Castellation PCBs

Castellated holes are a type of plated through-hole used in printed circuit boards that have been cut in half. They offer several advantages over regular through-holes, including:

• Using castellated holes can help designer validate the quality of the solder joint.

• Castellated holes are also helpful, especially for breakout boards and small modules such as Wi-Fi modules.

• These plated half holes can easily change the pin layout of the component according to different requirement of each user.

• PCBs with castellated holes can easily mount one pcb to another PCB boards during production.

• Castellated holes also help to create wireless PCB to PCB links.

PCB manufacturing process for plated half holes consists of the following steps:

Drilling

Plated hole is ensured

Panel plating is performed

Then, Image transfer is done

Pattern plating is carried out

Striping

Then Etching is ensured

Solder masking is done

Surface coating happens

Plated half holes are implemented

However, there are two criteria while stacking one PCB on top of another PCB, using plated half holes. The PCB boards ought to have electrical contact. Having only a physical connection is not enough. So make sure that the two boards are connected electrically. The boards need to have zero spacing between them. If the boards have even a tiny space between them, the two boards’ soldering will not complete correctly.

There are multiple designs that constitute a feature that would fall under the castellation format.

Holes Cut in Half

A half hole is a plated half hole with a half on the edge of the board. There are several steps to follow to design them.

Holes with Smaller cut-in Half Holes

Holes with Smaller cut-in Half Holes require modern small drills. The drills need to be slightly smaller than what those meant for half castellated holes. These holes sit on the periphery of the larger dilled castellated holes.

The following table contains the minimum parameters:

• 1. What is castellation in PCB?

  Castellations— or castellated edges, plated holes on the board's edge, plated half-holes — are rampart-like structures along the edges of a printed circuit board. Their main advantage is that they allow an electrical connection to another board through the side edges of the board, without additional components.

• 2. What is the minimum pitch for castellated holes?

  For the standard PCB service, the minimum diameter of castellated holes is 0.5mm and they should be separated by a spacing of at least 0.5mm. If you need smaller castellated holes (as low as 0.35mm), please use the Advanced PCB service.

• 3. What is the diameter of a castellated hole?

  The minimum diameter of castellated holes is 0.6 mm and the minimum distance between two Plated half holes is 0.55 mm.

• 4. Why are castellated holes so expensive?

  A castellated edge has a unique manufacturing process that adds lead time and cost. To create a castellated edge, a routing process must be added to first cut off half the holes on the edge of the board. From there, the half-holes are plated. This additional process adds to your board's costs.

• 5. Why do we use castellated holes?

  castellated holes provide a versatile and efficient way to create connections between different layers of a PCB or between different boards, making them a popular choice in electronic design.

Get custom castellated hole pcbs that authenticates your business products and makes it an element for quick turnaround at a first go! At VictoryPCB, we work with each customer to ensure they get the boards they need, the way they need them. Contact us today for a quote for your specifications.