Printed circuit boards
Bare-board fabrication to a stack-up and impedance spec, SMT and through-hole assembly, AOI on every board, X-ray wherever there is a BGA, and a firmware manufacturing test mode run on the line.
Services / Manufacturing in Taiwan and China
Electronics and hardware, manufactured in Taiwan and China.
Ideambox runs production, not just advice. The work goes through production partners we have worked with for over 15 years — PCB manufacturing first, then injection moulding, tooling, finishing and assembly. We write the build package, review the DFM, run the tooling and sample rounds, and carry the programme through pilot, inspection and shipment readiness.
What gets made
What we can build.
Production runs through partners we have worked with for over 15 years, in PCB manufacturing and injection moulding among other processes. Electronics design sits under a standing agreement with an electronics engineering partner, and sourcing in Taiwan runs with a partner we work with regularly. Ideambox writes the package, specifies the process, and reviews what comes off the line.
Moulded, machined and sheet-metal parts
Injection moulding on P20, NAK80/H13 or S136 tooling, CNC machining, stamping and bending, die casting and silicone overmould — with the finish called out in SPI, VDI or Mold-Tech codes, not adjectives.
Assembled, tested and packed product
Sub-assembly or full assembly, retail or bulk packaging, lot and date codes traceable back to a BOM revision, and a photographed defect catalogue agreed before the first pilot box is closed.
Electronics manufacturing
Boards first: fabrication, assembly, test.
The board decides most of what follows — enclosure volume, antenna keepout, test fixture, line time, yield. PCBA is where the programme starts and where the wrong supplier costs the most, so it is the first thing we place and the last thing we hand over cold.
A PCB house that has built for you for fifteen years tells you the stack-up will not yield before it quotes it. A new one quotes what you sent.
Board build path
- 01 Gerber + stack-up
- 02 Fabrication
- 03 Stencil + paste
- 04 SMT + reflow
- 05 AOI / X-ray
- 06 MTM + function test
Component supply path
- 01 BOM lock
- 02 Lifecycle check
- 03 Second source
- 04 Authorised buy
- 05 C of C + lot trace
- 06 Kitting to line
Fabrication to the stack-up, not the outline
Layer count, copper weight, dielectric and controlled-impedance targets go to the fab as a stack-up drawing, with panelisation, fiducials and test coupons agreed before the first panel runs. The SMT stencil is a consumable at $30–150 a reorder and can be replaced; a stack-up the fab reinterpreted cannot.
Assembly with the defect list written first
Tombstoning, solder bridges, cold joints, missing components, reversed polarity, lifted pads, insufficient solder, component shift and BGA voids each get a cause, a severity and a detection method in the QC plan before the first panel is placed. AOI and electrical test catch most of them. X-ray is mandatory wherever there is a BGA.
Test that takes seconds, not minutes
Test points, pogo-pin access and JTAG belong in the netlist before layout, not after first-shots. A manufacturing test mode in firmware lets an operator verify a board in under 30 seconds, which means the fixture decides pass or fail rather than the operator's judgement — and the same fixture has to catch the same defects across batches before the line scales.
A BOM the factory can actually buy
Seventeen columns per line: MPN, distributor part number, footprint in imperial and metric, lifecycle state (NPI, Active, NRND, LTB, EoL), MOQ, lead time and a qualified second source. Parts come from authorised distributors with a certificate of conformance carrying date code, lot and fab ID. A price 30% under market is the first counterfeit signal, not a win.
Where it gets built
Taiwan or China is an engineering decision.
Taiwan's supplier base is strongest in PCBA, precision machining, medical and engineering polymers, and it carries no Section 301 duty for US importers where mainland China sits at 7.5–25% on Lists 1–4. Mainland China quotes in two to five days against Taiwan's five to ten, turns a sample round in one to two weeks, and starts production in 30–45 days at MOQs of 500–2,000 per SKU. Taiwan starts in 35–60 days and will take 100–1,000 on electronics.
- Section 301 exposure on the finished HS code
- MOQ against your first-order quantity
- Sample iteration speed versus tooling lead time
- IP sensitivity of the design
- Engineering-polymer and precision capability
- Where the ICs, PCB and raw plastic actually come from
Supply-chain depth we audit
- Where the PCB is fabricated — a local fab, or a board made in China and shipped to the assembler.
- Where the ICs are bought — authorised distributor with regional stock, or imported against the same allocation as everyone else.
- Where the raw plastic comes from — regional petrochemical, or Guangdong with freight added.
- Where packaging and labels are printed — usually the last thing anyone checks, and often the thing that holds a shipment.
- Assembly-only origin — a product assembled outside China from Chinese parts is still a Chinese supply chain, with extra customs and lead time bolted on.
Mechanical manufacturing
Tooling gets a brief before it gets a purchase order.
Family mould, single cavity or multi-cavity is decided against annual volume, not against the quote. Steel grade follows the run — P20 for prototype tools, 718H for production, S136 where the part is medical. Cavity count is worked against cycle time and CapEx amortisation, gate type is specified (sub-gate, hot tip, hot manifold), and texture is a code — Mold-Tech MT-11010, VDI 3400 Ch33 — not the word "matte". The moulder gets a brief, not a surprise at T1.
