I wouldn't be mistaken if I say that a PC has already become an inalienable part of your life. Wonder why I say "your" life? Well, if you are here at X-bit labs now, reading some hardware stuff then it definitely means that you are a PC addict, namely a hardware addict. And have you ever thought of the place where all this hardware comes from? I bet you don't very often think of anything other than the next door hardware store. But I tell you something: much more interesting things happen to hardware components before they get to hardware stores. Mainboards, CD-ROM drives, and many others - today I am going to raise a curtain of mystery over a sacred process of their birth... In other words, today I am going to take you on a factory tour so that you could see the whole thing with your own eyes.

During my stay in Taipei, where I came for Computex 2001, I was invited by AOpen guys to visit their factory. That is why I will tell you about the manufacturing process basing on my experience with AOpen. In fact, the technological stages of the production process are the same everywhere, so I am pretty much sure that you will see very similar thing on any other factory, such as that of ASUS or Gigabyte, for instance.

Before we start our trip let me a say a few words about AOpen company, one of the world's largest and well-known hardware manufacturers.

AOpen located in Taipei (Taiwan) was established in July 1992 and has grown quite considerably since then. In December 1993 the company got a VGA division, in April 1994 - CD-ROM division. Currently the company counts about 1021 employees and boasts the capital of about NT$1.35 billion. And AOpen company keeps growing. Since 1995 when multi-media division was established, AOpen's annual revenue has more than doubled making $606 million in 2000, which is going to exceed $700 million in 2001, according to some forecasts.

As you may have already understood, AOpen produces almost all the components for a PC. All in all, there are 4 business units:

• Mainboard division
• Optical device division (CD-ROM drives, DVD-ROM drives, etc.)
• Multimedia division (VGA cards, modems, switch hubs, etc.)
• Barebone systems division (the entire system including mainboards, housing, etc. without the CPU only)

Of course, the manufacturing of all these items simply cannot fit into a single factory. There are several of them, each focusing on some particular type of products. The one we managed to visit in Taiwan deals with mainboard and CD-ROM manufacturing in the first place. So, as you may have already guessed, I will take a look at the mainboard and CD-ROM manufacturing this time.

The factory is situated within a little bit over 1 hour drive from downtown Taipei. After a pleasant journey by car (god bless those guys who invented air conditioning) I got to a neat 6-storeid building located in a nice park. In the lobby with plenty of flowers and plants, which made it look really cosy, I could take a short rest in a comfortable armchair while waiting for my guide and look around a bit.

AOpen factory reception desk

Decorated with AOpen logo and flags the whole thing looked impressive, I should say. On the right of the front desk you could also see a stand with the product samples produced on this particular factory: different types of mainboards in colorful boxes, CD-ROM drives - they gave the visitor a good idea of what kind of stuff comes out of this building in the end.

But here he is, Mr. Ted Tsai, Director of AOpen MB Engineering Department, who was so kind to show me around a tell me a really good lot of interesting things, which I do my best to share with you now.

After a short introduction into the mainboard making process we went over to the Surface Mounting Technology Assembly room. Before entering the place I was told to put on a nice looking long-sleeved shirt (too large for me though) and white shoe covers, which looked really cool on my high-heeled shoes. Anyway, this outfit served some serious purpose: protect against dust from outside, which could be brought into the room on the shoes and clothing. Therefore, everybody who works on the factory have to change into a special uniform and shoes when they come to work.

Mainboard SMT Assembly room

As you can see from the pic above the assembly rooms are all very clean and very well lit and conditioned to provide maximum comfort for people working there and to ensure that all products are made in the best manufacturing conditions and are of really high quality.

So, what happens in the SMT assembly? The starting point is the blank PCBs that are brought from the vault to the assembly room. I have to point out here that AOpen doesn't produce the PCBs with different layouts itself. They are made by some third partner-companies, where AOpen places its orders depending on the product range the company is planning to produce.

As you know AOpen, as any other mainboard manufacturer, offers a great lot of different boards, OEM and boxed, ATX and MircoATX ones, with different layouts and features sets. All of them are manufactured on one and the same factory, where I have just been. The conveyors and well as all holders are of adjustable size, which can be changed depending on the mainboard model currently made. During my factory tour, there were MicroATX AOpen MX34 mainboards produced. So, let's see how it all goes.

So, the PCBs arrive at the factory and get stored in the vaults. When needed, they are requested by the AOpen guys and brought packed into vertical wheeled holders from the vaults directly to the production line. So, a pack of PCBs is loaded into a special container - a starting point of the entire process.

