X-bit labs - Print version

Have you ever thought of the place where all the computer hardware, such as mainboards, graphics cards, CD-ROMdrives, etc., comes from? Today you've got a good chance to find it out. We are going to raise a curtain ofmystery over a sacred process of their birth: we will take you to AOpen factory, so that you could see thewhole thing with your own eyes.

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. <%BANNER[article]%>

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:

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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

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.

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:

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.

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

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:

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.

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):

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 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:

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:

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.

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:

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

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.

Well, here we are. This is where most AOpen employees work. Man is a wonderful machine, you will hardly deny that. And in those cases when very flexible manufacturing is needed, human resources are just irreplaceable.

So, the PCBs with soldered components get loaded onto conveyor bands and slowly move forward. The operators working on the line manually insert different components into the PCB according to a scheme they have in front of them. Jumpers, DIMM slots, CPU sockets, capacitors of all sizes - all these components are inserted manually. Each operator has 5-6 components to put onto the board. If there were more, the guys and girls simply couldn't manage it as fast as they do:

The mainboards are moving in an endless stream that is why it is really important to watch that each operator doesn't run out of the components. Therefore, there are special employees responsible for making sure there is enough of everything in the operators' boxes.

Well, well, this is not what you think really. These people are not slaves tied to make sure they don't escape. The wire fastened to their right ankle and connected with the other end to a grounded conductor serves to remove the static electricity, which can be fatal for some electronic components.

Well, the last operator in the line has a very responsible duty: she has to make sure that all the components are inserted correctly, there are no missing and no extra parts on the board. Then she puts a special sticker onto the chipset North Bridge and the board goes to the wave soldering oven.

The temperature in the oven exceeds 190^oC. However, all the plastic parts and components inserted into the PCB are made of heat-resistant materials, that's why 190^oC does no bad. So, the board is inside. It's quite dark over there, but I hope you'll be able to see something... On the way to the soldering itself the board is warmed up. Then it comes to the "tin water wave", which "washes" the bottom of the PCB soldering all the pins firmly:

The wave soldering process is arranged so accurately that the mainboards do not need any specific cleaning afterwards. They simply move through a huge cooler and get in the operator's hands again:

Now the operator removes the paper from the chipset North Bridge. Since the sticker got heated while in the oven, the paste from it came off to the chip surface. So, the operator puts a heatsink onto it without any extra effort.

Another time the mainboards are visually inspected. The quality of soldering and the proper position of all the components are considered. If everything is fine, the boards go to be tested.

There are three major tests included into the so-called Function test, that each mainboard has to stand before getting into the packing line. The first one is the IO Function test. The operator inserts memory modules, CPU and graphics card, connects the mouse and keyboard to the board. This test doesn't take too much time to run that is why each operator has only a few testing stands:

The second test is called Aging Test. It runs 30 minutes. This test is aimed at checking the mainboard reliability and even though it is not a common thing for most mainboard manufacturing fabs, AOpen runs it for each mainboard without any exceptions. During the test the Ghost utility copies special test program from the CD to the HDD, then reboots from the HDD and runs 1 cycle of Winstone benchmarks three times. Since this test requires quite a while to be completed, each operator can handle 22 test stations. Here they are:

The third stage of the Function test is the final quality control. The operator connects all the components to the mainboard once again to check if it operates correctly:

Then the individual barcode is assigned to each mainboard and input in the computer. This allows AOpen customers to check the quality info of all AOpen products via Internet, on a special customer service page. After the barcode is assigned, all the corresponding stickers such as quality control ones and AOpen brand name ones are placed on the mainboard and it goes to be packed:

Together into the box go all the cables, manuals and disks. The package is closed and put into a larger box, to be then moved on a cart to the warehouse, which is located in the same building.

Though it seems to be the end of the mainboard making process, it is not the end of my story yet. As you have already seen, the boards undergo a lot of quality control tests and visual inspections. Of course, the yields are quite high, but there is no place where they make 100%. AOpen factory is also not an exception. People as well as machines sometimes make mistakes and the boards fail this or that test. What happens to them then? Well, certainly it depends on the type of the problem discovered. In some cases the board may be rejected and simply thrown into the waste basket. This also happens. But still AOpen employees try their best to solve the problems. And they succeed in most cases, I should say.

See those guys over at the soldering stand? They are repairing mainboards, which lack some components or fail the IO test. Every board is treated manually and double-checked after on all quality testing machines. If things are OK, the mainboard returns to the conveyor, if not the guys will have more work to do :-)

Anyway, that seems to be it as far as the mainboards go. But you may be surprised to find out that almost all the PC components are produced following nearly the same scheme. Mainboards, graphics cards, multimedia cards as well as CD-ROM drives and many others... Want to check this out yourself? Here you are: AOpen CD-ROM production will be the next thing I would like to tell you about.

I was really lucky that day. After visiting the mainboard production lines, I was offered the opportunity to take a closer look at the CD-ROM drive manufacturing process, since the thing was also located in the same building. To tell the truth, I didn't expect it to be so similar to the previous experience of mine. But let you be the judge:

Here we are. in the CD-ROM drive assembly room. Now let's find out the secrets of CD-ROM drives construction.

The PCBs purchased by AOpen from its partner companies come from the vaults in black wheeled holders (on the left). The operator uses pincers to insert all the cables and an automatic screwdriver hanging on a hook on the right side to fasten the PCB to the internal plate.

Then the thing is tested in a special machine to check that all cables are connected correctly and there is normal IO signal:

After that the insides of the CD-ROM drive is loaded into a carrier, which then goes to the assembly line to be put into the case:

When all the casing is screwed down tightly the CD-ROM comes to the testing stand. The first test to be run is audio test. It takes a couple of minutes to connect the CD-ROM drive to the PC and to check the audio function:

Then comes the turn of a pre-run in test and run in test, which take a bit longer, because they are analogous to the aging test, we have just discussed in respect to the mainboard manufacturing. However, here are a bit fewer testing stations, as you may see:

After that the final quality control is carried out. The operator inspects visually the CD-ROM drive, places all the stickers onto it and packs into transparent plastic:

And then, the drives are packed into colorful boxes together with all the corresponding stuff, such as cables and manuals. However, at the time I was in the factory, this stage was omitted, because there were OEM CD-ROM drives produced. They were simply loaded into boxes and stored in the warehouse:

Well, that seems to be it. Now you've got a good idea of how the PC parts are made, I suppose.

In conclusion I would like to sincerely thank Al Peng, Director of Motherboard Division; Ted H.M. Tsai, Director M/B Engineering Department M/B Manufacturing Division, and all AOpen guys who were there to give me such a warm welcome, show me around and arrange a really great experience for me over at AOpen factory in Taiwan.

Barcode and stickers, and...		...beautiful paper box with the accompanying items, and...

...the package is complete!		Ready to go to the warehouse now.

Giving Birth to New Mainboards: Factory Tour