BANNOCKBURN, IL – IPC published IPC-A-600H, Acceptability of Printed Boards, and IPC-6012C, Qualification and Performance Specification for Rigid Printed Boards.

IPC-A-600H features 95 new and updated photos and illustrations, for a total of 326. The standard offers expanded coverage on topics such as solder mask coverage, etchback, plated-hole wall integrity, via fill, and flexible circuits. It also addresses copper cap-plating of vias and copper-wrap plating.

Criterion for how much a flex circuit can be bent or folded is now available. The document addresses coverlays sometimes used to protect flex circuits.

IPC-6012C addresses determining how many boards and/or test coupons to check. A document used for specifying circuit boards, IPC-6012 details frequency of inspection, instructing how many panels must be examined within a production lot for a given performance class.

Before the completion of the latest revisions, the standards’ next series of enhancements were being planned, including finer geometries, high-density PCBs, the proximity of microvias and stacked microvias that go from one layer to another.