Printed circuit boards are used in all but the simplest electronic products.

Alternatives to PCBs include wire wrap and point-to-point construction. PCBs require the
additional design effort to lay out the circuit but manufacturing and assembly can be automated.
Manufacturing circuits with PCBs is cheaper and faster than with other wiring methods as
components are mounted and wired with one single part. Furthermore, operator wiring errors are
eliminated.
A printed circuit board (PCB) mechanically supports and electrically
connects electronic components using conductive tracks, pads and other feature sketched from
copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. PCBs can be single sided (one copper
layer), double sided (two copper layers) or multi-layer. Conductors on different layers are
connected with plated-through holes called vias. Advanced PCBs may contain components capacitors, resistors or active devices - embedded in the substrate.
PCB layout can be performed manually (using CAD) or in combination with an
Autorouter. The best results are usually still atleast some manual routing- simply because the
designing engineer has for judgement how to now circuitry. Surprisingly, many autorouted
boards are often completely illogical in their track routing the program has optimized the
connections, and sacrificed any small amount of order that may have been put in place by
manual routing. Generally autorouted boards are somewhat harder for a technician to repair or
debug, for this reason. Historically, PCBs used to be laid out by drawing or using stick on paper
shapes on mylar film, - that really WAS manual routing!
These days most circuit boards are automatically assembled and tested but people still
install and repair them. Having a quality design can make all the difference between a product
that is pleasant to work on and one had they will hate. Machine test points, for ATE (Automated
Test Equipment) bed o nails testing, only need to be plain pads or lands. Some test points,
however, are really intended to be for engineering test or modification for these we put in
labeled, circled pads.

Most of our Etched PCB laminates are:

Double sided Laminate
Two layers of copper tracks, one each side of the board in progressively smaller
Quantities 4 Layer, 6 Layer, 8 Layer.

Plated Through Hole

PTH each hole is copper plated providing a circuit between sides of the PCB.
Normally we also Tent the vias cover them with solder mask.
Fibre glass resin laminate (FR4)

Solder Mask Over Bare Copper

SMOBC green insulating ink everywhere except connections
Component legend
Identifying lettering, component outlines and values in white ink
Immersion Silver for ROHS complaint work

 Tinned For non ROHS work

Timing is application of Lead-Tim Solder to all exposed copper, increasing solderability.

Hot oil leveled

Hot oil or hot air leveling makes the tinning flat, so that surface mount components
can be positioned reliably.

Different methods of PCB construction:

Conventional
A rigid PCB (usually of thickness 1.6mm), with wire-leaded components mounted on
only one side of the PCB, with all the leads through holes, soldered and clipped. Conventional
circuitry is generally easier to debug and repair than Surface mount.

Surface Mount Technology (SMT) or devices (SMD)

A PCB with tag-leaded components soldered flush or PCB pads. Holes are still needed
on the PCB, but not where the component leads are attached. Surface mount circuitry is
generally smaller than conventional. Surface mount is generally more suited to automated
assembly than conventional.

Surface mount & conventional mix

In practice, most boards are a mix of surface mount and conventional components. This
can have its disadvantage as the two technologies require different methods of insertion and
soldering.

Double sided Laminate

A bare PCB laminate having tracks on both sides, normally with PTH holes connecting
circuitry on the two sides together.

Double sided Component Assembly

Mounting components on both sides of the PCB. Normally only surface mounts circuitry
would be mounted on both sides of a PCB, but some conventional components (such as LEDs)
may be mounted on the reverse of a PCB to suit the enclosure design.

Multi-layer
A PCB Laminate may be manufactured with more than two layers of copper tracks by
using a sandwich construction. The cost of the laminate reflects the number of layers. The extra
layers may be used to route more complicated circuitry, and/or distribute the power supply more
effectively.

Gold Plated
Certain areas on a PCB may be gold plated for use as contact pads or as a ROHScomplaint board finish. Normally only a thin gold plating is required, and this can be achieved

with electroless gold. If a thicker gold plating is required (for instance a quality 50m contact)
an electrolytic process is needed. Normally this is limited to pads on the edge of a PCB, as an
electrolytic plating bar must be attached to the pads, and then removed part way through the PCB
manufacturing process. Gold plating normally needs a nickel under plate or the Gold quickly
disappears through migration effects into the underlying copper.

