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An Introduction to Printed Circuit Boards

by John R. Carlsen Syncopated Systems regularly designs and develops products incorporating electronic circuits. In doing so, one of its most fundamental tasks is the physical implementation of those circuits through the design of printed circuit boards and the outsourcing of their fabrication and assembly. Each time it performs these tasks, as summarized in this article, Syncopated demonstrates expertise in the disciplines of computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, component engineering, purchasing and project management. Printed circuit boards create electrical connections between electronic components and sometimes components themselves in the most cost-effective manner for many applications including general-purpose computers and consumer products. By recognizing and understanding applicable rules of physics and available manufacturing processes and costs, skilled printed circuit designers may create circuits that behave as desired at minimal total cost to produce. This article surveys common types of printed circuit boards and the history of their development, as well as basic design processes, considerations and tools needed to create them.

Table of Contents
Printed Circuit Board Defined o Other Printed Circuits Flexible Printed Circuits Integrated Circuits Nomenclature o Mating Relationships Mother and Daughter Boards Back Planes Edge Connectors o Layers Insulators Conductors Solder Masks Component Legends Other Design Layers o Design Physics Conduction Induction Fabrication and Assembly Process History o Single-Sided Etched Copper o Cordwood Circuit Assembly Method o Tin-Lead Reflow o Double-Sided Etched Copper o Proliferation of Solder Masks o Surface-Mounted Technology o Solder Mask Over Bare Copper o Proliferation of Lamination o Reduction of Hazardous Substances

Design Process o Parties o Design Tools Third-Party Layout Tools Fabricator-Supplied Layout Tools o Deliverables Circuit Design Layout Design Industry o Regulatory Agencies o Trade Associations Related Reading

Printed Circuit Board Defined


A printed circuit board, commonly abbreviated p.c.b., consists of at least one rigid planar electrically-insular substrate laminated with at least one electrically-conductive layer (usually metal foil), which is printed with a pattern designed to make specific desired connections between the pins of components mounted or otherwise attached to it.

Other Printed Circuits


Derived from p.c.b. fabrication processes are those used to create flexible printed circuits and semiconductor integrated circuits (commonly called silicon "microchips" or "chips"). Though detailed description of these circuits falls outside the scope of this article, they are summarized below. Flexible Printed Circuits Flexible printed circuits, as the name implies, are similar to printed circuit boards in having one or more conductive metal layers printed on an insular substrate, but the substrate used is a thin sheet of a flexible plastic suchMylar (a brand of biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate, or boPET) polyester film. Because the substrate plastics used often have melting points well below that of the solder used to connect components to rigid printed circuit boards, connections to flexible printed circuits are usually made via crimped contacts and/or friction-locked connectors. Flexible printed circuits are often used in electromechanical devices such as keyboards, disc drives and liquidcrystal displays. Integrated Circuits Integrated circuits (abbreviated i.c.s) are fabricated on a much smaller scale using similar printing techniques. Though they are created using processes very similiar to and ulitmately derived from p.c.b. processes, detailed description of flexible printed circuits and integrated circuits falls outside the scope of this article.

Nomenclature
Despite the industry's history of more than 100 years of electrical engineering and 50 years of printed circuits, there is still little accepted commonality in the names used to describe printed circuits. Some refer to a printed circuit board as a printed wiring board, abbreviated p.w.b.; it is a naive term, implying failure to recognize the electrical properties of the board's substrate and patterns

printed thereupon. As the density of printed circuit board integration increases, the values of these properties become much less negligible, so the term p.w.b. should be deprecated. Some organizations, allegedly including I.B.M., insist upon using the word "card" in place of "board", apparently to help differentiate electrical circuits from lumber. Both words adequately describe the planarity of the substrate, so both are acceptable and may be used interchangeably. However, the word "board" is more commonly used and therefore more commonly understood, so its usage should be preferred.

Mating Relationships
Printed circuit boards that are rigidly mounted together through only connectors (without wire or cable between them) are often described in terms of their mating relationships. Mother and Daughter Boards Mating relationships are sometimes described in terms of mother boards and daughter boards (or daughter cards). Daughter boards are those that are assembled into a system after and directly into (or, ideologically "come out of") their mother boards. A daughter board may have daughter boards of its own; it is then also said to be the mother board of those daughter boards. Daughter boards are often connected to back planes and mechanically supported by guide rails and locking release tabs, though daughter boards in a smaller chassis (such as a personal computer) are usually supported only by a single bracket (often screwed into the chassis) along an edge adjacent to the connection to their mother board. Back Planes A mother board into which many daughter boards are connected in parallel is often referred to as a back plane (sometimes, and somewhat redundantly, referred to as a "planar p.c.b." or just "planar"); back planes often include few if any components other than connectors to their daughter boards. Edge Connectors In connecting daughter boards to mother boards, edge connectors (sometimes "card edge connectors") offer significant cost savings over soldered-in right-angle connectors. Edge connectors include fingers made from patterns extending beyond the fab. line. on the outer copper layers. (Inner copper layers may be used to shield signals between outer layers.) The copper is usually electroplated with a nickel (Ni) barrier layer, then (per
Example of a daughter board mounted to a mother board configured as a back plane

Example of edge connectors

customer specification) approximately 3, 10, or 30 micro-inches (") of gold (Au); the nickel barrier layer prevents atomic migration of the gold into the copper. After plating, edge connectors are typically chamfered at 45 degrees along the fab. line (to ease insertion into the mating connector) and then at 30 degrees along the edges, which helps to prevent the fingers from peeling (delaminating from the edge) when the board is inserted into a mating connector.

