Gerber file in electronics manufacturing plays an important role in electronics manufacturing industry. We also call it the “Blue Print” to design a printed circuit board. The gerber provides accurate manufacturing information to instruct the process of production and manufacturing. It helps to protect the intellectual property rights of the design and confidentiality.
1. The Concept of Gerber
The Gerber file is a kind of standard document in CAD format to store and transfer the design information of printed circuit board. The Gerber file records the detailed parameters, aperture description, X & Y axes and Drawing instructions, and other important information carefully. For this file contains the circuit layer, soldermask layer, PASTE layer and silkscreen layer, etc., these are all the core of PCB manufacturing.
2. The Function of Gerber
1). It Provides Accurate Manufacturing Information. The Gerber file provides detailed design data for PCB manufacturing, siuch as the PAD position, hole position, line width/space, soldermask layer information and other information. All these data is very important to ensure the the accuracy of welding and the PCB/PCBA quality.
2). It Instructs the Production and Manufacturing. The Gerber file can be used to produce a stencil, and can be used to make the PASTE file, the Gerber file can instruct the manufacturer how to produce and assembly PCB accurately.
3). It Ensures the Confidentiality of the Design. It contains the detailed parameters of the PCB design, which helps a lot to protect the intellectual property rights of the design and confidentiality.
3. The Format and It’s Generation Method
The gerber file belongs to the Gerber System company in the past, time flying and Ucamco owns the copyright. The gerber is usually generated by PCB designers using professional electronic design automation (EDA) or computer-aided design (CAD) software. Regarding to the formats of Gerber, it includes RS-274X and RS-274-D, etc. And among which, for the global PCB manufacturers, RS-274X is the standard format in image conversion.
For many PCB manufacturers in China, like Sayfu Multilayer Circuits Co., Ltd, Sugar Tech and Kingsignal Circuit Co., Ltd. RS-274X format is very popular among most Chinese PCB manufacturer. We usually dopte this format to produce PCB. Such as HDI PCB, High Frequency PCB, Blind/Buried Via PCB, Rogers PCB, Flex PCB and Rigid-Flex PCB. Besides, to help its customers better, they also use GERBER FILE to provide PCBA or EMS service!
Editor: Kevin Tian Email: [email protected] Tel/WeChat: +86 15012876744