Which Transformers Are Best For Electrical Isolation In Medical Devices - Miracle Electronics

 With a multitude of transformer options available, identifying the best one out of the lot becomes difficult, for every individual application. And, the application that we are going to speak about in this blog is a critical one – medical devices. No kind of fault can be afforded in the case of medical applications. This is why only the most ideal kind of transformer that can offer safety and protection against electrical surges should be used. So, which one is it?

Toroidal transformers is the answer. Toroidal transformers are ideal for electrical isolation in medical equipment as they are compact, have low stray fields, and can be encapsulated when required. Hence, these transformers are less likely to cause electromagnetic disturbances. Isolation is when two parts of a circuit are physically and electrically separated, which is achieved by using electromagnetic field coupling between the two circuits. Isolation provides several safety advantages like breaking ground loops, improving common-mode voltage rejection, and permitting the two parts of the circuit to be at different voltage levels. For an isolation method to be safe enough for use in medical equipment, it needs high-integrity isolation components and a safe insulator barrier. The three most commonly used isolation methods include transformers, capacitive couplers, and optocouplers. But, in this blog, we will focus on the use of transformers to electrically isolate medical equipment.

A transformer transfers energy between two or more circuits through electromagnetic induction. They increase or decrease the voltages of alternating current in electric power applications, by passing a varying current through the primary winding to generate a magnetic flux in the transformer’s core, which in turn induces a voltage in the transformer’s secondary winding.

Toroidal cores are made form a continuous strip of silicone steel wound like a tight clock spring, with the ends tacked into place with small spot welds to prevent the coiled steel from unwinding. The core is insulated with an epoxy coating or a set of caps or multiple wraps of insulating film. The transformer’s windings wound around the core require additional insulation to be isolated. However, the construction of a toroidal transformer is very labour-intensive. But yet, these transformers are preferred more than any other transformer because of its performance. With the continuous strip of steel used in the core, the transformer becomes smaller, lighter, more efficient, and quieter than other kinds of transformers. These qualities are the most apt for sensitive medical electrical equipment; and clearly justify the additional expense.

Thus, to conclude, toroidal transformers are ideal for electrical isolation in medical equipment. So, if you are looking for the perfect transformer for your application, just get in touch with Miracle Electronics, a reliable and reputed medicaltransformer manufacturer in India, who can provide you with the most ideal toroidal medical isolation transformer . And, you can rest assured about the quality of transformers you will get here because every medical isolation toroidal transformer you’ll get will be RoHS and REACH compliant, adhering to the regulations under UL 60601-1 standards.

Preventing Water Ingress On Electrical Assemblies - Miracle Electronics

What happens when water and electricity come together? Obviously, it’s a very dangerous combination! Water is an excellent conductor of electricity, so if you’re probably in touch with water, and electricity comes in contact, you’ll probably be electrocuted!

But, you may have also seen heavy equipment used in environments where water is present. How is it that such equipment is protected against water then? What about the electrical cables and harnesses present within? Is it not affected in the case of water ingress? Obviously, when water comes in touch with the cables and harnesses, the consequences can be deadly! There could be electrical shorts, malfunctioning of the equipment, shock hazards, fire, or even death, in case of a high voltage application!

No matter what the outcomes of water ingress into the harnesses, it is absolutely important that the water ingress is prevented. But, how is this possible? Let’s take a look.

Understanding the working environment

The first step to preventing water ingress is to understand the type of working environment the equipment is to be used in. Will the equipment be completely submerged into water while in operation, or will it be rained upon? This information will help you use appropriately rated components in the design. That’s because different environments require varied levels of protection. This is where IP codes come into play, which are two-digit numbers that indicate how resistant components are to intrusion by solid particles and liquids. It is important that appropriate IP-rated components are used that meet or exceed the requirements of the working environment.

Other tools and tips

Other tools and tips that can help prevent water ingress are stated below.

ü Overmoulding can help protect small electrical components like resistors, capacitors, diodes, and PCBs.

ü Gaskets can seal the junction where multiple surfaces meet, used typically to help make something that wasn’t designed to be watertight.

ü Sealed connectors and cord grips can protect electrical enclosures from water ingress.

ü Installing hinges outside the gasket of an enclosure can prevent compromising the gasket’s integrity.

ü Leaving a small gap between the conduit and connectors can help liquid/water to escape.

ü Using braided looms on wire harnesses can help liquids flow through, instead of getting trapped inside the conduit.

ü RTV silicone can be used as a seal for small volumes.