Layers
A printed circuit board is constructed through the combination of several planar layers that are themselves formed through additive and subtractive processes. The simplest printed circuit boards are formed by placing a conductive layer on an insulator and removing (via chemical or mechanical means) the conductive material from areas in which it is not desired. Insulators A printed circuit board substrate is an electrical insulator that provides the p.c.b. its rigid planar structure. The materials used for p.c.b. substrates and their flame-retardance ("f.r.") ratings vary, from FR-0 pressed cellulose (paper) to ceramic tile, but FR-4 epoxy fiberglass is most commonly used in the United States. Conductors Each metal layer consists of metal foil (such as copper, Cu) laminated to the substrate which is printed using a photographic process (described in more detail below) with a resistive mask, etched with acid (such as ferric chloride, FeCl3), then the mask and any residual acid are washed off. Connections between multiple metal layers were first made through pins soldered on top and bottom and later through plated-through holes; a connection between metal layers without using the pins of a component are made via a hole called a via (pluralized "vias"). Solder Masks Solder masks are usually green, though they may be any color. Solder masks assist averting solder bridges (which cause undesired short circuits) in the assembly process by block the flow of liquified solder when components are populated onto the printed circuit board. Most modern printed circuit boards include top and bottom solder mask layers, which have been historically silkscreen-printed but are now more commonly printed using liquid photo-imageable (l.p.i.) processes. Component Legends Legend layers, as with solder masks, have been historically silkscreen-printed but are now more commonly printed using l.p.i. processes; they are still often (and usually incorrectly) referred to as "silkscreen" or just "silk" layers. Legend layers are usually the outermost layers printed over the solder mask, if present. Often white, though they may be any color (usually contrasting that of the solder mask and/or substrate onto which it is printed), they identify the intended location and orientation of components to be mounted to the board, and often include other information that may be of service to those assembling, troubleshooting or using the assembly built on the board. Other Design Layers In addition to the patterns used to print each layer, each printed circuit board design usually also includes a mechanical drawing used to specify how the p.c.b. is to be fabricated; this fabrication drawing is often refered to as the fab. drawing. For most modern printed circuit boards, especially those having more than two copper layers, this drawing also includes a cutaway side view

illustration, often referred to as a layer stack up. Though technically not parts of the printed circuit boards themselves, the designs of most modern printed circuit boards also include the pattern for one or two solder paste stencils. Solder paste stencils are thin metal sheets with many small holes used as a mask in the application (with a squeegee) of solder paste prior to the placement of surface-mounted components on the p.c.b. during the assembly process. Most openings in each solder paste stencil are usually of roughly the same shape of and coincident to, but slightly smaller than, each exposed metal pad on the p.c.b. to which a component lead is to be connected; these shapes are said to share a commoncentroid. Because of the similarities in the patterns of stencils and the corresponding solder masks on the p.c.b., stencil designs may sometimes be derived from solder mask layers.

Design Physics
The function of electronic circuits is governed by relatively simple concepts in chemical and electromagnetic physics. Among them, conduction and induction apply most fundamentally to the design of printed circuit boards. Conduction Conduction refers to the flow of electrons through a conductor. For historical reasons, conductivity is expressed as the multiplicative inverse of resistance. The resistance of a planar conductor such as a metal layer of a printed circuit board is expressed in terms of its sheet resistance, which is measured in Ohms per square area of the conductor. Printed circuit board designers create desired conduction paths and avoid creating undesired conduction paths for all signal and power nets. Induction Induction refers to the capacitive coupling of electrical potential between nearby electrodes, which include any material that is capable of conducting electrons, such as metals or semiconductors; on printed circuit boards, all metal areas (including hole plating) are electrodes. Induction may be used for desired effects such as creating capacitance for power supply decoupling between adjacent layers or may cause undesired effects such as increased noise between signal nets, commonly referred to as crosstalk. The degree of induction increases as a square function as proximity between electrodes increases.

Fabrication and Assembly Process History


The first U.S. patent for a printed circuit board (Patent 2,756,485) was issued in July 1956 (for the application filed 1950/08/28) to Moe Abramson and Stanislaus F. Danko (both of New Jersey) and assigned to the United States of America via the the secretary of the U.S. Army.

Single-Sided Etched Copper


The earliest printed circuit boards were those with a single-layer of bare copper laminated to a subtrate. A desired pattern could then be created in the copper using a photographic, photochemical process. As summarized above, this process generally involved: 1. cleaning the copper, 2. coating the copper with photosensitive material, 3. exposing the photosensitive material to light masked with the desired pattern (using either a positive or negative image mask, depending on the type of photosensitive material used), 4. washing away areas of photosensitive material from the areas of undesired copper, 5. etching away with acid the undesired areas of copper, 6. washing off any residual acid and the resistive mask, and 7. drilling holes through which the other circuit components are to be mounted.

Cordwood Circuit Assembly Method


The first two of the orignial patent's six claims essentially refer to a method of "plural deck framing" that has become known as the "cordwood" circuit construction method, which is no longer in common practice. Using this method, axially-leaded components are stacked together like cordwood.

Example of circuit construction using the cordwood method

Tin-Lead Reflow
Bare copper tarnishes when it reacts with oxygen (through a process called oxidization) and with other contaminants, including those usually found on human fingers. This increases the difficulty of soldering components to the copper, so it quickly became popular to wash liquid solder over the copper remaining on etched printed circuit boards. "Tinning" early printed circuit boards may have been done by pushing them over waves of flowing molten tin-lead (Sn-Pb) solder. In more recent years, this was generally done by using streams of very hot air to liquify and push tin-lead solder across the copper through a process called tin-lead reflow, sometimes represented using chemical elemental symbols as "SnPb reflow". In the 1950s and for the next several decades, the process of assembling electronic circuits usually involved inserting the pins Example of printed circuit board or leads of component devices through holes on a printed circuit fabricated using tin-lead reflow process (DEC 1103 c. 1957) board and wave soldering the populated p.c.b. by pushing it over waves of flowing molten tin-lead solder; afterward, any excessive length would be trimmed from the components' leads. Assemblies build on single-layer tin-lead reflow printed circuit boards remained state-of-the-art throughout the 1950s and 1960s. They were used, for example, as processor core modules for the world's first supercomputer, the Control Data Corporation (C.D.C.) 6600 released in 1964; this machine as with most of Mr. Cray's designs used a non-printed back plane consisting of a "rat's nest" of individual wires to minimize and synchronize signals' propagation delay (or latency).

