At present, PCB plants generally adjust PCB prices according to the different payment ways,range from 5% to 10%, which also caused the price difference.

Seventh, the regional differences

At present, in the geographical location view, from south to north, the price shew increasing trend, the price of different regions have some differences, so the regional differences also caused the price diversity.

In addition, there are the following factors:

1, the cost of the CCL (different CCL costs are different)

2, drilling costs (the number of holes and hole size affect the drilling costs)

3, process costs (different technical requirements lead to different process, result in the price will be different as well)

4, labour costs, water and electricity plus management charges(this cost depends on each factory ‘s cost control)

In terms of CCL: the impact of the price are mainly the following:

1, Material quality: FR-4, CEM-3, which are our common double-sided and multi-layer sheet, and his price is also related to thickness and the thickness of copper foil,and FR-I, CEM-1 is our common single side board material, and the material price is great different from above double-sided, multi-layer boards.

2,Material thickness:our common thickness is 0.4,0.6,0.8,1.0,1.2,1.5,1.6,2.0,2.4,3.0,3.4, different thickness of boards,the price difference is also great.

3, Copper thickness will affect the price, copper thickness is generally divided into: 18um(2 / 1OZ), 35 um(1OZ) ,70 um(2OZ), 105um (3OZ), 140um (4OZ)

4, Raw material suppliers.

Process cost:

1, In term of the line density, such as width/spacing(in 4 / 4mm), the price will be another calculated;

2, A board with BGA, the cost will be also relatively rising, and some maker calculate how much for one BGA.

3, Depend on which type of surface technology, common is :spray lead tin (hot air leveling), OSP (green board), spray pure tin, immersion tin, silver, gold, etc., of course, different surface technology, the price will be different.

4, Also depend on the process standards; we commonly used: IPC2 level, but some customer requirements will be higher, (such as Japanese), the common is: IPC2, IPC3, enterprise standard, military standard, etc., certainly, The higher standard , the price will be higher.