Preventing water ingress on wire harnesses is important to protect the equipment from failure, and humans against shock or other serious consequences. Getting in touch with professional wire harness manufacturers in India, like Miracle Electronics, can help take care of all of the above, thus bringing to you protected and safe wire harnesses for all your equipment and environments. Every wire harness manufactured here is certified for quality to ISO 9001, AS9100C; and the quality of the cable looms and harnesses are certified and approved by DGAQA and MSQAA for platform specific applications. Moreover, ever wire harness manufactured here is tested for dimension, weight, continuity, pull test, and many other verifying processes that ensure compliance to environmental requirements.

 

What Makes PCB Manufacturing So Precise - Miracle Electronics

PCB assemblies are so dense, so complicated, filled with so many tiny elements connected together, yet so precise! Have you ever wondered how something so tiny and complicated can be so precise? One of the major reasons for the precision is the latest technology used in manufacturing PCBs today. While earlier, PCB making was a manual process, over the years, the PCB manufacturing process has significantly changed, thanks to the latest technological innovations that have allowed PCB manufacturers to innovate accurately and skilfully. Here’s how a prototype PCB assembly from India is made  with such skill and accuracy.

Pre-manufacturing – Planning

Before a PCB prototype is begun for manufacturing, there is a lot of planning done, considering countless aspects. First and foremost, the PCB manufacturer will look over the design and Gerber files. Then, step-by-step instructions will be laid out for fabrication, which will be reviewed by an engineer, who will then convert these plans into a data format that will help engineer the board. Any issues will also be checked for with formatting or cleaning up. Based on this data, the final board will be created.

Manufacturing

Step 1 – Plotting

Once inspected and finalized, a panel array is then chosen for the best fit, after which photo plotting begins. This is the first step of the production process. A laser is used to plot the patterns, silk screens, and other primary images that are required on the PCB.

Step 2 – Lamination

In the case of multi-layered PCBs, the multiple layers need to be fused together, which can be attained with the help of lamination, that is done using heat and pressure.

Step 3 – Drilling

Once heat and pressure laminates the layers together, expert drilling systems are used, programmed to drill holes into the board, accurately and precisely. This drilling program ensures that there is no human error while manufacturing the PCB.

Step 4 – Copper Deposition and Plating

The copper layer of the PCB, which is deposited through electrolysis, is an important part of the PCB, the conductive property essential to the functionality of the PCB prototype. PCBs generally become conductive after electroplating, which is where the copper is plated via a plating bath. These copper tracks prove to be conductive tracks that connect two points within the circuit board.

Post-manufacturing – Testing

After the prototype is built, it is thoroughly tested in every way to identify any mistakes or flaws that may lead to errors or unexpected end results. Identifying these mistakes in the prototype can help correct them right there so that the rest of the manufactured products are not flawed, thus saving on costs and time. Once the prototype is confirmed to be perfect, the remaining lot is manufactured.

You can see how the latest technologies used bring such precision to PCBs. For such a precise and accurate PCB assembly from India, you can get in touch with Miracle Electronics, the leading PCB assembly manufacturer in the country, who is an expert in building PCBs of all kinds and sizes in world-class manufacturing environments to provide scalable, high-quality, and low-cost PCB assemblies to totally satisfy customers!

Fiducial Markers – What They Mean For A PCB - Miracle Electronics

With PCBs being vital components of almost every electronic and electrical device today, it is important to take care of every detailing when designing a PCB. One way to get PCB designing right is by adding reference points to the design, which helps to keep the orientation right. Fiducial markers can help to provide such reference points for imaging systems.

What are fiducial markers?

The term “fiducial” means a fixed-point basis of reference; its purpose being to compare. Fiducial markers are surface marks that designers use as directional measures in indexing systems. These markers work as alignment marks in indexing systems of electronic assembly industries that use automation, helping to orient the PCBs in the right skews and directions. They allow the vision system to insert components precisely on the circuits. Fiducial PCB markers thus prove to be a vital aspect of the entire automated process. These fiducial markers consist of three parts – a solid copper ring on the top or bottom of the copper layer, the circle in the solder mark which is the target that needs to be aligned, and the option text label on the side.

The three benchmarks of a fiducial PCB

First datum – The first datum, depicted by X and Y directions, helps mounting machines to recognize the PCB location.

Second fiducial benchmark – This second benchmark helps the mounting machine to recognize the PCB orientation, and reveals the PCB’s skew in the clamps. Fiducial markers ensure that the PCB is fixed in place, because even a slight rotation of the PCB can result in complete damage of the entire assembly. The machine can measure the angle of the board’s rotation to even the nearest 0.01 degrees, and then compensates all the placements accordingly.

Third fiducial benchmark – This third benchmark assists the mounting machine to compensate for shrinks and stretches present in the PCB. 