ROHS Compliance
Simple definition: Getting rid of the Lead in PCBs and components which poisons
groundwater when it leaches out of discarded boards put in landfill waste dumps. Actually, lead
is not only substance covered, but it is the main one. Frankly it would also help if people
stopped throwing away so much electronics, and that would be helped if boards were made to
last.

Flexible PCB
A technique used extensively with membrane keyboards, combination connector/circuit
boards, and circuit boards to fit in awkward shapes e.g. cameras.

Chip On Board (COB)

Where the IC die is attached direct to a PCB, and bond out wires from the IC connect
directly to PCB lands. The chip is then covered with a black blob of epoxy. A technique used
mostly with very high volume, cost sensitive applications, e.g. musical greeting cards.

Phenolic PCB
As distinct from Fiberglass, Phenolic is a cheaper PCB laminate material.

Daughterboard
A circuit board mounted to another circuit board such as a plug in card.

PCB CAM
Manufacturing starts from the PCB fabrication data generated by CAD. The Gerber or Excellon
files in the fabrication data are never used directly on the manufacturing equipment but always
read into the CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) software. CAM performs the following
functions:
1. Input of the Gerber data
2. Verification of the data; optionally DFM
3. Compensation for deviations in the manufacturing processes (e.g. scaling to compensate
for distortions during lamination)
4. Panelization
5. Output of the digital tools (copper patterns, solder resist image, legend image, drill
files, automated optical inspection data, electrical test files, etc.,)

Circuit properties of the PCB

Each trace consists of a flat, narrow part of the copper foil that remains after etching. The
resistance, determined by width and thickness, of the traces must be sufficiently low for the
current the conductor will carry. Power and ground traces may need to be wider than signal
traces. In a multi-layer board one entire layer may be mostly solid copper to act as a ground
plane for shielding and power return. For microwave circuits, transmission lines can be laid out
in the form of strip line and micro strip with carefully controlled dimensions to assure
consistent impedance. In radio-frequency and fast switching circuits
the inductance and capacitance of the printed circuit board conductors become significant circuit
elements, usually undesired; but they can be used as a deliberate part of the circuit design,
obviating the need for additional discrete components.

PCB characteristics
Much of the electronics industry's PCB design, assembly, and quality control follows standards
published by the IPC organization.

Through-hole technology

Through-hole (leaded) resistors

The first PCBs used through-hole technology, mounting electronic components by leads inserted
through holes on one side of the board and soldered onto copper traces on the other side. Boards
may be single-sided, with an unplated component side, or more compact double-sided boards,
with components soldered on both sides. Horizontal installation of through-hole parts with two
axial leads (such as resistors, capacitors, and diodes) is done by bending the leads 90 degrees in
the same direction, inserting the part in the board (often bending leads located on the back of the
board in opposite directions to improve the part's mechanical strength), soldering the leads, and
trimming off the ends. Leads may be soldered either manually or by a wave soldering machine.
Through-hole PCB technology almost completely replaced earlier electronics assembly
techniques such as point-to-point construction. From the second in the 1950s until surfacemount technology became popular in the late 1980s, every component on a typical PCB was a
through-hole component.
Through-hole manufacture adds to board cost by requiring many holes to be drilled accurately,
and limits the available routing area for signal trace son layers immediately below the top layer
on multilayer boards since the holes must pass through all layers to the opposite side. Once
surface-mounting came into use, small-sized SMD components were used where possible, with
through-hole mounting only of components unsuitably large for surface-mounting due to power
requirements or mechanical limitations, or subject to mechanical stress which might damage the
PCB.

Through-hole devices mounted on the circuit board of a mid-1980s home computer

A box of drill bits used for making holes in printed circuit boards. While tungsten-carbide bits
are very hard, they eventually wear out or break. Making holes is a considerable part of the cost
of a through-hole printed circuit board.