Double-Sided Etched Copper


Circa 1970, printed circuit board fabricators widely became able to print metal patterns on both sides of printed circuit boards aligned to holes connecting the two. These holes were ultimately plated through with metal, though the processes offered by many fabricators were initially much less reliable than they are today. (Allegedly, the United States Federal Aviation Administrationresponded to this problem by requiring all through-holes including all vias in aerospace printed circuit boards to include pins that were soldered to the top and bottom metal layers.) The printed circuit boards Example of printed circuit board with did not yet include solder mask or separate legend layers; screen-printed legend and carrying surfacemounted devices instead, simple legends were sometimes printed in copper along edges to establish a coordinate grid through which components could be referenced. This type of p.c.b. was used, for example, in the first Atari Pong coin-operated video games released in 1972.

Proliferation of Solder Masks


By 1980, solder masks on top and bottom (typically using the same pattern) and a separate legend printed on the component side were commonly added to printed circuit boards. The wave soldering process used during the circuit assembly process allowed solder to wick under the solder-side solder masks; sometimes these amounts were large enough to erode away parts of the solder mask. Around this time, some printed circuit boards were fabricated with edge connectors, which extended to the edge on the p.c.b. wide fingers of copper electroplated with gold (Au) finish over a nickel (Ni) barrier layer. This type of p.c.b. was used, for example, in the Apple IIand Atari 800 home computers released in 1977 and 1982, respectively. With the 1981 release and subsequent proliferation of the I.B.M. PC, the availability of p.c.b. computer-aided design (cad) software also spread.

Surface-Mounted Technology
In the 1980s, surface-mounted technology (s.m.t.) had emerged as a new method for packaging components and assembling circuits.

Solder Mask Over Bare Copper


Circa 1990, the process known as solder mask over bare copper (s.m.o.b.c.) had become popular. As the name implies, through this process solder masks are applied directly over the etched bare copper and the remaining exposed copper would be reflowed with tin-lead solder. Solder masks and component legends, which had historically been silkscreen-printed, became morecommonly printed using liquid photo-imageable (l.p.i.) processes. By this time, surface-mounted technology had become popular and printed circuit boards laminated with more than two metal layers had become cost-effective.

Example of printed circuit board fabricated using solder mask over bare copper process with liquid photo-imageable legend

Examples of this type of p.c.b. include the twolayer Aapps MicroTV released in 1989 and the fourlayer Media Vision Pro AudioSpectrum released in 1991.

Proliferation of Lamination
Into the new millenium, the costs associated with the lamination and alignment of more than two metal layers had decreased to the point that fabricating printed circuit boards with internal metal layers was no longer significantly more expensive than producing those without. However, due to many market factors (including monopolization), the costs of software tools needed to design printed circuit boards with internal metal layers still remains prohibitive for many designers.

Reduction of Hazardous Substances


Use of lead (Pb) in printed circuit boards and other electronic components other than in lead-acid batteries (in which lead may be easily identified, contained and recovered) is being phased out, largely due to the European Union's Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (2002/95/EC, commonly referred to as "reduction of hazardous substances", r.o.h.s. or "RoHS"), which is described in more detail below.

Design Process
Creating a printed circuit board is a process that typically includes many parties. Their responsibilities are fundamentally defined in terms of what each party delivers to another.

Parties
The parties involved in creating a printed circuit board assembly typically include in approximately this order the circuit's: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. system architectural design engineer(s), electrical design engineer(s), layout design engineer(s), photographic mask shop, p.c.b. fabricator, solder paste stencil maker (if surface-mounted compoents are used), component engineer(s), component purchasing agent(s), and assembler.

The electrical designer is the layout designer's client, but the relationships between the other parties generally take either one of two forms. Typically, the layout designer acts as an agent of its client; in this case it is the layout designer's client who issues a purchase order to the fabricator. Less commonly, the layout designer adds value by becoming the client of the fabricator (and sometimes the assembler) and sells finished products to the designer's client. Fabricators increasingly add value by providing photographic mask and solder paste stencil creation services (even if outsourced). Component engineers facilitate design documentation and communication between design engineers and purchasing agents to assure the continued supply of components needed for manufacturing by identifying, verifying, and documenting the potential interchangeability of different components offered by different manufacturers. Assemblers increasingly add value by providing component purchasing services. Those that do are referred to as "turnkey" assemblers or manufacturers; those that do not are referred to as

"consignment" assemblers or manufacturers, for the components consigned to them by their clients.

Design Tools
Creating a printed circuit board generally requires two computer-aided design (cad) software products: one to "capture" (through digitization) its schematic diagram(s) and one to "lay out" its physical design; data files containing the part list and net list are created using the former and used by the latter. In addition, perhaps the most valuable printed circuit board design tool available today especially for lone designers or those within small organizations is the extensive Web-based DigiKey electronic component catalog. This enables some electrical and layout engineers to perform many basic functions usually performed by component engineers within larger organizations, such as identifying components to use in a design, though often with many limitations and/or errors. Third-Party Layout Tools Printed circuit board design software was first created for mainframe computers, but soon spread with the proliferation of personal computers. The early widespread availability of good software tools costing only $500-1000 allowed many to design printed circuit boards. However, today most of the software tools have been monopolized by only a few vendors, artificially increasing p.c.b. development costs through deadweight loss. (wiki:Monopoly)The dominant p.c.b. cad software vendors and products today include: Altium P-CAD and former Protel International p.c.b. layout software products Cadence Allegro p.c.b. layout and former OrCAD Schematic Design Tools (SDT) schematic capture and p.c.b. layout software products Mentor Graphics former ViewLogic Viewdraw schematic capture and former Innoveda PowerPCB and PADS p.c.b. layout software products

Fabricator-Supplied Layout Tools Fortunately for designers of relatively simple printed circuit boards, competitive pressure between p.c.b. fabricators has spawned them to introduce simple schematic capture and p.c.b. layout cad software products. These are made available to designers free of charge, but only allow the design to be fabricated by the supplier of the software product. For some designs and designers, the costs saved in cad software may offer a good trade for the limitations of the crude software tools, which include non-portability of the work invested in each design and lack of automated design rule checks. Fabricators (likely fabricator syndicates) supplying p.c.b. cad software include: ExpressPCB Sunstone Circuits PCBexpress

Note that both of the above fabricate two- and four-layer printed circuit boards with several options. However, the last time I evaluated the software offered by each, I qualified only ExpressPCB, but only for two-layer p.c.b. designs. As I recall, the cad software products I evaluated did not adequately display or allow the designer to edit data for interior layers to be sufficiently useful to create four-layer printed circuit boards. (For more information about the process of qualifying vendors, see the article Operations Management.)

