Customer Panel Basics

Here you will find the basic information about panel sizes, borders, PCB separation etc. required to make a customer panel.

There are 3 ways to order your PCB’s delivered in Customer Panel format from Eurocircuits:

• eC-Panel by Eurocircuits which represents our standard automated method of creating a customer panel with the Eurocircuits Panel editor. Very easy to use.
• Customer Panel by Eurocircuits the Eurocircuits Panel editor allows you to make any panel according to the specifications of the customer. Eurocircuits can do this for you on the basis of a clear panel plan supplied with the PCB data.
• Customer Panel by Customer the customer supplies his design already in panel form.

Example of an eC-panel – Customer Panel

Panel Size

Eurocircuits Assembly Services

Minimum Panel Size – 36 x 46mm
Maximum Panel Size – 326 x 426mm

eC-equipment Compatible

 (bench top equipment developed and sold by Eurocircuits)

Minimum Panel Size – 50 x 50mm
Maximum Panel Size – 250 x 350mm

Others

Minimum Panel Size – 50 x 50mm
Maximum Panel Size – 420 x 580mm

Panel Borders

A recommended minimum panel border of 5mm (on all 4 sides) is required to make a stable panel, this does not include the 2mm required for Break routing.

If a larger border is required, it can be selected from the available options in the Panel Editor

The borders can contain:

• Fiducials
• Tooling Holes
• Registration Tooling Holes
• Text
• Barcodes
• Etc….

Separating the PCB’s

Individual PCB’s can be separated from the panel by Break routing or V-cut (scoring), there is also the option for ‘None’ which means no separation and the whole panel is delivered with only the outer contour of the panel routed.

There must be a minimum clearance between any layout element (copper, hole etc) and the profile of the PCB, please see our PCB Design Guidelines – Copper Layout section for more details.

Break Routing

Break routing involves routing around the profile of each PCB in the panel with a 2mm diameter routing tool and leaving specially placed tabs to keep the PCB stable in the panel.

This method is suitable for any shape of PCB and those with copper to the edge of the PCB profile.

The panel border is very important to create mechanical stability. We recommend the use of a minimum panel border of 5.00 mm. A break-routed panel without a panel border will break into parts very easy during handling and is therefor not advised.

Minimum clearance between PCB’s profiles is 2.00mm.

Minimum clearance from the PCB to the edge of the Panel is 7.00mm.

Break-rout tabs will be defined by our engineers to ensure a stable panel. These tabs will be drilled to break inside the board profile for a clean break-out.

eC-Panel with Break Routing

V-cut

V-cut scoring involves scoring along the profile of each PCB and is suitable only for rectangular PCB’s with a minimum board thickness of 0,8mm.

Minimum distance between PCB profiles is 0.00mm.

Minimum distance between any V-cuts is 5.00mm

Although the standard Eurocircuits panel has one, a panel with V-cut scoring does not require a panel border for stability reasons. However, a border offers panel real estate for the location of tooling (holes, fiducials etc.) to accommodate the assembly process.

eC-Panel with V-cut

Note – V-cut scoring is along the full length/width of the panel (no breaks are possible).

It is however possible to use V-cut on irregular shaped PCB”s when used in combination with extra milling or even break-routing to obtain the desired PCB shape.

In such cases you may need to add extra clearance between the PCB”s to provide “run-out” space for the milling or break-out-router.

Below is an example of a panel with a combination of V-cut with extra milling.

V-cut Clearance

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