What drives the cost of a circuit board?

Whether your role is managerial, commercial or technical there is a good chance that you have an interest in ensuring that the printed circuit boards you are designing, purchasing and/or assembling are as efficient as they can be in terms of achieving the lowest total cost, sustainably, without compromising functionality or reliability of the end product.

The majority of the cost – 80-90%- is built into the product in the early stages of the design phase –before either the PCB supplier or EMS company has sight of the design. We have also found that many of the cost drivers directly impact all aspects in producing and delivering a more sustainable product.

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NCAB has divided the cost drivers into two categories, the ‘hard costs’ and the ‘soft costs.’ The hard cost drivers are covering aspects that relate to the physical printed circuit board itself. Examples being copper weights and build complexity. In these cases the impacts on sustainability are more tangible. The soft cost drivers are those elements that unless considered can lead to delays in engineering, lost time and mis-specified demands that only serve to either drive cost upwards or fail to identify what is needed to achieve the desired quality or long-term reliability – this is not sustainable PCB production in our eyes. Many times these factors are a little less quantifiable, but can certainly have just as much of an impact on cost and sustainability.

Example of a PCB cost driver:

Via treatments
When designs become more complex we often have requirements for via in pad or via treatment to ease assembly, we refer to IPC 4761, to avoid via related problems in the future. With multiple solutions offered by this specification, each has a different cost driver. Knowing what you really need for assembly can ensure the 4 Via treatments most cost-effective solution is utilized.

The figures below are average based upon a cross section of factories. As such these figures shall only be considered as a guide or point of reference.

Via treatment cost impact

Soldermask covered (Tented)         +0% Soldermask plug                                +1–5%
Type VI                                                +5–10%
Type VII Nonconductive resin         +7–12%
Type VII Conductive resin                20+%, subject to material MOV