PCB Fact (5):: what is a half-hole PCB, and how to design its size?

Half-hole PCB: the usual half-hole is the most edge of the PCB design hole, and then gong half of the shape, leaving only half of the hole in the PCB board, commonly known as half-hole, in the PCB industry is also called a stamp hole, in short, is to retain half of the metalized hole, below?are?the pictures?for your reference:

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The Advantage of half-hole PCB：

• Reduce space occupation: the half-hole design can reduce the space occupied by the module and make the whole module more compact.
• Improve mechanical stability: the half-hole design can be directly fixed on the PCB by screws or fasteners, which increases the stability of the overall structure.
• Improve signal transmission: Half-hole design helps to reduce the length of signal transmission path, which can reduce signal attenuation and improve the reliability of signal transmission.
• Enhanced electromagnetic compatibility (EMC): As a part of the ground plane, the half-hole design is helpful for signal shielding.
• Improve the heat dissipation performance: The semi-hole can be used as a heat dissipation channel to help dissipate the heat generated by components, especially in high-power or high-density circuit design.
• Flexibility: Half-hole design allows flexible arrangement of components in different positions of PCB to meet different circuit design requirements.
• Easy to maintain and upgrade: the semi-hole design makes the components easier to remove and replace, which is convenient for maintenance and upgrade.
• Adapt to different installation methods: the half hole can support multiple installation methods, such as vertical installation, horizontal installation, or inclined installation, to meet different design requirements.

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Half-hole design can save connectors and space, which mainly appears in signal circuits, communication modules, and core boards such as Bluetooth and NBloT modules. Its characteristics are a small aperture and conductive metallization in the hole, which is very in line with the market demand for modern electronic circuits becoming more and more precise.

This kind of board is mostly used on the carrier board. As a daughterboard of a motherboard, the pins of the motherboard and components can be welded together through these metalized half-holes.

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When designing a half hole, there are three main dimensions to consider:

• Half-hole diameter ≥0.4mm.
• Half-hole spacing ≥ 0.5mm.
• Wall Copper Thickness?≥?0.2mm

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Semi-hole is a special process, in the forming process, it is easy to have technical problems such as warping of copper skin on the hole wall, cloak residue, etc., and the scrap rate is relatively high, which will increase the cost.

Therefore, when choosing a PCB manufacturer, it is necessary to check whether the PCB manufacturer has the professional skills and experience in handling semi-perforated plates and whether it is equipped with sophisticated finished product testing instruments.

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PCBONLINE has a laser scanning conference microscope (LSCM) and Electron Scanning Microscope: This type?of microscope is the granular table for observing and measuring the size and surface condition of PCB?half-holes, including details such as copper skin curling, which means that 100% yield of PCB can be ensured before shipment.

I hope today's sharing will help you. If you need any other information please leave your message in the comments!