Friday 11 August 2017

PCB the Soul of Contemporary Electronic Device!

There are hardly any devices which do not use the PCBs in contemporary time. A PCB is a thin board made of fiberglass, composite epoxy, or other laminate material. Conductive pathways are etched or "printed" onto the board, connecting different components on the PCB, such as transistors, resistors, and integrated circuits. Electronic components are usually placed by machine onto a finished PCB that has solder dabs in place. The PCB bakes in an industrial oven to melt the solder, which joins the connections. It is found that the most PCBs are made from fiberglass or glass-reinforced plastics with copper traces.

Use of the PCBs in the computer, laptop and many other devices-

PCBs are normally used in both desktop and laptop computers. They serve as the foundation for many internal computer components. There is the use of the PCB in the video cards, controller cards, network interface cards, and expansion cards. These components, all connect to the motherboard, which is also a printed circuit board.


Read Also:- PCB Providing Wiring of Socket Components in an Electronic Device!

The PCBs are widely used in many other electronic devices besides the computers and laptops.  The common household appliances like TVs, radios, digital cameras, cell phones, and tablets include one or more printed circuit boards. The PCBs, which are used in mobile devices look similar to those found in desktop computers and large electronics, but they are typically thinner and contain finer circuitry. PCBs can be single-layer for simple electronic devices. Printed circuit boards for complex hardware, such as computer graphics cards and motherboards, may have up to twelve layers.

PCBs are of following two types. Let’s compare them- 

  • Single layer PCBs- The single layer board is the least complex option and includes a one-sided layer of substrate. This board is built with the electrical components and parts attached to one side and on the other side there are the copper traces. The copper is used due to special reasons because it is a great electrical conductor. This copper layer is usually protected by a special solder mask. There is the silkscreen coating is a further feature to help mark the different components on the board. It is a useful board for the most basic electronics and will be used by the at-home hobbyists in their first electronics projects. This kind of board is relatively low-cost to PCB Manufacture compared to the multilayer. This simple designing is the reason it has plenty of limitations and is far from being the most used in the industry.


  • Multilayer PCBs- Now we come to the multi layered boards which are built with two or more layers. These layers are separated by insulation. The standard size is in the region of 4 to 10 layers, even though there are boards with up to 42 layers. This is type of boards are preferred very much, especially for the most complex electronic configurations. The different boards are connected using wires passing through the individual holes. Space and weight of these boards are lesser than the single layer boards. These boards are used in handheld devices, space probe equipment, medical machinery, servers and computers widely.