Epec's Blog | Electronics Manufacturing Solutions

Applications working in indoor and outdoor environments deal with fluctuating temperatures that impact how batteries operate. While batteries have wide operating ranges, working them at the extreme ends of their designated ranges can impact performance and battery life.

Lithium-ion batteries are used for high-powered devices and applications as they provide steady power in demand. They are found in phones, laptops, electric vehicles, and other devices. While lithium-ion batteries provide optimal battery power, optimizing the cell life ensures that the batteries can last for many years.

Etch compensation is a process used in the design of printed circuit boards (PCBs) to adjust the trace widths to compensate for any changes that occur during the PCB manufacturing process. When PCBs are manufactured, the etching process used to create the copper traces on the board can cause some amount of variation in the width of the traces. This variation can be caused by factors such as the thickness of the copper, the quality of the etching process, and the chemical composition of the etchant.

Devices are becoming smaller and thinner, requiring circuit boards that can fit into the equipment without adding any additional weight while being flexible enough to route around components. Flexible printed circuit boards offer high-density electrical connections while also reducing space.

Due to the vast shapes of electronics and other applications that function on battery power, battery cells also come in different shapes to fit the application. Two common types of shapes are prismatic cells and cylindrical cells. Both offer specific qualities to the application, whether you are looking for cost-effective batteries that are easy to mass produce or batteries with a higher capacity range.

Battery chemistries that are lithium-based must undergo UN38.3 testing requirements before being transported. This testing certifies that the batteries are safe and will not pose a safety risk during shipping over air, water, rail, or road transportation methods.

In printed circuit board (PCB) designs, through holes are used to connect components and conductors on different layers of the board and can be divided into two types: plated and non-plated through holes.

Flexible heating elements have been used in various devices and applications for decades, but in recent years, flexible heaters have become increasingly used and relied upon in the medical industry. There are several reasons for this, but most importantly, they offer a wide range of benefits that other types of heaters simply cannot match.

I am still amazed at how far technology has brought us throughout the years. When asked about printed circuit boards (PCBs) and what they go into, the answer is everything you can imagine, everything you use in most cases.

Apple's lightning cable is a proprietary connector type that is used on various Apple devices like the iPhone, the iPod Touch (starting with the 5th generation), the iPad, the iPad Mini, and the iPad Pro. It was originally released in 2012 and replaced the 30-pin connector that formerly shipped with these devices.