Advanced Substrates are printed circuit board materials with superior thermal properties, which enable the use of ball grid arrays, flip chips and multichip module laminates, for products requiring high-frequency transmission.

After Sales Support involves the continuous interaction with the OEM and/or end customer throughout the product life cycle to the end of life, including warranty and repair services.

Annular Rings are the conductive copper rings around the holes in a printed circuit board from which traces interconnect components.

Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) are integrated circuits created for a specific customer’s application, in contrast to general-purpose integrated circuits in which many different customers use the same chip.

Approved Vendor List (AVL) usually supplied by an OEM customer’s engineers specifying which vendors’ parts can be purchased for a particular requirement in their design. Also known as Approved Manufacturer’s List (AML).

Blind or Buried Vias are small holes which interconnect inner layers of high layer-count printed circuit boards.

Build To Order (BTO) is a service that starts or completes a specific product unit’s manufacturing and configuration once an individual order has been placed. This is in contrast to building and stocking product to a forecast and selling to customers from finished goods stock.

Burn-In Testing is a thermal test method where products are powered on for extended periods to ensure product functionality.

BUS are the electrical connections between various integrated circuits and peripheral semiconductors.
 

Cache is a relatively small amount of intermediate computing memory that is faster, but more expensive, than main memory and where the most frequently used information is stored for fast access by a processor.

Capacitors are simple, non-semiconductor electrical components, the current through which is related to the rate at which voltage changes across it.

Chip-On-Board (COB) is a method of affixing unencapsulated chips onto printed circuit boards using a wire bonding process.

Chip Scale Packaging is a method of using integrated circuits (chips) without encapsulating them in epoxy, thereby utilizing less space on the circuit board.

Consigned Kit or “consignment” model, where an OEM purchases raw materials and components and “consigns” them to an EMS provider for assembly. In the consignment model, an EMS provider’s revenue includes only the value-added in assembly, but not the cost of components. Opposite of “Turnkey” model which is an outsourcing model, turning all aspects of electronics manufacturing over to an EMS provider, who buys the raw materials and components and bills the OEM for a complete assembly.
 

Design For Manufacturability (DFM) ─ the front-end process for electronic products which focuses on minimizing the cost, complexity, defects and production time of the product-specific volume manufacturing process.

Digital Signal Processors (DSP) are microprocessors or microcontrollers which are optimized to perform complex computations on digital data.

Direct Order Fulfillment is a model where an EMS provider is connected directly to an OEM’s order processing system, builds products in response to individual customer orders and ships them directly to the channel or end-customer.

Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) is the most commonly used type of volatile memory for the main memory in computing devices.
 

Enclosures are the high-precision, close-tolerance housings which encase electronics products and assemblies. Typically constructed from various metals and plastics, enclosures are an integral part of electronics products and are critical for protection, environmental control, interconnection, compactness and multi-unit integration.

Environmental Stress Screening is a process for the detection of early life defects in which components or assemblies are tested at the temperature and voltage extremes of their normal operating conditions for extended periods.
 

Flash is a densely packable, relatively inexpensive type of nonvolatile memory, which can be modified electrically, often while in a circuit. Flash architecture generally assumes that it will be read often but seldom written to.

Flex Circuit Assembly is an advanced process of attaching electrical components to a flexible circuit. Flex circuits are utilized in compact devices with mobile mechanical assemblies such as wireless devices and data storage systems.

Flip Chips are structures that house circuits interconnected face down directly to the substrate with solder bumpers without leads, and are utilized to minimize printed circuit board surface area when compact packaging is required.

Full System Build, also called systems assembly and test, is the process of building and integrating from components and subassemblies (populated PCBs, power supplies, cables, enclosures, etc.), and then testing the finished product, which may also involve loading software and optional configuration.

Functional Testing is a high speed method of testing electronic products by simulating actual use modes in high-volume.

In-Circuit Testing is an automated, early-stage electronics testing method for production defects.

In-Situ Dynamic Thermal Cycling Stress Testing is an electronics testing method of exposing products from high to low temperature extremes for several cycles, which identities potential early product failures.

Integrated Circuits (IC) are single, integrated components containing a large number of discreet components, such as transistors and other semiconductor devices, as well as the layering which interconnect all of the semiconductor devices.

