KNOWING BETTER.VALUABLE INFORMATION. THE STORY OF PCB ASSEMBLINGThe significance of PCB assembling increased considerably in the 1950s in the wake of mass production of radio and TV assemblies. This was driven by the automation of production steps. The assembled PCB had plated-through holes (PTH) and used THT (through-hole technology), which still required manual work. In the 1980s, after a further 30 years of development, the PCB industry had developed SMT (surface mounted technology), which now allowed fully automated assembling. MANUFACTURING PROCESSToday’s manufacturing process essentially comprises four production steps. In the first step, the specified areas are fully automatically silk screen printed, using a special solder paste. A solder mask covering the areas that should not be soldered allows accurate application of the solder paste. The PCBs are assembled with their electronic components in the next step. Either SMT or THT may be used here to assemble the boards.SMT is used for assembling with components such as resistors, capacitors or microcontrollers, generally on the surface of the PCB.