Deliverables
After a circuit's electrical design is complete, the design of its p.c.b.(s) may begin. Circuit Design

At that point, the circuit designer typically delivers to the layout designer: parts list: a list of all components to be used, assigning a unique reference designator and including mechanical descriptions (packages) for each netlist: a list of all connections or "nets" between component pins, usually generated from schematic diagrams via automated processes and checked by the electrical designer(s) definition of mechanical constraints, usually in the form of a mechanical drawing

After the p.c.b. design is complete, the circuit's electrical designer is responsible for checking and accepting the final layout before sending the design to fabrication. Because layout designers often work very closely with p.c.b. fabricators (sometimes tailoring the design and design rule check to a particular fabricator's capabilities), a layout designer will often release the design's deliverables directly to the fabricator. Layout Design Deliverables from the layout designer typically include: data for each layer (see description of layers above), including o photoplot file (Gerber format) o tabular aperture list for the Gerber file (in text or other format) o plot proof, in Adobe Portable Document Format (P.D.F.) (optional but extremely highly recommended) drill data, in Excellon computer numerical control (c.n.c.) format mechanical fabrication ("fab.") drawing including a cutaway view (the layer "stack up") assembly drawing(s) representation (sometimes through formal certification) of the successful completion (usually through automated processes) of: o design rule check (d.r.c.) o netlist (layout-versus-schematic, or l.v.s.) connectivity check

Ultimately, all of the deliverables from the layout designer usually (per contract) become the property of the layout designer's client and are considered "work for hire". Fabrication Fabricators deliver the printed circuit boards themselves, but increasingly also sell solder paste stencils used by assemblers. By convention, non-populated printed circuit boards from the first fabrication lot are usually allocated and kept for reference by the circuit's electrical designer, layout designer and assembler.

Industry Regulatory Agencies


Within the United States, the printed circuits industry per se is the subject of relatively little direct regulation. However, the manufacture, use and sale of its products are often regulated. Manufacturing of electronic circuits is usually governed by the U.S. Congress's Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) and similar state bodies. In addition, the electronics industry has widely accepted movement toward and acceptance of the European Union's Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (2002/95/EC, commonly referred to as "reduction of hazardous substances", r.o.h.s. or

"RoHS"), which restricts the use of lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), hexavalent chromium (Cr6+ or "chromium xxx"), polybrominated biphenyls (p.b.b.) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (p.b.d.e.). (wiki:RoHS) This trend has also introduced the practice of informing consumers of the presence of hazardous substances in products, such as mercury used in the backlights of flat-panel displays. Generally, the sale and use of electronic products are governed by the U.S. Congress's Federal Communications Commission (F.C.C.), usually though its Part 15 and Part 68 rules regarding radiated and conducted electromagnetic emissions, respectively. Circuits that use or produce dangerously high voltages are often required by many governmental agencies to gain approval from the domestic insurance industry's Underwriters Laboratories (U.L.). By convention, "high voltage" circuits are those in which the potential energy present between any two points may be at least 42.5 volts, though regulatory limits and industry convensions often vary from 40 to 45 volts. Some electronic products are subject to further restrictions, depending on the technologies they employ. The federal government may restrict the exportation of certain products (including computer software) that it deems may potentially be used to create weapons of war (as munitions), and these must bear export restriction notices. Devices that use radiation not within the electromagnetic spectrum, such as X-ray equipment and atomic reactors, are usually restricted by the Department of Energy.

Trade Associations
The dominant trade organization for the printed circuits industry is I.P.C.. Founded in 1957 as the Institute for Printed Circuits, it broadened its scope in the 1990s to include more electronics assembly companies, changing its name to the Institute for Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic Circuits; after realizing that few people in the industry could remember the full name and meaning, it changed its name again in 1999 to just I.P.C.. Other major trade organizations closely associated with the design and fabrication of printed circuit boards include: American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Electronic Industries Alliance (E.I.A.) Electronic Industries Alliance of Japan (E.I.A.J.) International Electrotechnical Commission (I.E.C.) Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (I.E.E.E.) (often pronounced "I triple E") Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) National Electronic Distributors Association (NEDA) Underwriters Laboratories (U.L.)

Printed circuit board


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Part of a 1983 Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer board; a populated PCB, showing the conductive traces, vias (the through-hole paths to the other surface), and some mounted electrical components

A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, tracks or signal traces etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. It is also referred to as printed wiring board(PWB) or etched wiring board. Printed circuit boards are used in virtually all but the simplest commercially produced electronic devices. A PCB populated with electronic components is called a printed circuit assembly (PCA), printed circuit board assembly or PCB Assembly(PCBA). In informal use the term "PCB" is used both for bare and assembled boards, the context clarifying the meaning. Alternatives to PCBs include wire wrap and point-to-point construction. PCBs must initially be designed and laid out, but become cheaper, faster to make, and potentially more reliable for high-volume production since production and soldering of PCBs can be automated. Much of the electronics industry's PCB design, assembly, and quality control needs are set by standards published by the IPC organization.
Contents
[hide]

1 History 2 Manufacturing

o o

2.1 Materials 2.2 Patterning (etching)

o o o

2.2.1 Large volume 2.2.2 Small volume 2.2.3 Hobbyist 2.2.4 Subtractive processes 2.2.5 Additive processes 2.2.6 Circuit properties of the PCB

