Monday, January 2, 2012

PCB Circuit Board as the Heart of Electronic Devices

By Anna Stanley


PCB circuit board is a etched wiring board or a printed wiring board which supports the electronic parts, electrically as well as mechanically, of an electronic device by the use of connecting tracks and engraved on a copper sheet coated with insulating substance.

A PCB circuit board fitted with various electronic spare parts, ready to be used in a commercial electronic device is known as Printed circuit board assembly. At initial stage these PCBs cost high as compared to wired circuit that connects the components from point to point but if they manufactured at large scale then it is much cheap than any other process of connecting the components. It has become popular for its reliability and finish which enables the professionals to use them for mechanical soldering of the components on it. PCB circuit boards are designed, assembled and produced as per the standardized specifications of the industry.

Manufacturing PCB circuit board

A PCB circuit board is created of a slight film of copper which is insulted by laminating it with epoxy resin. The design of PCB is designed on computer and traced on the raw plate of PCB. The left side in the copper film coated with resin is designed for fixing components whereas appropriate side is utilized for soldering the components on that plate via the holes on the printed circuit. The green coating on the PCB circuit board resists the soldering on the plate and coating of many other colors like white, red and blue is utilized for several other purposes. Teflon or prepreg coating is utilised as insulating material on the PCBs. Glass fiber, thermal expansion and technologies of bare die are made use of essentially to supply best stability towards the PCB circuit boards.

Etching a PCB circuit board

Most of the PCB circuit board plates are available in raw form, which have a fine film of copper on both sides of a plate of insulating material known as blank PCB. The design of the printed circuit is traced on it from a computer and surplus copper is removed from both sides of the plate by etching the required circuit, leaving a copper outline.

This outline could be utilised to fix the electronic components via the holes on the traced style on the plate and soldering them as per the circuit of the electronic device in which this PCB circuit board will be utilised. These boards are manufactured as per the amount of PCBs necessary, no matter whether modest quantity or substantial quantity.

Process adopted in printing a circuit board

Various techniques are used to print a circuit board like Laser Printing, Silk Screen printing, Photo engraving etc. which are used as per the material and need of the device in which PCB circuit boards are used. Laser printing technique is used on the clear film of copper, marked with marker and etching it using heat transfer method. Silk Screen printing protects copper film by using ink that resists the etching. Photo engraving technique of printing PCBs uses developer and Photomask to remove the coating that resists photo process carefully to protect copper film of the PCB circuit board.

Therefore, PCB circuit board is an necessary part for each and every electronic device, that is manufactured sophisticatedly.




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