Inline system for collecting stage-by-stage manufacturing metrics

1. A system for collecting stage by stage manufacturing metrics for a circuit board during a manufacturing process, comprising:

the circuit board having a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag with an identifier;

one or more RFID readers positioned at one or more stages of the manufacturing process and configured to read identifiers from RFID tags as they come within reach of its radio signal; and

one or more data collectors coupled to the one or more RFID readers to store the identifiers read from RFID tags along with stage-by-stage manufacturing information for each stage of the manufacturing process.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the circuit board includes an automated optical inspection hole on which the RFID tag is placed.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the automated optical inspection hole is used for positioning and orientation of the circuit board, and as a receptacle for the RFID tag.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

an RFID writer to obtain an identifier for the circuit board and write it to the RFID tag.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a barcode writer for writing a barcode on the circuit board corresponding to the identifier stored in the RFID tag.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a database to store the identifiers and stage-by-stage manufacturing information collected by the one or more data collectors.

7. The system of claim 6 further comprising:

a reporting server coupled to the database and configured to receive requests for manufacturing information about a particular circuit board;

retrieve the requested information from the database; and

send the requested information to the requesting party.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the requested information includes operating conditions for the manufacturing stages of the circuit board.

9. A method for tracking a circuit board through its manufacturing stages, comprising:

coupling a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag to a substrate including one or more circuit boards;

assigning an identifier to the RFID tag;

scanning the RFID tag for its identifier at various manufacturing stages to track the progress of the one or more circuit boards;

obtaining the operating conditions of the various manufacturing stages; and

storing the identifier and operating conditions for each of the various manufacturing stages of the one or more circuit boards.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

printing a barcode on the one or more circuit boards corresponding to the identifier in the RFID tag.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

retrieving a stage-by-stage manufacturing report based on the barcode on one of the one or more circuit boards.

12. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

generating an alert if an operating condition is outside prescribed limits.

13. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

consolidating stored operating conditions for each of the various manufacturing stages of the circuit board in a database.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the operating conditions for each of the various manufacturing stages includes either a relative or absolute indictor of the effectiveness of the each of the manufacturing stages.

15. The method of claim 9 wherein the RFID tag is coupled to the substrate in an area outside the one or more circuit boards.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

cutting the one or more circuit boards from the substrate.

17. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

obtaining the processing information for each of the various manufacturing stages; and

storing the processing information,

wherein the processing information includes at least one of an operator identifier, a time and date in which the circuit board was processed at a particular manufacturing stage, test results for a manufacturing stage, or a stage identifier.