Surface-mount technology
Main article: Surface-mount technology

Surface mount components, including resistors, transistors and an integrated circuit

Surface-mount technology emerged in the 1960s, gained momentum in the early 1980s and
became widely used by the mid-1990s. Components were mechanically redesigned to have small
metal tabs or end caps that could be soldered directly onto the PCB surface, instead of wire leads
to pass through holes. Components became much smaller and component placement on both
sides of the board became more common than with through-hole mounting, allowing much
smaller PCB assemblies with much higher circuit densities. Surface mounting lends itself well to
a high degree of automation, reducing labor costs and greatly increasing production rates.
Components can be supplied mounted on carrier tapes. Surface mount components can be about
one-quarter to one-tenth of the size and weight of through-hole components, and passive
components much cheaper; prices of semiconductor surface mount devices (SMDs) are
determined more by the chip itself than the package, with little price advantage over larger
packages. Some wire-ended components, such as 1N4148 small-signal switch diodes, are
actually significantly cheaper than SMD equivalents.

Materials
Excluding exotic products using special materials or processes all printed circuit boards
manufactured today can be built using the following four materials:
1. Laminates
2. Copper-clad laminates
3. Resin impregnated B-stage cloth (Pre-preg)
4. Copper foil

Laminates
Laminates are manufactured by curing under pressure and temperature layers of cloth or paper
with thermoset resin to form an integral final piece of uniform thickness. The size can be up to 4
by 8 feet (1.2 by 2.4 m) in width and length. Varying cloth weaves (threads per inch or cm), cloth
thickness, and resin percentage are used to achieve the desired final thickness and
dielectric characteristics. Available standard laminate thickness is listed in Table 1:

Table
Standard laminate thickness per ANSI/IPC-D-275
IPC Laminate
Number

Thickness Thickness
in inches in millimeters

IPC Laminate
Number

Thickness Thickness
in inches in millimeters

L1

0.002

0.05

L9

0.028

0.70

L2

0.004

0.10

L10

0.035

0.90

L3

0.006

0.15

L11

0.043

1.10

L4

0.008

0.20

L12

0.055

1.40

L5

0.010

0.25

L13

0.059

1.50

L6

0.012

0.30

L14

0.075

1.90

L7

0.016

0.40

L15

0.090

2.30

L8

0.020

0.50

L16

0.122

3.10

The cloth or fiber material used, resin material, and the cloth to resin ratio determine the
laminate's type designation (FR-4, CEM-1, G-10, etc.) and therefore the characteristics of the
laminate produced. Important characteristics are the level to which the laminate is fire retardant,
the dielectric constant (er), the loss factor (t), the tensile strength, the shear strength, the glass
transition temperature (Tg), and the Z-axis expansion coefficient (how much the thickness
changes with temperature).
There are quite a few different dielectrics that can be chosen to provide different insulating
values depending on the requirements of the circuit. Some of these dielectrics
arepolytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon), FR-4, FR-1, CEM-1 or CEM-3. Well known prepared
materials used in the PCB industry are FR-2 (phenolic cotton paper), FR-3 (cotton paper and
epoxy),FR-4 (woven glass and epoxy), FR-5 (woven glass and epoxy), FR-6 (matte glass and
polyester), G-10 (woven glass and epoxy), CEM-1 (cotton paper and epoxy), CEM-2 (cotton
paper and epoxy), CEM-3 (non-woven glass and epoxy), CEM-4 (woven glass and epoxy),
CEM-5 (woven glass and polyester). Thermal expansion is an important consideration especially
with ball grid array (BGA) and naked die technologies, and glass fiber offers the best
dimensional stability.
FR-4 is by far the most common material used today. The board with copper on it is called
"copper-clad laminate".

Copper thickness
Copper thickness of PCBs can be specified as units of length (in micrometers or mils) but is
often specified as weight of copper per area (in ounce per square foot) which is easier to
measure. One ounce per square foot is 1.344 mils or 34 micrometres thickness.
The printed circuit board industry defines heavy copper as layers exceeding 3 ounces of copper,
or approximately 0.0042 inches (4.2 mils, 105 m) thick. PCB designers and fabricators often
use heavy copper when design and manufacturing circuit boards in order to increase currentcarrying capacity as well as resistance to thermal strains. Heavy copper plated vias transfer heat
to external heat sinks. IPC 2152 is a standard for determining current-carrying capacity of
printed circuit board traces.

Safety certification (US)

Safety Standard UL 796 covers component safety requirements for printed wiring boards for use
as components in devices or appliances. Testing analyzes characteristics such as flammability,
maximum operating temperature, electrical tracking, heat deflection, and direct support of live
electrical parts.