Interconnect are the specialized, high-precision optical and electrical cable and harness assemblies and connectors utilized in the interconnection of electrical components and assemblies. Various interconnect technologies include single-mode and multi-mode cyber optics, coaxial, ribbon cable, shielded and tight pair, tight twisted pairs, patch cords and molded cables.

Laser Direct Imaging is a process that allows increasing board density through the use of increasingly small and accurate laser technology.

Micro Ball Grid Array is a method of mounting an integrated circuit or other component to a higher layer-count printed circuit board with an array of extremely small solder balls (or columns) at each contact, allowing for greater component density.

Microprocessors are integrated circuits that contain the entire central processing unit for a computing device, which reads and performs software instructions from a separate memory source.

Microvias are small holes, or vias, generally created with lasers employing depth control, rather than mechanical drills, through which multilayered printed circuit board traces interconnect components.

Multichip Module Laminates are a type of printed circuit board design that allows for the placement of multiple integrated circuits or other components in a limited surface area.

New Product Design is the transfer of product definition into product design, focusing on cost reduction, manufacturability and testability.

New Product Introduction (NPI) is an early product life-cycle process service to assist OEMs in achieving cost-effective, quick-to-market and quick-to-volume production. The NPI process includes technology selection, design and development services, test and material strategies, design for manufacturability and prototyping.

Pin-Through-Hole (PTH) is an older method of fusing relatively low-density electrical components to one side of a printed circuit board substrate, utilizing pin-through-hole connections.

Printed Circuit Board (PCB) is a board made from an insulating, non-conductive material that has conductive metal tracks (electronic interconnects) called traces on it. Integrated circuits and components are soldered to the board, and the metal traces between terminals connect the various devices and components. Multilayer circuit boards consist of multiple laminated layers of electrically integrated substrate, each with unique circuit traces.

Product Assembly and Test is the process of placing components on printed circuit boards through surface mount and through-hole technologies. Printed circuit boards undergo various types of testing throughout the process to ensure the highest reliability and functionality of the product.
Product Assurance guarantees that the product is built according to specifications and meets all standards and regulations.

Prototyping is an element of new product introduction, which involves building initial quantities, in short production runs, of an electronic product for testing, as well as for design validation and manufacturability refinement. The prototyping process involves nearly all aspects of a product prior to volume production and can significantly streamline the design and product development process, while substantially reducing costs.

Scanning Electron Microscopy is a scanning method, which utilizes a microscope with 200 times magnification or greater.

Semiconductors are materials whose properties fall between those of insulators and conductors, and is also the term used for all electronic components made from semiconductor material. Semiconductors, most commonly silicon and germanium, are the basic foundation of nearly all solid-state electronic devices.

Small-Outline J-lead (SOJ) is a type of chip module, which utilizes inward extending J-shaped pins to attach chips to a printed circuit board surface.

Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) is a type of non-volatile memory commonly used in caching, which is faster (and more expensive) than dram because it does not require “refreshing”.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the management of a portfolio of assets (human, equipment, components, etc.) and relationships (customers, suppliers, staff, etc.) to transform a customer’s product from raw material to finished product as efficiently as possible.

Surface Mount Technology (SMT) is the principal technology for the assembly of printed circuit boards by soldering electrical components directly to a board substrate that uses less space than the pin-through-hole method. SMT is a highly flexible technology that can be continually reconfigured to meet customer-specific product requirements. Each SMT assembly line is designed to have PCB screen printing, component placement and solder reflow capabilities.

Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM) is a relatively new type of dram, which synchronizes itself with the CPU’s bus and is capable of running at higher clock speeds than conventional memory.

Tape Automated Bonding is a specialized assembly-process technology, which involves the application of components onto a circuit board using temperature and pressure.

Three-Dimensional Laser Paste is a volumetric inspection method that utilizes a microscope with lasers.

Turnkey is an outsourcing model, which turns all aspects of electronics manufacturing over to an EMS provider, who buys the raw materials and components and bills the OEM for a complete assembly. Turnkey is the opposite of the “consignment” model, where an OEM purchases raw materials and components and “consigns” them to an EMS provider for assembly. In the consignment model, an EMS provider’s revenue includes only the value-added in assembly, but not the cost of components.

Vibration Testing is a method that tests whether products can withstand forces encountered under normal use.

X-Ray Laminography is an inspection method, which utilizes x-rays to view thin layers of a circuit board.