Category sourcing
Sourcing PCB assembly from Taiwan
Almost every electronic part of a drone is a populated board — flight controller, ESCs, power distribution, radio, payload interface. Board fabrication and assembly is the part of the drone supply chain Taiwan is least contestably good at. If you need a board out of a covered country without giving up quality, that makes it a short move rather than a rebuild.
Tell us what you are looking for and we will identify Taiwan-based manufacturers whose capabilities match and introduce you directly.
No charge to submit. Your details are only shared with verified manufacturers for matching and introduction, and we will sign an NDA on request.
The quote is easy to get and hard to compare
PCBA looks like the most commoditized thing you will buy. Send Gerbers, a BOM, and a pick-and-place file, and quotes come back within days. The difficulty is that those quotes are frequently not for the same thing, and the differences are invisible until the boards arrive.
The first divergence is where the components come from. On a turnkey quote the manufacturer is buying your BOM, and the price depends heavily on whether they are sourcing from franchised distributors or the open market. Open-market brokers are how programs get parts during a shortage, and they are also how counterfeit and re-marked components enter a build. For flight-critical electronics that is not a theoretical risk. Ask which channel each line comes from and what happens when a part is unavailable.
The second is workmanship class. IPC-A-610 defines three: Class 1 for general electronic products, Class 2 for dedicated service — the commercial and industrial default, and what an unspecified quote assumes — and Class 3 for high-performance assemblies that must function on demand, where downtime is not tolerable or the environment is harsh. Class 3 costs more because it means tighter acceptance criteria for solder joints, placement and cleanliness, plus more inspection and rework. A flight controller in a certified or defense program usually wants Class 3; a ground-side accessory usually does not. Quoting one against the other is the most common apples-to-oranges comparison in this category.
Both of the problems above have a standard attached, and naming it is more effective than describing it. IPC-A-610 is an acceptance standard, which is to say it governs what a finished board must look like. J-STD-001 is the matching process standard and governs how it is soldered, including materials, handling and operator qualification, so asking for one without the other leaves the half you care about unstated. For the counterfeit question, AS6081 covers distributor practice for avoiding suspect parts and AS5553 covers the same problem at the system level. AS9100 is the aerospace quality-management standard a manufacturer either holds or does not. Asking which of these a shop works to is a faster read on it than any amount of discussion about quality.
The third is test, which is where much of the real cost difference hides. AOI catches placement and solder defects, X-ray is needed for BGAs and anything else you cannot see, ICT catches shorts and wrong values, and functional test proves the board does its job. A quote with no functional test is cheaper and tells you nothing about whether the board works. Decide what a passing unit means, and whether the manufacturer is developing that fixture or you are supplying it.
Finally, volume changes who you should be talking to. A prototype run and a full production run are different lines, different purchasing weight, and often different companies. A UAV program can need both in fairly quick succession. Worth saying explicitly which stage you are at, and what the next one looks like if you know.
What to specify when you send us a request
- Quantity, and over what period — prototype, pilot, and annual production if they differ. Say whether it arrives as one build or recurring batches; cadence affects price as much as the total.
- Board count per assembly — if you are building aircraft, how many distinct boards each one carries and how many of each. This is what turns an aircraft quantity into a board quantity, and the two are very different numbers.
- Turnkey or consigned — whether the manufacturer procures the BOM or you supply it, and whether you have an approved vendor list that must be honored without substitution.
- Board specification — layer count, material, finished thickness, surface finish, controlled impedance if required, and dimensions. Include whether you need the bare board fabricated too or only assembled.
- Assembly complexity — single or double-sided, SMT and through-hole mix, and any fine-pitch, BGA, or QFN parts that force X-ray inspection.
- IPC-A-610 class — Class 2 or Class 3. If you do not state it, assume you are being quoted Class 2. Say whether you also need J-STD-001 on the process side, and whether AS9100 or counterfeit-avoidance practice to AS6081/AS5553 is a requirement.
- Non-recurring cost — stencils, fixtures, programming setup and first-article inspection are usually quoted separately from the per-board price, and they are the first surprise on a prototype quote. Ask for them itemized, and ask what carries over to production.
- Test requirements — AOI, X-ray, ICT, flying probe, functional test. Say whether a test fixture and procedure exist or need developing, and what data must be retained per board.
- Conformal coating and protection — coating type and masked areas, potting, or shielding. UAV boards frequently need this and it is often forgotten until after the first quote.
- Firmware — whether programming happens at the factory, who supplies the image, and who holds the signing keys.
- Documentation package — Gerbers, BOM with manufacturer part numbers, pick-and-place, assembly drawings, and test procedure. Say honestly what is missing; hidden gaps are what slip schedules.
- Traceability and origin constraints — serialization, component lot traceability, and any restriction on component origin. See below.
