Engineering teams are constantly challenged to speed product development with fewer internal resources. As a prototype assembly house we are regularly called upon to fix issues driven by compressed product development cycles and thought it would be valuable to create a "Top Ten" checklist of issues that we see on a regular basis.

Have you ever had an LED or other diode placed backwards? Screaming Circuits strives to place every component, from the largest, highest pin-count logic chip down to the smallest passive components, correctly every single time. A key element of that accuracy is our understanding of your board and the component markings.

The QFN form factor delivers a number of advantages over other SMT package form factors. It is generally a smaller part and, with the center pad, can have better grounding and thermal properties. These advantages are partially offset by layout and assembly difficulties. But by following a few guidelines, you can use the parts with confidence.

Via in pad seems to be one of the hot topics these days. The SMT guys pretty much always say: "don't ever do it." However, with certain parts, the component manufacturer strongly recommends it. Rather than just telling you "no, never," we're going to do our best to give a few guidelines on how to do it properly.