2.3 Chemical etching 2.4 Lamination 2.5 Drilling

o o o o o o

2.6 Exposed conductor plating and coating 2.7 Solder resist 2.8 Screen printing 2.9 Test 2.10 Printed circuit assembly 2.11 Protection and packaging

3 Design 4 Copper thickness 5 Safety certification (US) 6 "Cordwood" construction 7 Multiwire boards 8 Through-hole technology 9 Surface-mount technology 10 See also 11 References 12 External links

o o o

12.1 Design guidelines 12.2 Standards and specifications 12.3 Other

[edit]History
Development of the methods used in modern printed circuit boards started early in the 20th century. In 1903, a German inventor, Albert Hanson, described flat foil conductors laminated to an insulating board, in multiple layers. Thomas Edison experimented with chemical methods of plating conductors onto linen paper in 1904. Arthur Berry in 1913 patented a print-and-etch method in Britain, and in the United States Max Schoop obtained a patent[1] to flame-spray metal onto a board through a patterned mask. Charles Durcase in 1927 patented a method of electroplating circuit patterns.
[2]

The Austrian Jewish engineer Paul Eisler invented the printed circuit while working in England around 1936 as part of a radio set. Around 1943 the USA began to use the technology on a large scale to make proximity fuses for use in World War II [2]. After the war, in 1948, the USA released the invention for commercial use. Printed circuits did not become commonplace in consumer electronics until the mid1950s, after the Auto-Sembly process was developed by the United States Army. Before printed circuits (and for a while after their invention), point-to-point construction was used. For prototypes, or small production runs, wire wrap or turret board can be more efficient. Predating the printed circuit invention, and similar in spirit, was John Sargrove's 19361947 Electronic Circuit Making Equipment (ECME) which sprayed metal onto a Bakelite plastic board. The ECME could produce 3 radios per minute.

During World War II, the development of the anti-aircraft proximity fuse required an electronic circuit that could withstand being fired from a gun, and could be produced in quantity. The Centralab Division of Globe Union submitted a proposal which met the requirements: a ceramic plate would be screenprinted with metallic paint for conductors and carbon material for resistors, with ceramic disc capacitors and subminiature vacuum tubes soldered in place.[3] Originally, every electronic component had wire leads, and the PCB had holes drilled for each wire of each component. The components' leads were then passed through the holes and soldered to the PCB trace. This method of assembly is called through-hole construction. In 1949, Moe Abramson and Stanislaus F. Danko of the United States Army Signal Corps developed the Auto-Semblyprocess in which component leads were inserted into a copper foil interconnection pattern and dip soldered. The patent they obtained in 1956 was assigned to the U.S. Army. [4] With the development of board lamination and etching techniques, this concept evolved into the standard printed circuit board fabrication process in use today. Soldering could be done automatically by passing the board over a ripple, or wave, of molten solder in a wavesoldering machine. However, the wires and holes are wasteful since drilling holes is expensive and the protruding wires are merely cut off. From the 1980s small surface mount parts have been used increasingly instead of through-hole components; this has led to smaller boards for a given functionality and lower production costs, but with some additional difficulty in servicing faulty boards.

[edit]Manufacturing [edit]Materials

A PCB as a design on a computer (left) and realized as a board assembly populated with components (right). The board is double sided, with through-hole plating, green solder resist, and white silkscreen printing. Both surface mount and through-hole components have been used.

A PCB in a computer mouse. The Component Side (left) and the printed side (right).

The Component Side of a PCB in a computer mouse; some examples for common components and their reference designations on the silk screen.

Component and solderside

Conducting layers are typically made of thin copper foil. Insulating layers dielectric are typically laminated together with epoxy resin prepreg. The board is typically coated with a solder mask that is green in color. Other colors that are normally available are blue, black, white and red. 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 are polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon), FR-4, FR-1, CEM-1 or CEM-3. Well known prepreg 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 withball 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 foil thickness can be specified in ounces per square foot or micrometres. One ounce per square foot is 1.344 mils or 34 micrometres.

[edit]Patterning

(etching)

The vast majority of printed circuit boards are made by bonding a layer of copper over the entire substrate, sometimes on both sides, (creating a "blank PCB") then removing unwanted copper after applying a temporary mask (e.g., by etching), leaving only the desired copper traces. A few PCBs are made by adding traces to the bare substrate (or a substrate with a very thin layer of copper) usually by a complex process of multipleelectroplating steps. The PCB manufacturing method primarily depends on whether it is for production volume or sample/prototype quantities. Double-sided boards or multi-layer boards use plated-through holes, called vias, to connect traces on opposite sides of the substrate.

[edit]Large volume
Silk screen printingthe main commercial method. Photographic methodsused when fine linewidths are required.

[edit]Small volume
Print onto transparent film and use as photomask along with photo-sensitized boards. (i.e., presensitized boards), then etch. (Alternatively, use a film photoplotter).

Laser resist ablation: Spray black paint onto copper clad laminate, place into CNC laser plotter. The laser raster-scans the PCB and ablates (vaporizes) the paint where no resist is wanted. Etch. (Note: laser copper ablation is rarely used and is considered experimental.[clarification needed])

Use a CNC-mill with a spade-shaped (i.e., a flat-ended cone) cutter or miniature end-mill to rout away the undesired copper, leaving only the traces.

[edit]Hobbyist
Laser-printed resist: Laser-print onto transparency film, heat-transfer with an iron or modified laminator onto bare laminate, touch up with a marker, then etch.

Vinyl film and resist, non-washable marker, some other methods. Labor-intensive, only suitable for single boards.