Injection moulding
Tool build, T1 first shots, T2 and T3 refinement rounds at one to two weeks each, then a golden sample signed by both sides. Sink marks, flash, short shots, warp, weld lines and drag marks are classified in the QC plan before the first shot, not argued over after it.
Machining, sheet metal and casting
CNC parts, stampings, bends and castings. Burrs specified to a broken edge per ISO 13715, spring-back compensated in the tool rather than corrected on the drawing, punch wear tracked against a 100k–500k stroke lifetime before holes start to wander.
Finishing and assembly
Paint, texture, anodising, print and pad print against a Pantone reference and a physical colour chip. Then sub-assembly or full assembly with torque specified per fastener, connector keying designed so it cannot be half-seated, and a barcode scan per unit at the packing station.
Build tiers
The tier we build at depends on what is still open.
Manufacturing does not begin at mass production. Six build tiers sit between a first appearance model and a pilot line, and each one answers a different question at a different cost. Choosing the tier is the cheapest decision in the programme; getting it wrong is paid for in steel.
- Appearance model — brand and booth, not fit
- Architecture rig — PCB outline, antenna keepout, battery volume
- EVT functional — architecture, firmware, sensor placement
- DVT pre-tooling — DFM, certification, supplier capability
- First-shot golden samples — calibrates AQL, MTM test, operator training
- Pilot production — yield, ramp, packaging, logistics
The programme
Pilot, production, inspection, packing, shipment readiness.
Every gate is written before the first pilot unit is built, and the supplier agrees to the measurable ones as contract metrics. Nothing in the sequence below is decided by argument after the fact.
Build package
Drawings with tolerances flagged per ISO 8015, STEP geometry at a locked revision, the production BOM, label artwork, the manufacturing test build, and a test plan carrying AQL levels and standards. A zipped CAD file with no drawings is the most expensive email in sourcing.
RFQ and shortlist
The same locked-revision package to every candidate, quotes stripped back to identical scope, and a shortlist scored on price at target volume, amortised tooling, lead time, certification depth, communication and capacity headroom — not on the lowest number.
Tooling and first shots
The agreement splits tooling 50% on order and 50% on acceptance of T1 samples, and writes tooling, drawings, firmware and brand assets to the buyer regardless of which floor the tool physically sits on.
Samples to golden sample
Engineering sample, pre-production sample, off-tool T1, refinement rounds, then a golden sample signed and dated by both parties. One copy stays on the production floor. Every later disagreement is settled by inspecting it, not by discussing it.
Pilot run
100–500 units to baseline yield and cycle time, then 500–2,000 for operator training and fixture validation. An SOP per station with photos at each step, cycle time balanced so no station exceeds takt, and a first-article check at the start of every shift.
Gate to mass production
First-pass yield at or above 90% in pilot. Every critical dimension demonstrated by the supplier at Cpk 1.33 or better on production samples. Defects catalogued and classified, fixtures validated, SOPs written, BOM and spec revisions locked, certificates issued. Below the gate, the line is not ready — passing it early is a decision, not a default.
Inspection and packing
The QC plan names the incoming, in-process, final and pre-shipment checks, with AQL 0 / 2.5 / 4.0 by defect class and ISO 2859-1 Level II sampling — a lot of 3,201–10,000 units is judged on 200 pieces, accept at 10 majors, reject at 11. Two rejects in five lots tightens the inspection level. A passed pre-shipment inspection against that plan is what releases the 70% balance.
Shipment readiness
Retail or bulk packaging validated against the drop and transport case, lot and date codes traceable to a BOM revision, HS code confirmed against the destination market, and the document set assembled — commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of origin, bill of lading. Freight and clearance are booked by whoever holds the import; what we make sure of is that nothing on the pallet or in the file is missing.
Related reference documents
The engineering behind the service.
IDB-RFQ-007
Supplier RFQ checklist
RFQ package contents, tooling cost benchmarks, qualification questions, contract clauses, scoring matrix. Includes XLSX comparison template.
IDB-BOM-005BOM & component sourcing
The 17-column BoM structure, lifecycle states, second-source qualification, MOQ economics, counterfeit signals. Includes XLSX BoM template.
IDB-QCI-004Quality control & inspection
Inspection points, AQL sampling per ISO 2859, defect classification, and the process-specific defect catalogues for PCBA and injection moulding.
IDB-RMP-021Production ramp-up
Pilot-to-MP gate criteria, the reference yield ramp curve, operator training stages, line balancing and capacity planning.
IDB-IMP-008Importing from Asia
Specification package, supplier verification, sample rounds, agreement and payment structure, pre-shipment inspection, shipping and customs.
IDB-SBC-011Sourcing beyond China
Country capability matrix, lead times and MOQs by country, Section 301 exposure, and the supply-chain depth audit.
How an engagement is scoped
There is no standard package and no rate card, because the shape of the work changes with the product. What is released, how many suppliers a build needs, whether tooling exists, the first production quantity and the date it has to hit all move the scope, and they move it a long way. Scope and commercial terms are agreed per project, in writing, before anything starts.
Send the drawing package, the BOM if there is one, the quantity and the date. That is enough to come back with what the work involves.
Have drawings, a BOM, and a volume?
Send the package. We will tell you what is missing before it reaches a factory, and what it takes to build it.