Blank PCBs in a wheeled holder brought from the vault

A pack of PCBs loaded into the feeding container

The pneumatic "robot arm", or whatever it can be called, with three air inflown rubber holders raises the PCB from the pack up to the conveyor:

PCB being raised to the conveyor

And the blank PCB goes into the first machine: solder paste printer. As soon as the PCB is there, it gets covered with a special stainless steel stencil. The stencil fits exactly onto the PCB, so that the holes in it correspond to those spots on the board where the paste should be laid. Then the automatic machine spreads the gray solder paste all over the stencil so that it penetrates only into the appropriate holes.

Solder paste printer ready to go

Paste spead over the PCB covered with a stencil

After that the PCB is moved downwards to the conveyor and gets out of the machine. Here it is:

PCB covered with gray solder paste

The next stage is called Parts Placement. The parts, namely, different resistors and microchips, are places by high-speed machines from Panasert (Panasonic division), each of which is capable of processing over 220 thousand pieces a month (if working continuously). The factory I've been to is equipped with 14 machines of the kind (19 more are located in other AOpen factories in China). So, each production line is equipped with 3 machines like that. Now let's take a closer look at each of them.

High-speed machine for smallest components
mounting

The first high-speed machine mounts the smallest components. First the machine "looks" at those places where the components should be put to check the coordinates and see if everything is alright over there. At the same time the PCB is filmed with a small camera hid in the large metallic "eye", which you can see right in the middle of the pic. When the machine is ready (which happens in a couple of seconds, or even faster), the mounting process starts.

Each of the microchips is taken from the band and held by the manipulator (the red things on the pic). The machine receives the coordinates from the built-in computer and sends each of the manipulators one by one to the required position. Then the component is placed onto the spot covered with the solder paste. Each operation takes less than 0.1 sec. The whole thing is also filmed, which allows simplifying the troubleshooting later on.

The resistors and other minor components are taken by the machine from the feeders located on the rear side of the machine. A feeder looks like a large spool with a band where each component is packed separately. You can see how tiny these pieces are:

Feeders with large spools on the rear side of the high-speed machines

Bands with smallest resistors and chips

If the feeder gets empty, i.e. there are no more components left on the band, then the yellow light and a typical beeping sound signal that. The feeder needs to be replaced manually with a new one, the green light turns on and the process continues.

High-speed machines working status indicator:
yellow or green light

Here is a board shot after it came out of the first high-speed machine. Look at those small component parts on it:

Tiny resistors mounted onto the PCB by
the first high-speed machine

The second high-speed machine is constructed and works in almost the same way with that only difference that it mounts a bit larger components. Here they are:

Larger components mounted by the second
high-speed machine

The third high-speed machine is called General Function Mounter or "pick and place machine". It works also very much like the previous machines. It places the largest components such as North and South Bridges, sound, network and other chips, which are also provided in large spools as you can see on the pic.

General Function Mounter at work

Feeders with bands for largest componets

Since the chips are quite big and their sizes differ a lot, the machine can't hold all of them at once. That is why there are fewer manipulators, which mount all the components in several passes. Every time before making a new pass they select special holders from the square black container (in the upper right corner) and then come to take the chips from the feeders (on the front of the pic):

Manipulators of the General Function Mounter
ready to pick up chip holders

The machine is also equipped with a computer functioning just the same way as we have described above. Here is the board with all the components mounted:

The PCB with all the components mounted
on the way to reflow oven

Now it goes into the oven to be reflown:

Reflow oven

The temperature in this oven rises from 30^oC to 230^oC so that all the components, which were simply stuck to the solder paste get firmly soldered to the PCB. Then the PCB comes out of the oven:

Here you should see a freshly baked PCB
coming out of the oven

To tell the truth, I did my best to catch one coming out in my camera, but after three or four attempts I gave up this idea because the pieces were moving too fast. They got too hot and were really hurrying to the cooler to get a bit of relief, I suppose. :-) This is the cooler:

Cooler following the reflow oven

And then the PCBs are automatically stored into the same vertical wheeled holders and moved over to the next stage: in circuit test. The test is done by a special machine, which checks the input and output signals going through. If there is any problem detected, then the computer reports a "fail" and indicates the place on the PCB where the problem exists. After that the board may be sent to be repaired or is rejected.

In circuit test machine at work

In circuit test passed

If the board gets a "pass" in the in circuit test then the visual inspection follows. The girls working at this stage use a special plastic stencil with holes in it to find out if there are any components missing on the PCB:

Visual inspection: board covered with
a checking stencil

Then they look attentively at the board through a lighted magnifying glass to inspect the way all the components were soldered:

Visual inspection under a magnifying glass

If everything is fine, then the semifinished boards are loaded into the wheeled holders and are brought to the next assembly room called Mainboard DIP Assembly.