A method of making a printed circuit board pallet is provided. The method of making the pallet illustratively includes the steps of: providing a base in a form of a polymer sheet stock; applying a fluid onto the base at selective locations where the pallet will be built-up to a three-dimensional form; depositing a polymer powder onto the base at the selective locations applied with the fluid; removing any excess amounts of the polymer powder not adhered to the fluid; and heating the pallet to fuse the polymer powder together and to the base.

One or more masks may be used to control the application of protective (e.g., moisture-resistant, etc.) coatings to one or more portions of various components of an electronic device during assembly of the electronic device. A method for applying a protective coating to an electronic device includes assembling two or more components of the electronic device with one another. A mask may then be applied to the resulting electronic assembly. The mask may shield selected portions of the electronic assembly, while other portions of the electronic assembly, i.e., those to which a protective coating is to be applied, may remain exposed through the mask. With the mask in place, application of a protective coating to portions of the electronic assembly exposed through the mask may commence. After application of the protective coating, the mask may be removed from the electronic assembly. Embodiments of masked electronic assemblies are also disclosed.

Support blocks for printed circuit boards (PCB's) and printed circuit board assemblies (PCBA's), wherein the support blocks are produced from a 3D printing process. The support block including a bottom surface having a vacuum connection; a top surface having at least one vacuum hole; at least one recessed surface that is offset from the top surface; and at least one vacuum channel extending from the vacuum connection to the at least one vacuum hole.

A system for forming a conformal electromagnetic interference shield on at least one singulated electronic package (300), including a tray preparation module that prepares a tray (200) by mounting an electromagnetic interference tape (202) onto a frame (201), with the electromagnetic interference tape (202) covering the entirety of the frame (201), a pick and place module for placing at least one singulated electronic packages (300) onto the tray (200), a jig (100) for supporting the tray (200) having the singulated electronic packages (300), and a sputtering machine that forms a conformal electromagnetic interference shield onto the singulated electronic packages (300) through a sputtering process. The jig (100) includes a body having an arcuate surface (101), wherein the arcuate surface (101) of the jig (100) allows substantially continuous contact between the jig (100) and the electronic package (300).