In
electronics manufacturingThe industrial electronics manufacturing process for the electronic assemblies found in many of today's electronic devices, is a multi-step process.-Component and PCB manufacturing:...
, an
Excellon file is a text-based
file formatA file format is a particular way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file.Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa. There are different kinds of formats for...
which is used to control the actions of a CNC drilling machine, commonly used in the drilling of
printed circuit boardA printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, or traces, etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. It is also referred to as printed wiring board or etched wiring board...
s (PCBs). The Excellon file format is a variant of standard RS-274C. It consists of commands to instruct a CNC drilling machine to drill holes of specific diameters at specific locations on a PCB.
The name
Excellon comes from the Excellon Automation Company, founded in
Torrance, CaliforniaTorrance is a city located in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Torrance's 1.5 miles of attractive beach coastline is less well-known than those of its immediate neighbors to the North, Redondo Beach, or to the South, Palos Verdes Estates...
, USA in 1963 by inventor Joseph Smith.
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In
electronics manufacturingThe industrial electronics manufacturing process for the electronic assemblies found in many of today's electronic devices, is a multi-step process.-Component and PCB manufacturing:...
, an
Excellon file is a text-based
file formatA file format is a particular way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file.Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa. There are different kinds of formats for...
which is used to control the actions of a CNC drilling machine, commonly used in the drilling of
printed circuit boardA printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, or traces, etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. It is also referred to as printed wiring board or etched wiring board...
s (PCBs). The Excellon file format is a variant of standard RS-274C. It consists of commands to instruct a CNC drilling machine to drill holes of specific diameters at specific locations on a PCB.
The name
Excellon comes from the Excellon Automation Company, founded in
Torrance, CaliforniaTorrance is a city located in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Torrance's 1.5 miles of attractive beach coastline is less well-known than those of its immediate neighbors to the North, Redondo Beach, or to the South, Palos Verdes Estates...
, USA in 1963 by inventor Joseph Smith. The company was later bought by Esterline, and then sold to Turning Point Capital in 2003. During the 1980s Excellon held approximately a 90% market share in the sales of PCB drilling and
routingRouting is the process of selecting paths in a network along which to send network traffic. Routing is performed for many kinds of networks, including the telephone network, electronic data networks , and transportation networks...
machines.
The Excellon driller was designed specifically for the purpose of drilling holes in printed circuit boards. The holes in early, single- and double-sided PCBs were used to allow the insertion of the wire leads on electronic components. Following the invention of multilayer printed circuit boards, the holes were used both for the insertion and connection of wire component leads, and for interconnecting the circuit traces between the multiple copper layers of the boards.
Holes created for the sole purpose of interconnecting traces on different layers of a multilayer circuit board are called
via holes. Since about 1999, most of the holes drilled into circuit boards are via holes, and the components are built without wire leads, but solderable pads instead. These components are called surface-mount components.
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