# InstaPCB vs JLCPCB

Side-by-side capability comparison for Adom's in-house **InstaPCB** fab + assembly line vs **JLCPCB**, the high-volume Chinese prototype house most engineers benchmark against.

InstaPCB is Adom's UV-fiber-laser fab + stencil-free solder-jet assembly line in Fort Worth, TX. Drone-delivered components from Mouser DFW (~40 min) keep the line stocked. Boards land in your cloud workcell within 4 hours of submitting gerbers.

The interactive comparison tab below covers every spec a customer or DFM tool needs at quote time — turnaround, MOQ, mechanical envelope, conductor specs, drilled features, solder mask + silkscreen, surface finish, stackup + impedance, and assembly DFM.

## Where InstaPCB wins

- **Turnaround** — 4 hours fab + assembly vs JLCPCB's 3-5 day standard / 24-48 h express
- **MOQ** — 1 board vs JLCPCB's 5-board minimum
- **Min trace width** — 0.08 mm (3 mil) vs JLCPCB's 0.127 mm (5 mil) on 2-layer
- **Min annular ring** — 0.125 mm vs JLCPCB's 0.15 mm
- **Min via drill** — 0.20 mm on every layer count vs JLCPCB's 0.30 mm on 2L
- **Trace-to-edge clearance** — 0.05 mm vs JLCPCB's 0.30 mm (laser depanel is glass-clean)
- **Min silkscreen text** — 0.10 mm vs JLCPCB's 1.0 mm (laser etch resolves much finer than printed silk)
- **Selective V-scoring** — Adom-invented: any 2D curve with designer-placed trace bridges, replaces mousebites entirely
- **Edge plating** — free side-effect of the laser-cut + electroplate sequence; no add-on fee
- **Native single-board ordering** — depanel laser cuts the final outline as the last process step
- **In-line per-net electrical test** — every net probed before mask + silk

## Where JLCPCB wins

- **Layer count** — 1-20 (32 advanced) vs InstaPCB's 1, 2, 4, 6
- **Board thickness flexibility** — 0.4 / 0.6 / 0.8 / 1.0 / 1.2 / 1.6 / 2.0 / 3.2 mm vs InstaPCB's 1.6 mm only
- **Solder mask color** — 7 colors vs InstaPCB's green only
- **Surface finish options** — HASL / ENIG / OSP / immersion silver / tin vs InstaPCB's bare-Cu / as-plated
- **Copper weight options** — 0.5 / 1 / 2 / 3 oz vs InstaPCB's 0.5 oz
- **Impedance control** — ±10% controlled-impedance certification (microstrip / coplanar / diff-pair) vs not offered on InstaPCB today
- **Max aspect ratio** — 10:1 vs InstaPCB's 8:1
- **Max board size** — 400 × 500 mm vs InstaPCB's 304.8 × 381 mm (12" × 15")

## Open the interactive comparison

Click the **InstaPCB vs JLCPCB** sample tab below to view the full matrix. The table has a sticky header so the column titles stay visible while scrolling, and every cell is color-coded:

- **Teal** — InstaPCB advantage
- **Yellow** — tie / parity
- **Red** — JLCPCB advantage
- **Dashed underline** — value derived from process physics (replaceable with an authoritative number once published)

## Sources

JLCPCB capability values cross-referenced against [jlcpcb.com/capabilities/pcb-capabilities](https://jlcpcb.com/capabilities/pcb-capabilities), [jlcpcb.com/pcb-fabrication/fr4-pcb](https://jlcpcb.com/pcb-fabrication/fr4-pcb), and [Schemalyzer's late-2025 JLCPCB design rules guide](https://www.schemalyzer.com/en/blog/manufacturing/jlcpcb/jlcpcb-design-rules). InstaPCB values are pulled from the canonical `gallia/skills/instapcb/SKILL.md` skill.

## See also

- The full **instapcb** skill — DFM rules + design-rule defaults read by `aci-drc`, chipsmith, and the InstaPCB quote form
- The **aci-instapcb-process** skill — the 26-step manufacturing build animation
- The **solder-jetting** skill — Adom's stencil-free 300 µm dome dispense rules