San Jose located in the U.S. state of California, is one of the hotbeds for Printed Circuit Board (PCB) productions. The fabrication, prototyping and assembly of boards are some of the top services offered here.

Companies like Sierra Assembly, Sonic Manufacturing Technologies, Green Circuits and Gorilla Circuits are some of the leading PCB manufacturers in the country. In this article, you will learn more about the different capabilities of these companies.

PCB Market Size in the U.S.

San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara and located in California. The United States has been grappling to establish the hold in the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) market, following the dwindling controls it has.

In a recent publication on Yahoo Finance, Senior Executives of some 26 electronic manufacturing companies are calling on the United States’ government to provide additional funding to the tune of $100 million. They argued that the deployment of the funding to the advanced electronics and semiconductor markets will help the U.S. gain considerable control in the PCB market.

PCB Manufacturers in San Jose

Here is a list of some of the top manufacturers of Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) in San Jose and some of the services they provide.

1.    Sonic Manufacturing Technologies

Established in 1996, Sonic Manufacturing Technologies provides a wide range of PCB assembly services to the following areas in California: Sunnyvale, Palo Alto and Mountain View.

a.    Circuit Board Assembly Processes

Sonic also uses a variety of processes to assembly the circuit boards. Examples include:

• Lead-free assembly
• Through Hole Technology (THT)
• Leaded assembly
• Surface Mount Technology (SMT)
• Water soluble and no-clean processes
• Intrusive reflow
• Double reflow processing
• Press fit and;
• Selective wave soldering

b.    System Integrations and Box Builds

Sonic Manufacturing Technologies can also assembly circuit boards, as per the consumer’s unique business models. Considerations are also made for the customizations and the tracking of the subsystems.

The solutions also include: functional testing, backplane assembly, Built-to-Order (BTO), enclosures, engineering support, Configure-to-Order (CTO) and cable & harness assembly.

2.    Sierra Assembly Technology

Located in Yorba Court Chino in California; Sierra Assembly Technology offers one of the best sets of assembly services for PCB consumers.

The 30-year-old company has a longstanding reputation of making only quality boards, which are fully-compliant with some of the industry quality standards. Examples are:

• IPC-610
• IPC-WHMA-A-620
• SBA
• ISO 13485
• J-STD-001
• ISO 9001:2015

Consumer-Oriented PCB Assemblies

Sierra assembles the circuit boards, as per your requirements. To give more rooms for optimizations, the manufacturer also offers a suite of PCBAs, such as:

• Full turnkey PCBA
• Prototype PCBA
• PCBA rework
• Cable and wire harness assembly
• Mid-volume PCBA
• Box build assembly
• Electromechanical assemblies
• Through hole PCBA
• Low-cost PCBA
• BGA assembly and;
• Mixed technology PCBA

3.    Green Circuits

With over 30 years of experience in the market, Green Circuits is one of the PCB assembly companies that you should be discussing your project with in San Jose.

It takes a pride in offering full-service Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) and has an ongoing collaboration with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).

Quick-Turn PCBAs

Green Circuits specializes in offering quick-turn Printed Circuit Board Assemblies (PCBAs). These are offered as end-to-end services to the OEMs the manufacturer partners with.

The capabilities in this regard include:

• The use of stringent quality inspection methods.
• Assembly of different kinds of boards, such as, single, rigid and multilayered PCBs.
• Assembly of medium-to-high-volume PCBs.
• The compliance of the assembled boards with the following standards: RoH5 and RoH6.
• The use of advanced PCB production and assembly equipment.
• Offering of either the full turnkey or consignment assembly solutions and;
• Making of a thorough design review before the boards are assembled.

The Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) assembled by the company are used in the following industries:

• Internet of Things (IoT)
• Aerospace and defense
• Health technology
• Communications and networking
• Engineering
• Renewable energy
• Enterprise and cloud
• Consumer electronics and;
• Education and universities

As for the applications, the boards are deployed for use in:

• Satellite assembly
• Bionic knee
• Natural gas leak detection system
• DESI
• Radiation therapy system and;
• GPS tracking system

4.    Gorilla Circuits

Contact Gorilla Circuits if you are looking to get quality PCBs assembled in Silicon Valley. Haven been in the business for some 19 years, the company knows what ticks the right button in Printed Circuit Board Assemblies (PCBAs) in San Jose.

Circuit board consumers trust it for these reasons:

a.    Quick-Turn PCBA Capabilities

Gorilla Circuits can build your circuits in 24 hours. With the Fuji revolutionary feeder carts, the company can take some of the jobs offline and get the job done faster.

