Many PCB new purchasers may don't know clear about the PCB price factors. This article will introduce briefly about some basic factors of PCB cost.
Base material type. FR-4 is most commonly used for single sided board, double sided PCB and multi-layer PCB. The cost depends on the thickness of board and copper foil. While the CEM-3, FR1, CEM-1, FR2…are frequently used in single layer board. The cost usually will be cheaper than FR4.
Base material thickness. For rigid PCB, Common thickness of finished PCB:0.4mm,0.6mm,0.8mm,1.0mm,1.2mm,1.5mm,1.6mm,2.0mm,2.4mm,3.0mm,3.4mm. Too thin or too thick is not applied frequently, will cause difficult in process. The cost will be higher than standard.
Copper foil thickness. Frequent requirement is18um (0.5oz), 35um (1oz), 70 (2 oz), 105um (3oz), 140um (4oz) and so on. Usually, the thicker copper, the higher circuit boards cost.
Base material supplier. Widely used manufacturers are ShengyiKBITEQ and so on. The cost differs from manufacturers.
Special requirement such as high Tg, halogen free, Aluminum Base, High frequency
PCB line width and space smaller than such as 4/4mm, the price will be counted extra.
Surface finishing. The most frequently used is Hot Air Level, OSP, Immersion tin, Immersion silver, Immersion gold etc. Different surface finishing will with different cost.
Technology/inspection standards. IPC 2 standard, IPC 3 standard, enterprise standard, military standard, the higher standard, the higher cost.
Usually use CNC to mill the PCB profile. But if the shape is complex, need to make by mould. There will be mould cost.
Also the cost may be different from different manufacturers. Many factors will influence the final cost of PCB board, such as TG degree, layer number, counter bore holes, gold finger etc. Here we just discuss some basic part.