[edit]Subtractive processes
Subtractive methods, that remove copper from an entirely copper-coated board, used for the production of printed circuit boards:

1. Silk screen printing uses etch-resistant inks to protect the copper foil. Subsequent etching removes the unwanted copper. Alternatively, the ink may be conductive, printed on a blank (nonconductive) board. The latter technique is also used in the manufacture of hybrid circuits. 2. Photoengraving uses a photomask and developer to selectively remove a photoresist coating. The remaining photoresist protects the copper foil. Subsequent etching removes the unwanted copper. The photomask is usually prepared with a photoplotter from data produced by a technician using CAM, or computer-aided manufacturing software. Laser-printed transparencies are typically employed for phototools; however, direct laser imaging techniques are being employed to replace phototools for high-resolution requirements. 3. PCB milling uses a two or three-axis mechanical milling system to mill away the copper foil from the substrate. A PCB milling machine (referred to as a 'PCB Prototyper') operates in a similar way to a plotter, receiving commands from the host software that control the position of the milling head in the x, y, and (if relevant) z axis. Data to drive the Prototyper is extracted from files generated in PCB design software and stored in HPGLor Gerber file format.

[edit]Additive processes
Additive processes add desired copper traces to an insulating substrate. The most common is the "semiadditive" process: the unpatterned board has a thin layer of copper already on it. A reverse mask is then applied. (Unlike a subtractive process mask, this mask exposes those parts of the substrate that will eventually become the traces.) Additional copper is then plated onto the board in the unmasked areas; copper may be plated to any desired weight. Tin-lead or other surface platings are then applied. The mask is stripped away and a brief etching step removes the now-exposed bare original copper laminate from the board, isolating the individual traces. Some single-sided boards which have plated-through holes are made in this way. General Electric made consumer radio sets in the late 1960s using additive boards. The additive process is commonly used for multi-layer boards as it facilitates the plating-through of the holes to produce conductive vias in the circuit board.

PCB copper electroplating machine for adding copper to the in-process PCB

PCBs in process of adding copper via electroplating

[edit]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 stripline and microstrip with carefully controlled dimensions to assure a 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.

[edit]Chemical

etching

Chemical etching is done with ferric chloride, ammonium persulfate, or sometimes hydrochloric acid. For PTH (plated-through holes), additional steps of electroless deposition are done after the holes are drilled, then copper is electroplated to build up the thickness, the boards are screened, and plated with tin/lead. The tin/lead becomes the resist leaving the bare copper to be etched away. The simplest method, used for small-scale production and often by hobbyists, is immersion etching, in which the board is submerged in etching solution such as ferric chloride. Compared with methods used for mass production, the etching time is long. Heat and agitation can be applied to the bath to speed the etching rate. In bubble etching, air is passed through the etchant bath to agitate the solution and speed up etching. Splash etching uses a motor-driven paddle to splash boards with etchant; the process has become commercially obsolete since it is not as fast as spray etching. In spray etching, the etchant solution is distributed over the boards by nozzles, and recirculated by pumps. Adjustment of the nozzle pattern, flow rate, temperature, and etchant composition gives predictable control of etching rates and high production rates. [5]

As more copper is consumed from the boards, the etchant becomes saturated and less effective; different etchants have different capacities for copper, with some as high as 150 grams of copper per litre of solution. In commercial use, etchants can be regenerated to restore their activity, and the dissolved copper recovered and sold. Small-scale etching requires attention to disposal of used etchant, which is corrosive and toxic due to its metal content. The etchant removes copper on all surfaces exposed by the resist. "Undercut" occurs when etchant attacks the thin edge of copper under the resist; this can reduce conductor widths and cause open-circuits. Careful control of etch time is required to prevent undercut. Where metallic plating is used as a resist, it can "overhang" which can cause short-circuits between adjacent traces when closely spaced. Overhang can be removed by wire-brushing the board after etching. [5]

[edit]Lamination

Some PCBs have trace layers inside the PCB and are called multi-layer PCBs. These are formed by bonding together separately etched thin boards.

[edit]Drilling
Holes through a PCB are typically drilled with small-diameter drill bits made of solid coated tungsten carbide. Coated tungsten carbide is recommended since many board materials are very abrasive and drilling must be high RPM and high feed to be cost effective. Drill bits must also remain sharp so as not to mar or tear the traces. Drilling with high-speed-steel is simply not feasible since the drill bits will dull quickly and thus tear the copper and ruin the boards. The drilling is performed by automated drilling machines with placement controlled by a drill tape or drill file. These computer-generated files are also called numerically controlled drill (NCD) files or "Excellon files". The drill file describes the location and size of each drilled hole. These holes are often filled with annular rings (hollow rivets) to create vias. Vias allow the electrical and thermal connection of conductors on opposite sides of the PCB. When very small vias are required, drilling with mechanical bits is costly because of high rates of wear and breakage. In this case, the vias may be evaporated by lasers. Laser-drilled vias typically have an inferior surface finish inside the hole. These holes are called micro vias. It is also possible with controlled-depth drilling, laser drilling, or by pre-drilling the individual sheets of the PCB before lamination, to produce holes that connect only some of the copper layers, rather than passing through the entire board. These holes are called blind vias when they connect an internal copper layer to an outer layer, or buried vias when they connect two or more internal copper layers and no outer layers. The walls of the holes, for boards with 2 or more layers, are made conductive then plated with copper to form plated-through holes that electrically connect the conducting layers of the PCB. For multilayer boards, those with 4 layers or more, drilling typically produces a smear of the high temperature decomposition products of bonding agent in the laminate system. Before the holes can be plated through, this smear must be removed by a chemical de-smear process, or by plasma-etch. Removing (etching back) the smear also reveals the interior conductors as well.