Importance of fiducial PCBs

Precision is absolutely vital, especially in processes that use automation. Hence, machines need to know the board’s exact location and where to put the components. Fiducial markers not only make this task easy, but also ensure that the orientation of the board is in the right direction and alignment. Assembly machines can locate the precise location of the board by using high-tech cameras. The entire process thus needs not one, but several fiducial marks in an irreversible pattern.

When to use fiducial markers?

Fiducial markers are highly crucial in high-volume PCB assemblies to ensure correct parts placement and registration. Low-volume assemblies don’t necessarily require these marks, but it is good if you use them in such situations too. However, if you are placing your parts manually, then such fiducial markers are not required at all.

When designing fiducial markers

There are four factors you need to consider when designing fiducial markers.

Shape – It is best to stick to circular marks because this shape is recognized universally by every machine. Other shapes like squares, diamonds, and hourglasses may or may not be recognized by a machine.

Size – The basic size of fiducial pads ranges between 1 and 3 mm, but you could experiment out of the range too. However, the basic range makes it easy for the camera and equipment to recognize places as fiducial markers.

Material – The fiducial pad should be of the same material as the rest of the PCB board, ensuring that the place is free of solder mask or silkscreen that might cover the markers.

Clearance – There should be appropriate clearance around the pad, because the open space around the PCB makes it easy for the camera to pick up the fiducial markers without interference. In addition, the diameter of the clearance should be at least twice the size of the pad.

While using fiducial markers

When you plan on using fiducial markers for your PCB assemblies, it is important that you follow certain essential guidelines.

• The optimal size of fiducial markers ranges between 1 and 3 mm. You need to maintain a clearance area similar to the marker’s diameter.
• The fiducial marker must maintain a distance of 0.3 inches from the board’s edge, the distance excluding the fiducial marker’s clearance area.
• You need to maintain a circular shape when placing the non-drilled copper layer, keeping fiducial markers free from solder mask.

With PCB assembling being so critical, using the fiducial markers the right way can help you have a seamless assembly line, as compared to when you have to make continuous adjustments. It is thus wise to leave the task to experts, one like Miracle Electronics, the best PCB assembly manufacturer , who can correctly incorporate fiducials in the PCB design, along with taking care of every other designing and production aspect of a PCB assembly from India.

3 Secrets For Perfect PCB Manufacturing - Miracle Electronics

With every electronic device being highly dependent on the PCB for its performance, we can’t afford to have weak-performing or low-quality PCB installed into our application. In fact, the success of an electronic device or application highly depends on the quality and performance of the PCB installed. And, this is why you always need a PCB assembly from India that is reliable and high on performance, for which you’ll need to partner with a genuine PCB assembly manufacturer, one like Miracle Electronics, who is well known for delivering high quality products with consistent performance, using high technology machineries and well-equipped facilities. Let’s get into the details of how such manufacturers deliver the required performance. Here are a few secrets that can help design PCBs for excellence.

Secret 1 – Thorough component selection

Obviously, the components used in constructing the PCB is what primarily decides on the quality of the board. Thus, there should be a thorough and well-informed component selection process. And, while doing so, lots of external factors also need to be considered. This is because some components work well in certain environments, and other work well in other kinds of settings. This is why certain important aspects like moisture sensitivity, temperature sensitivity, electrostatic discharge levels, plating material breakdowns, and complex manufacturability issues should be considered. All such aspects affect the longevity of the components, and can cause premature failures if the right components are not used for the operating environments.

Secret 2 – Designing for reliability

The components, when selected right, will certainly deliver performance. But, what about reliability? When high reliability is focused upon, the performance delivered is certain to stay for a much longer time. Hence, customer satisfaction is doubled. Customers receive quality that goes on for longer, which means significant affordability.

Secret 3 – Seamless team communication and organization

Remember, even if the right components are chosen, and the designing is perfect, loss of communication between the members of the team can mess it up all! For everyone to do their job correctly, communication needs to be perfect, without which it may result in expensive mistakes. It is thus very important to organize the production team in a way that everyone knows what he or she has to do, along with how the entire team is functioning as a whole.

To conclude, we can see how designing a PCB should be carried out, and how mistakes can be avoided. The manufacturers who pay attention to all the above factors can result in a perfect outcome, thus bringing complete customer satisfaction. All issues of reliability and performance must be thoroughly considered right at the beginning of the production, which means in the designing phase. Designing for performance means the products being high on quality; designing for reliability means the products performing for longer; and communicative production processes means no reason for PCB failures  or errors. Hence, in order to have the perfect PCB assembly from India made, a manufacturer needs a perfect combination of both tools and personnel.