ESD prevention must also meet additional design requirements. While all of our assemblies contend with preventing shock and discharge that could render devices inoperable, the heightened reliability requirements of the industry mean a more rigorous approach is in order. Aerospace PCB manufacturing adheres to the ESD Class 0 rating, which employs the Human Body Model (HBM) and Charged Device Model (CDM) for components possessing withstand voltages below 250 V. Technicians handling devices will utilize protective equipment like wrist-strap monitors that constantly measure voltage and ESD footwear for improved grounding. Facility provisions include ESD installations and low-charging conductive flooring that pulls charge away from equipment and personnel to ground.

Weight can range from an impactful and growing cost driver to a mission criticality across the aerospace application spectrum. Electronic assemblies are, naturally, a substrate for conductive features and the components that most often provide the device’s functionality. Design reviews are critical to determining the perfect balance between system functionality and redundancy, and this begins with a BOM review that checks a litany of component aspects. Shaving weight in this manner may seem like overkill when some device packages range to the fractions of a milligram. Still, designers must remember the multiplicity of components across an entire system – hundreds, thousands, or more iterations may exist, and every ounce counts. Small individual weight reductions can result in performance gains, provided electrical parameters don’t suffer from component substitution or removal.