Abstract: Board assembly processes are disclosed that may be implemented using multiple different electrically conductive solder types to assemble or attach different electronic components to a printed circuit board (PCB). For example, multiple different electronic components may be attached to a common PCB using a multiple-step assembly process that may be performed at different solder reflow temperatures and/or which may incorporate multiple different solder types having different respective minimum reflow temperatures (i.e., melting point temperatures). The disclosed processes may be implementing using a variety of different forms of solder, such as solder paste form, wire solder form, ingot solder form, etc.

Abstract: A non-rectangular connection pad for coupling discrete components to connection pads reduces the capacitance in the connection pad area, and thus maintains a more uniform characteristic impedance along the length of the trace. The pad shape is changed to reduce the area of the pad. The reduced area reduces or eliminates change in characteristic impedance of the trace incorporating the connection pad and discrete component attached to the connection pad. An irregular pad shape may be used to decrease the soldering area of the discrete component, while still maintaining wettability of the solder. One example of such a non-rectangular connection pad is a C-shaped connection pad. Such connection pad shapes can be used on traces for high-speed circuits (e.g., PCIe, USB, SATA, and other traces carrying signals above 1 GHz).