It also offers a realistic lead time, which is due to the streamlined processes of procuring and programming the PCB parts.

b.    Dual Technology Capabilities

Gorilla Circuits also assemble circuits, based on the Through Hole Technology (THT) and Surface Mount Technology (SMT).

c.     Design Review and DFM Compliance

Gorilla Circuits also ensure that the boards are compliant with the existing requirements. The efforts in place for this include:

• The use of 12 Zone Ovens with ON-Demand Liquid Nitrogen to ensure up to 99.9% purity on the boards’ solder joints.
• A review of the Design for Manufacturability (DFM) requirements via the use of front-end engineering services.

d.    Quality Assurance Measures

Without leaving anything to chance, the manufacturer also tests the boards to be certain of the performance. The following are some of the quality assurance measures:

• SPI & AOI: the company performs both the Solder Paste Inspection (SPI) and Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) on every completed Printed Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA). These are used to make a real-time detection of the design errors, possibly arising from solder joint defects, incorrect parts placement, improper orientation and misalignment.
• 3D X-Ray Inspection: this is a 100% inspection method done immediately after the completion of the board’s assembly via SMT. It is also done at Final QA on every leadless PCB component. The goal is to prevent voids, short-circuiting or open-circuiting on the boards.
• Flying Probe Test
• First Article QA Inspection and;
• Parametric Bench Test

5.    AlteraFlex Circuits

This is one company that goes beyond the borders of offering PCB assembly. AlteraFlex also offers other circuit board services, including prototypes and fabrications.

Let’s dive right into what the company has to company, PCBA-wise:

a.    SMT Assembly

AlteraFlex uses an automated assembly process to enable the placement of components/parts atop the surface of Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs).

To streamline it further, it offers a mix of multilayered and double-sided SMT boards. The capabilities include:

• Faster lead times
• Miniature assemblies and;
• Specialty in assembling different SMT types, such as Small Chip Packages, Ball Grid Arrays (BGAs), Package-on-Package (PoP), Small Outline Integrated Circuit (SOIC), Ultra-Fine Ball Grid Array (uBGA) and Plastic Leaded Chip Carrier (PLCC).

b.    BGA Assembly

AlteraFlex prioritizes the use of Ball Grid Array (BGA) assembly for the circuit boards requiring the placement of high-performance devices.

The capabilities include using a Phoenix real-time x-ray system to verify the BGA, using up to four (4) automated placement systems to inspect the solder ball coverage and using a 3D-enabled automated system to inspect the solder ball height automatic placements of the following:

• MBGA
• CBGA and;
• PBGA

To ensure an overall performance of the PCBAs, AlteraFlex also uses a number of verification methods, including:

• Functional test
• Visual inspection to ascertain the general quality of the board’s performance.
• In-Circuit Test (ICT)
• X-ray inspection to check the bare circuit boards, the QFN and BGA packages.
• Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) for checking for missing polarity, solder paste, missing PCB components, and checking for fine-pitch components.

6.    Group Seven

Group Seven can be described as one of the PCB assembly companies that have “stuck around for a while” in San Jose. Established in Santa Clara in 1984, it has since evolved from the original business of providing kitting solutions to becoming a “powerhouse of sorts” that offer several circuit board services.

a.    Turnkey Manufacturing Services

Group Seven wants to help you with most part of the PCB assembly process. It can take care of the component sourcing, as well as the in-house process of assembling the boards.

These are the capabilities:

• Box build assemblies
• Surface Mount Technology (SMT)
• Complex system builds
• Through Hole Technology (THT)
• RoHS applications
• Mixed assembly (a combination of the THT and SMT PCBA processes)
• Non-RoHS applications
• Cable assemblies and;
• Wire harness assemblies

b.    Customer-Centric Assemblies

Group Seven carries you, the customer along, every step of the way. While it offers turnkey services, it is also open to modifications. You can go with any of the following options: consignment, full or partial.

Irrespective of the volume or number of boards needing assembling; the company can handle it all. It supports anything from medium-to-low PCBAs.

c.     Testing Capabilities

The assembled boards are confirmed to be working before shipping. For this reason, Group Seven uses the following testing methods:

• Debug Substitute Automated Optical Inspection (AOI)
• Flying Probe Test and;
• Functional Testing.

Final Words

Finding a PCB assembling company in San Jose is quite easy, as there are several companies offering the service. When choosing, prioritize the manufacturer’s range of assembly processes, the compliances of the products, proximity and the capability to run a full-production for the circuit boards.