[edit]Exposed

conductor plating and coating

PCBs[6] are plated with solder, tin, or gold over nickel as a resist for etching away the unneeded underlying copper.[7] After PCBs are etched and then rinsed with water, the soldermask is applied, and then any exposed copper is coated with solder, nickel/gold, or some other anti-corrosion coating.[8][9] Matte solder is usually fused to provide a better bonding surface or stripped to bare copper. Treatments, such as benzimidazolethiol, prevent surface oxidation of bare copper. The places to which components will be mounted are typically plated, because untreated bare copper oxidizes quickly, and therefore is not readily solderable. Traditionally, any exposed copper was coated with solder by hot air solder levelling (HASL). The HASL finish prevents oxidation from the underlying copper, thereby guaranteeing a solderable

surface.[10] This solder was a tin-lead alloy, however new solder compounds are now used to achieve compliance with the RoHS directive in the EU and US, which restricts the use of lead. One of these leadfree compounds is SN100CL, made up of 99.3% tin, 0.7% copper, 0.05% nickel, and a nominal of 60ppm germanium. It is important to use solder compatible with both the PCB and the parts used. An example is Ball Grid Array (BGA) using tin-lead solder balls for connections losing their balls on bare copper traces or using lead-free solder paste. Other platings used are OSP (organic surface protectant), immersion silver (IAg), immersion tin, electroless nickel with immersion gold coating (ENIG), and direct gold plating (over nickel). Edge connectors, placed along one edge of some boards, are often nickel plated then gold plated. Another coating consideration is rapid diffusion of coating metal into Tin solder. Tin forms intermetallics such as Cu 5Sn6 and Ag3Cu that dissolve into the Tin liquidus or solidus(@50C), stripping surface coating or leaving voids. Electrochemical migration (ECM) is the growth of conductive metal filaments on or in a printed circuit board (PCB) under the influence of a DC voltage bias.[11][12] Silver, zinc, and aluminum are known to grow whiskers under the influence of an electric field. Silver also grows conducting surface paths in the presence of halide and other ions, making it a poor choice for electronics use. Tin will grow "whiskers" due to tension in the plated surface. Tin-Lead or Solder plating also grows whiskers, only reduced by the percentage Tin replaced. Reflow to melt solder or tin plate to relieve surface stress lowers whisker incidence. Another coating issue is tin pest, the transformation of tin to a powdery allotrope at low temperature.[13]

[edit]Solder

resist

Areas that should not be soldered may be covered with a polymer solder resist (solder mask) coating typically 2030 micrometres thick. The solder resist helps to prevent solder from bridging between conductors and creating short circuits. Solder resist also provides some protection from the environment.

[edit]Screen

printing

Line art and text may be printed onto the outer surfaces of a PCB by screen printing. When space permits, the screen print text can indicate component designators, switch setting requirements, test points, and other features helpful in assembling, testing, and servicing the circuit board. Codes identifying the board and the current version number can be etched. Screen print is also known as the silk screen, or, in one sided PCBs, the red print. Some digital printing solutions are used instead of screen printing. This technology allows printing variable data onto the PCB, including individual serial numbers as text and bar code.

[edit]Test
Unpopulated boards may be subjected to a bare-board test where each circuit connection (as defined in a netlist) is verified as correct on the finished board. For high-volume production, a bed of nails tester, a fixture or a rigid needle adapter is used to make contact with copper lands or holes on one or both sides of

the board to facilitate testing. A computer will instruct the electrical test unit to apply a small voltage to each contact point on the bed-of-nails as required, and verify that such voltage appears at other appropriate contact points. A "short" on a board would be a connection where there should not be one; an "open" is between two points that should be connected but are not. For small- or medium-volume boards, flying probe and flying-grid testers use moving test heads to make contact with the copper/silver/gold/solder lands or holes to verify the electrical connectivity of the board under test. Another method for testing is industrial CT scanning, which can generate a 3D rendering of the board along with 2D image slices and can show details such a soldered paths and connections.

[edit]Printed

circuit assembly

PCB with test connection pads

After the printed circuit board (PCB) is completed, electronic components must be attached to form a functional printed circuit assembly,[14][15] or PCA (sometimes called a "printed circuit board assembly" PCBA). In through-hole construction, component leads are inserted in holes. In surface-mountconstruction, the components are placed on pads or lands on the outer surfaces of the PCB. In both kinds of construction, component leads are electrically and mechanically fixed to the board with a molten metal solder. There are a variety of soldering techniques used to attach components to a PCB. High volume production is usually done with SMT placement machineand bulk wave soldering or reflow ovens, but skilled technicians are able to solder very tiny parts (for instance 0201 packages which are 0.02 in. by 0.01 in.)[16] by hand under a microscope, using tweezers and a fine tip soldering iron for small volume prototypes. Some parts may be extremely difficult to solder by hand, such as BGA packages. Often, through-hole and surface-mount construction must be combined in a single assembly because some required components are available only in surface-mount packages, while others are available only in through-hole packages. Another reason to use both methods is that through-hole mounting can provide needed strength for components likely to endure physical stress, while components that are expected to go untouched will take up less space using surface-mount techniques. After the board has been populated it may be tested in a variety of ways:

While the power is off, visual inspection, automated optical inspection. JEDEC guidelines for PCB component placement, soldering, and inspection are commonly used to maintain quality control in this stage of PCB manufacturing.

While the power is off, analog signature analysis, power-off testing. While the power is on, in-circuit test, where physical measurements (i.e. voltage, frequency) can be done.

While the power is on, functional test, just checking if the PCB does what it had been designed to do.

To facilitate these tests, PCBs may be designed with extra pads to make temporary connections. Sometimes these pads must be isolated with resistors. The in-circuit test may also exerciseboundary scan test features of some components. In-circuit test systems may also be used to program nonvolatile memory components on the board. In boundary scan testing, test circuits integrated into various ICs on the board form temporary connections between the PCB traces to test that the ICs are mounted correctly. Boundary scan testing requires that all the ICs to be tested use a standard test configuration procedure, the most common one being the Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) standard. The JTAG test architecture provides a means to test interconnects between integrated circuits on a board without using physical test probes. JTAG tool vendors provide various types of stimulus and sophisticated algorithms, not only to detect the failing nets, but also to isolate the faults to specific nets, devices, and pins.[17] When boards fail the test, technicians may desolder and replace failed components, a task known as rework.

