Medical Equipment

In recent years, the medical industry has attached great importance to PCB assembly and manufacturing processes. For every medical project, PCB manufacturing requires high-end customization. Whether it is high, medium or small batch PCB production, PCB assemblers must continue to develop in chemical and electroplating processes, pressing, wiring and drilling processes under high temperature/vacuum in order to obtain high yields in mass production. The medical market also points to fierce competition on how to make devices compact, multifunctional, user-friendly and cost-effective.

Manufacturing Trends for Medical Grade PCBs

The current industrial production revolution, or Industry 4.0, emphasizes communications and software to improve manufacturing speed and efficiency. To ensure optimal medical grade PCBs, be sure to incorporate the standards described below that have emerged from this new industrial paradigm.

• Ensure Design Intent: The best way to incorporate design intent throughout your board build process is to partner with your CM early in the development process.

• Employ Digital Twin Technology: Simulation has long been used to prevent waste and mitigate development costs. For PCB manufacturing, digital twin technology encapsulates this objective and identifies errors or potential errors before the first board is spun.

• Open and Transparent Collaboration: Establish and utilize open and transparent communication with your CM from the start so that your medical grade PCB becomes a collaboration between you and your CM.

• Optimize DFM and DFA Utilization: Right-first-time (RFT) manufacturing is essential to optimize medical PCBA development. To meet this high yield rate objective, make design choices that utilize your CM’s DFM and DFA rules and guidelines.

• Agile Manufacturing Process: By initiating agile processes, board builders can incorporate design changes iteratively with minimal manufacturing disruptions.

Medical Applications Utilizing Printed Circuit Boards

There are so many applications of printed circuit boards in the medical field, and the list is continually growing. You will find PCBs in medical devices like:

• Blood glucose meter

• Electrocardiograph

• Heart monitor

• Thermometer

• CT scanning system

• EMG activity system

• Infusion control

• Peristaltic infusion technology

• Sphygmomanometer

• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning system

• X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanning system

• Gas analyzer

• Digital cell counting device

• Pacemaker analyzer

• Ultrasonic equipment

• Laser treatment instrument

• Liquid level controller

• Nerve stimulation device

• Digital temperature monitor

• Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) diagnostic equipment

• Medical data transmitter

• Gas chromatograph

Types of PCBs for the Medical Industry

Rigid pcb or flexible printed circuit with magnetic flux telemetry communication are highly used to manufacture medical devices such as cardiac devices, pacemakers and ICDs. Multi-layer flexible PCB has a very high application in neural simulation implants, which requires large-scale miniaturization. For hearing aid devices and infusion drug pumps, a rigid/flexible PCB is more preferred because it has a flexible coil that facilitates the communication mechanism. In order to obtain durable and safe electronic solutions, customized PCBs for in-vivo and in-vitro diagnostic applications adopt mature designs to meet customers' unique specifications.

Choosing the Right PCB Manufacturer

As the medical market needs to comply with high quality standards, research and development are also indicated in the test methods to maintain the durability, strength and toughness of future PCB prototypes and assembly processes. Victory PCB, a professional pcb fabricator in medical industry, continues to increase electrical testing methods, ion contamination testing, pressure testing and temperature cycling testing, automatic optical testing, functional testing, flying probe testing and ICT testing have been highly implemented to meet the quality requirements of medical PCBs.