Lets say for example, if I were to produce 500 Arduino based circuit boards and were going to have them fabricated and assembled by a fab house, do they usually offer a service to bootload the boards or upload code to them before sending them to me?
If so, what is the process called?
Yes, this service is available.
It wouldn't be done by the PCB fabricator. They just etch pretty patterns in the copper and laminate up the fiberglass sheets (and drill holes, coat with solder mask, and apply surface finish).
Your assembly shop might have the ability to do it.
If not, there are other companies who specialize in this work. Normally they'll program the chips (EEPROMS or microcontrollers or CPLDs or whatever) before they're assembled onto the boards.
Depending on the part being programmed, and the volume required, the chip vendor (or a distributor) might also be able to provide the chips pre-programmed.
If your assembly shop doesn't do the process in-house they may be able to sub-contract it to a specialist shop.
In my experience, the process is called "firmware loading" or "EEPROM programming".
We call these pre-programmed parts at work. They are programmed before assembly by the distributor.
Uploading code via a bootloader or programming pod is much more labor intensive. 500 isn't a lot of units. You're probably better off doing it yourself or hiring an eager young person at those quantities.
Yield will depend on the assembly house. Its reasonable to expect at least 95% (perhaps much higher) as long as the design isn't more demanding than your vendor can handle.
