What is printed circuit board

Altium Designer on Altium delivers an unprecedented amount of integration to the electronics industry until now relegated to the world of software development, allowing designers to work from home and reach unprecedented levels of efficiency. We have only scratched the surface of what is possible to do with Altium Designer on Altium Zachariah Peterson has an extensive technical background in academia and industry. He currently provides research, design, and marketing services to companies in the electronics industry.

Prior to working in the PCB industry, he taught at Portland State University and conducted research on random laser theory, materials, and stability. His background in scientific research spans topics in nanoparticle lasers, electronic and optoelectronic semiconductor devices, environmental sensors, and stochastics.

Mobile menu. Explore Products. Altium Community. About Author Zachariah Peterson has an extensive technical background in academia and industry. More content by Zachariah Peterson. Recent Articles. Should You Use Tight vs. Loose Differential Pair Spacing and Coupling? We get a lot of questions about trace impedance and how to calculate the right trace size to hit a specific impedance in a manufacturable PCB. Just as important as determining an appropriate trace width for a single-ended trace is determination of an appropriate spacing between two traces in a differential pair.

Watch and learn what he will have in store for us. Read Article. Overview of Electrical Stress Test Methods for PCBAs Electrical stress test requirements should be considered as you begin to make a transition to high volume production.

Mark Harris shares his knowledge to streamline processes and maximize efficiencies during product development and production. Our broad selection of PCB designs, enables us to serve a wide range of industries around the world, including military, medical, aerospace, computer, telecommunications, and instrumentation. Here we provide a comprehensive overview of printed circuit boards to provide relevant background information for what we do.

Compared to traditional wired circuits, PCBs offer a number of advantages. Their small and lightweight design is appropriate for use in many modern devices, while their reliability and ease of maintenance suit them for integration in complex systems.

Additionally, their low cost of production makes them a highly cost-effective option. These qualities are some of the reasons PCBs find application across industries, including within the following markets:.

Medical electronics have significantly benefited from the introduction of PCBs. The thinner and smaller size of flexible and rigid flex PCBs allows for the manufacture of more compact and lightweight medical devices, such as hearing aids, pacemakers, implantable devices, and truly tiny cameras for minimally invasive procedures. Rigid-flex PCBs are a particularly ideal solution when looking to decrease the size of complex medical devices, as they eliminate the need for the flex cables and connectors that take up valuable space in more intricate systems.

Rigid, flexible and rigid flex PCBs are commonly employed in the aerospace industry for instrument panels, dashboards, flight controls, flight management and safety systems.

The growing number of advances in aerospace technology have increased the need for smaller, more complex PCBs for use in aircraft, satellites, drones, and other aerospace electronics. Flexible and rigid flex circuits offer exceptional durability and mission survivability due to the elimination of connectors. This makes them suitable for use in high-vibration applications, while their small and lightweight design reduces the overall equipment weight and, consequently, fuel consumption requirements.

For applications where dependability is paramount, they serve as a highly reliable solution. As military technology advances to meet changing customer demand, more equipment integrates advanced computerized technology, requiring both the electrical and mechanical performance that is inherent in flex and rigid flex packaging.

These types of electronic packaging can withstand thousands of pounds of g-force without failure. The use of PCBs in industrial and commercial electronics has revolutionized everything from manufacturing to Supply Chain management — increasing information, automation and efficiency.

In general, they are a reliable means of directing equipment in increasingly automated facilities, enhancing production while decreasing labor costs. Nearly all PCBs are custom designed for their application. The designer uses this software to place all of the circuits and connection points, called vias, throughout the entire board. The software knows how each of the components need to interact with each other, and any specific requirements as well — such as how they need to be soldered to the PCB.

When the designer is done, the software exports two critical components, with which we will build their boards. Mountain Time:. One of the key concepts in electronics is the printed circuit board or PCB. It's so fundamental that people often forget to explain what a PCB is. Over the next few pages, we'll discuss the composition of a printed circuit board, cover some terminology, a look at methods of assembly, and discuss briefly the design process behind creating a new PCB.

You can view the translation here. Printed circuit board is the most common name but may also be called "printed wiring boards" or "printed wiring cards". Before the advent of the PCB circuits were constructed through a laborious process of point-to-point wiring.

This led to frequent failures at wire junctions and short circuits when wire insulation began to age and crack. A significant advance was the development of wire wrapping , where a small gauge wire is literally wrapped around a post at each connection point, creating a gas-tight connection which is highly durable and easily changeable.

As electronics moved from vacuum tubes and relays to silicon and integrated circuits, the size and cost of electronic components began to decrease.

Electronics became more prevalent in consumer goods, and the pressure to reduce the size and manufacturing costs of electronic products drove manufacturers to look for better solutions. Thus was born the PCB. PCB is an acronym for printed circuit board.

It is a board that has lines and pads that connect various points together. In the picture above, there are traces that electrically connect the various connectors and components to each other. A PCB allows signals and power to be routed between physical devices. Solder is the metal that makes the electrical connections between the surface of the PCB and the electronic components.

Being metal, solder also serves as a strong mechanical adhesive. A PCB is sort of like a layer cake or lasagna- there are alternating layers of different materials which are laminated together with heat and adhesive such that the result is a single object.

The base material, or substrate, is usually fiberglass. Historically, the most common designator for this fiberglass is "FR4". This solid core gives the PCB its rigidity and thickness.

There are also flexible PCBs built on flexible high-temperature plastic Kapton or the equivalent. Cheaper PCBs and perf boards shown above will be made with other materials such as epoxies or phenolics which lack the durability of FR4 but are much less expensive. You will know you are working with this type of PCB when you solder to it - they have a very distictive bad smell. These types of substrates are also typically found in low-end consumer electronics.

Phenolics have a low thermal decomposition temperature which causes them to delaminate, smoke and char when the soldering iron is held too long on the board.

The rest, as they say, is history. They have interconnecting layers that allow the overall size to be reduced — think of mobile phones in the 80s versus the smart phones of today.

Each Gerber file represents a component necessary for PCB Manufacture including the copper layers, soldermask and silkscreen data, the PCB outline and the solder paste data for producing a laser stencil for assembly. This is generally bought pre-prepared from suppliers. The FR4 material is fibreglass and gives the board its rigidity. To create multilayered PCBs combinations of the pre-made material are pressed together with other layers or non-copper clad FR4 Prepreg used to isolate the copper layers from each other.

This is the drill file containing the information used to drill the necessary holes. At this point there is no electrical connection between the layers. The hole walls need to layered with copper. As the walls are non-conductive, a layer of copper is deposited chemically over the hole walls.

This process, known as electroplating, is repeated until the copper thickness reached is optimum for connectivity, typically 25um. The board is covered with photo-resist. This is a soft, photo-sensitive material.

The copper film is placed over the board, aligned with the drills and the board is exposed to UV light.