The foundations for the production of quality PCBs consist of providing adequate training for the personnel involved, proper planning of each circuit order (front end engineering), the maintenance and monitoring of all the required processes and procedures, and the provision of the required levels of inspection.
The author argues, moreover, that the very best foundation for top quality plated though hole (PTH) is panel plate. This is because an inspection following panel plate will enable the manufacturer to deal with any discontinuities in the through hole copper.The smallest discontinuities are readily detected by visual inspection at this stage and can be eliminated by re-processing.It is further argued that this practice is the best way of ensuring that outgassing will not occur during assembly.
Panel plate, incidentally, is the practice of flash plating with copper the drilled panels that have been through hole treated for electrical conductivity as a prerequisite to pattern plate when the holes and tracks are built up to the required copper thickness.
