LEOBEN-HINTERBERG, AUSTRIA -- AT&S has developed a new PWB process that marries individual boards with standard assembly frames, reportedly lowering manufacturing costs.

NucleuS optimizes the PWB production format, connecting individual boards to their frames just before they are shipped for assembly, the PWB fabricator claims.

The novel technology eschews the traditional panel format in favor of fabricating each board separately, then inserting them in a standard assembly frame. The process has the same tolerances as existing production methods asserts AT&S, which has taken out a patent on it.

Eliminating the conventional panel frame means more printed circuit boards per panel can be produced, AT&S says. Additional costs are saved because the panels can be built with simpler, cheaper materials than the boards themselves, and good boards won't be scrapped because an adjacent board in the same panel is defective.