[edit]Protection

and packaging

PCBs intended for extreme environments often have a conformal coating, which is applied by dipping or spraying after the components have been soldered. The coat prevents corrosion and leakage currents or shorting due to condensation. The earliest conformal coats were wax; modern conformal coats are usually dips of dilute solutions of silicone rubber, polyurethane, acrylic, or epoxy. Another technique for applying a conformal coating is for plastic to be sputtered onto the PCB in a vacuum chamber. The chief disadvantage of conformal coatings is that servicing of the board is rendered extremely difficult. [18] Many assembled PCBs are static sensitive, and therefore must be placed in antistatic bags during transport. When handling these boards, the user must be grounded (earthed). Improper handling techniques might transmit an accumulated static charge through the board, damaging or destroying components. Even bare boards are sometimes static sensitive. Traces have become so fine that it's quite possible to blow an etch off the board (or change its characteristics) with a static charge. This is especially true on non-traditional PCBs such as MCMs and microwave PCBs.

[edit]Design

Printed circuit board design was initially a fully manual process, where an initial schematic diagram was converted into a layout of parts, then traces were routed between package terminals to provide the required interconnections. Pre-printed non-reproducing mylar grids assisted in layout, and rub-on dry transfers of common arrangements of circuit elements (pads, contact fingers, integrated circuit profiles, and so on) helped standardize the layout. Traces between devices were made with self-adhesive tape. The finished layout "artwork" was then photographically reproduced on the resist layers of the blank coated copper-clad boards. Modern practice is less labor intensive since computers can automatically perform many of the layout steps. The general progression for a commercial printed circuit board design would include: 1. Schematic capture through an Electronic design automation tool. 2. Card dimensions and template are decided based on required circuitry and case of the PCB. Determine the fixed components and heat sinks if required. 3. Deciding stack layers of the PCB. 4 to 12 layers or more depending on design complexity. Ground plane and power plane are decided. Signal planes where signals are routed are in top layer as well as internal layers.[19] 4. Line impedance determination using dielectric layer thickness, routing copper thickness and tracewidth. Trace separation also taken into account in case of differential signals. Microstrip,stripline or dual stripline can be used to route signals. 5. Placement of the components. Thermal considerations and geometry are taken into account. Vias and lands are marked. 6. Routing the signal trace. For optimal EMI performance high frequency signals are routed in internal layers between power or ground planes as power plane behaves as ground for AC. 7. Gerber file generation for manufacturing. In layout of the board, a power plane is the counterpart to the ground plane and behaves as an AC signal ground, whilst providing DC voltage for powering circuits mounted on the PCB. Where possible it is good to have a power plane for each ground plane on a board (known as a "plane pair"), as this reduces power supply impedance to the components on the board. In electronic design automation (EDA) design tools, power planes (and ground planes) are usually drawn automatically as a negative layer. Adding primitive layout shapes (for example, a donut pad) on such a layer automatically produces a negative of those primitives, placing copper wherever there is no track or via.

[edit]Copper

thickness

Copper thickness of PCBs can be specified in units of length, but is often specified as weight of copper per square foot, in ounces, which is easier to measure. Each ounce of copper is approximately 1.4 mils (0.0014 inch) or 35 m of 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 current-carrying 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.

[edit]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.

[edit]"Cordwood"

construction

A cordwood module

Cordwood construction can save significant space and was often used with wire-ended components in applications where space was at a premium (such as missile guidance and telemetry systems) and in highspeed computers, where short traces were important. In "cordwood" construction, axial-leaded components were mounted between two parallel planes. The components were either soldered together with jumper wire, or they were connected to other components by thin nickel ribbon welded at right angles onto the component leads. To avoid shorting together different interconnection layers, thin insulating cards were placed between them. Perforations or holes in the cards allowed component leads to project through to the next interconnection layer. Disadvantage of this system are that special nickel-leaded components had to be used to allow the interconnecting welds to be made, and that components located in the interior are difficult to replace. Some versions of cordwood construction used soldered single-sided PCBs as the interconnection method (as pictured), allowing the use of normal-leaded components. Before the advent of integrated circuits, this method allowed the highest possible component packing density; because of this, it was used by a number of computer vendors including Control Data Corporation. The cordwood method of construction was used only rarely once semiconductor electronics and PCBs became widespread.

[edit]Multiwire

boards

Multiwire is a patented technique of interconnection which uses machine-routed insulated wires embedded in a non-conducting matrix (often plastic resin). It was used during the 1980s and 1990s. (Kollmorgen Technologies Corp, U.S. Patent 4,175,816 filed 1978) Multiwire is still available in 2010 through Hitachi. There are other competitive discrete wiring technologies that have been developed (Jumatech [2], layered sheets). Since it was quite easy to stack interconnections (wires) inside the embedding matrix, the approach allowed designers to forget completely about the routing of wires (usually a time-consuming operation of PCB design): Anywhere the designer needs a connection, the machine will draw a wire in straight line from one location/pin to another. This led to very short design times (no complex algorithms to use even for high density designs) as well as reduced crosstalk (which is worse when wires run parallel to each otherwhich almost never happens in Multiwire), though the cost is too high to compete with cheaper PCB technologies when large quantities are needed.

[edit]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 singlesided, 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 (e.g., resistors, capacitors, and diodes) is done by bending the leads 90 degrees in the same direction, inserting the part in the boar (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 awave soldering machine. [20] Through-hole PCB technology almost completely replaced earlier electronics assembly techniques such as point-to-point construction. From the second generation of computers in the 1950s until surfacemount technology became popular in the late 1980s, every component on a typical PCB was a throughhole component.

Through-hole manufacture adds to board cost by requiring many holes to be drilled accurately, and limits the available routing area for signal traces on 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-1980's 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.

[edit]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 on to 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 labour 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 semiconductorsurface 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.

[edit]See

also

Electronics portal

Schematic Capture (KiCAD)

PCB layout (KiCAD)

3D View (KiCAD)

Breadboard Stripboard C.I.D.+ Design for manufacturability (PCB) Electronic packaging

Electronic waste Multi-Chip Module Occam Process another process for the manufacturing of PCBs Printed electronics - creation of components by printing Printed circuit board milling

PCB Materials

Conductive ink Laminate materials:

BT-Epoxy Composite epoxy material, CEM-1,5 Cyanate Ester FR-2 FR-4, the most common PCB material Polyimide PTFE, Polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon)

PCB layout software

List of EDA companies Comparison of EDA software

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