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Can anyone please describe to me how PCBs with castellated pins are arranged in a panel. My understanding is that castellated pins are formed by drilling the edge of a PCB then plating, similar to a normal via process (except the result is a plated semi circle hole, like in the image attached).

Does the castellation process occur after panelization? If the PCB requires cutting the edge before plating, how are these boards arranged in panel that uses either mouse bites or V-scoring for breaking the board off of the panel? Are the areas around the castellated pins routed instead?

enter image description here

pcbguy
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2 Answers2

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You put full pads with drill holes centered on the outline of the PCB with the soldermask pulled back as usual. Follow your PCB manufacturer's recommendations on hole and pad sizes and spacing.

The castellated edge has to be routed, but there is nothing stopping you from V-grooving other edges or using mouse bites to panelize.

Plating portions of the edges is a different process from simply chopping through the plated holes, and may require some additional information to be passed to the supplier. Even if you don't want to panelize the boards, the PCB maker has to panelize them and will need to place supports.

Spehro Pefhany
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You may realise, that the castellated holes are only plated on the inside. So they just drill the holes, together with vias, etc. Then they plate everything and in the end the cuts are made to seperate the boards. In this cutting process, the castellated holes are cut in half.

jusaca
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