Where PCB assembly sits on compliance
This is where component origin rules are decided in practice, whatever the aircraft-level paperwork says. NDAA §848 names flight controllers, radios and data-transmission devices, cameras and gimbals, ground control systems, and operating software. A flight controller is a populated board — so on a turnkey build, whether your aircraft complies is substantially a question of what the manufacturer's purchasing department bought.
Federal buyers increasingly cite the American Security Drone Act of 2023 alongside it. That one works at the aircraft level rather than by naming parts: it bars federal procurement and operation of UAS made or assembled by covered foreign entities, as listed by the Federal Acquisition Security Council on SAM.gov. It does not replace the board-level question, it sits on top of it. An aircraft can be built by a permitted entity and still carry a bill of materials your customer will not accept.
The useful question is therefore not where the board was assembled, but whether the process can enforce your rules and prove it did. Ask for an approved vendor list the manufacturer will honor, a change-control process that forbids silent substitution, and per-unit traceability records you can hand to your own customer. Ask specifically what happens when a part goes on allocation. That is the moment the rules are actually tested.
Programs under the Drone Dominance Program (DDP), and European buyers working to a prime's supplier standard, generally require this rather than a country-of-assembly statement. The DDP is a procurement program for small lethal sUAS rather than a certification, but its Supply Chain Framework is explicit about the mechanism: from Phase 2 minimum it requires electronic parts bought from original component manufacturers or their authorized distributors, which is a franchised-channel rule stated as a sourcing requirement. Specify it before the first build. Retrofitting traceability onto boards already assembled is expensive and sometimes impossible.
One further point: if firmware is loaded during assembly, decide up front who supplies the image and who holds the signing keys. That is a security question as much as a compliance one, and it is far easier to settle before a production run than after.
There is a question that runs the other way, and it catches people out. Sending a package overseas so it can be quoted is itself a transfer of technical data. Gerbers, a full bill of materials, assembly drawings, test procedures, and firmware for a flight controller can carry export-control obligations under the EAR, and under ITAR if the design is a defense article. Releasing that data to a foreign person can constitute an export whether or not a board is ever built. This is your obligation as the exporter of the data, not the assembler's, and it applies at the quoting stage rather than at shipment.
We are not export-control counsel and an introduction is not a licensing determination. But it is worth knowing the classification of your package before you circulate it, because the answer can change who you can talk to. If your program is subject to ITAR, say so in your request and we will handle the introduction accordingly.
Compliance summary last checked against the sources linked above on . These rules carry effective dates and change — confirm the current text before you rely on it.
What happens after you submit
We review every sourcing request personally and screen it against the U.S., EU, UN, UK, Japanese, and Australian restricted-party lists we subscribe to before we contact anyone. Requests that clear are matched to manufacturers whose capabilities fit, and we make a direct introduction — from that point the conversation is between you and the manufacturer. We hold no inventory, we do not buy or resell, and we do not handle payment or logistics. An introduction is a qualified starting point for your own diligence, not a compliance determination.
What you send stays with us. We do not publish sourcing requests, sell them on, or pass your details to anyone you have not been introduced to. When we approach a manufacturer we share only enough for them to judge whether the work is a fit, which in practice can include target pricing and volumes, and we can describe your requirement without naming your program or your customer. Anything more detailed than that is a conversation between you and them, directly, once the introduction is made. If you would rather have a non-disclosure agreement in place first, ask and we will sign one.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need IPC Class 3?
If the board flies and its failure brings the aircraft down, usually yes — flight controllers, ESCs, and power boards in certified or defense programs are typically Class 3. Ground-side accessories and non-flight-critical electronics are usually fine at Class 2. It matters because Class 2 is what an unspecified quote assumes, so two quotes can differ substantially for reasons that never appear on either.
Can Taiwan handle a large board run?
Volume electronics assembly is what Taiwan's manufacturing base is best known for, so this is usually the easier half of a UAV sourcing conversation rather than the harder one. The thing worth getting right is which number you are quoting: because each aircraft carries several boards, plus spares and yield, the board count can be far larger than the aircraft count. Quote the board number, and tell us the aircraft number separately.
How do I know the components are genuine?
Ask which channel each BOM line is sourced from. Franchised distributors carry the manufacturer's own guarantee; open-market brokers are how programs survive shortages and also how counterfeit and re-marked parts enter a build. Neither is automatically wrong, but you should know which you are getting, what incoming inspection is performed on open-market parts, and what traceability documentation comes back with the boards.
Do you charge buyers to submit a sourcing request?
No. Submitting a request and receiving an introduction is free for buyers — we do not invoice buyers for sourcing.
What information is screened?
The name, company, and contact details on the request, together with the deployment destination and end-user type you give us. Those run through restricted-party, sanctions, and jurisdiction checks before we approach any manufacturer. Your technical requirement is not screened — it is only ever shown to manufacturers we introduce you to.
Do you handle the transaction?
No. We make a direct introduction; the commercial relationship, contract and payment are directly between you and the manufacturer. We do not handle the transaction, the money, or the logistics.