How Chip-On-Boards are Made
Contributors:
Nate
Nate 
Victor DMM
On our 2014 China trip we got the opportunity to visit with Victor, one of our digital multimeter (DMM) manufacturers. We have toured their factory before but this tour was special for two reasons:
- After the seizure of yellow multimeters, it was important to talk with Victor to figure out our other color options (you can see find our new gray DMMs here!).
- While taking the second tour, I asked how the COB, or chip-on-board, manufacturing process happened. I expected it to be outsourced to a different facility but was surprised to hear it was done on a different floor of the same building. We excitedly asked to see it and our tour guide was nice enough to show us how it's done!
Here you can see workers putting the through hole components in to the main PCB of a multimeter. The black blob is the main IC of the device. Many devices use COB or chip-on-board to reduce the cost of components and manufacturing.