Introduction to PCB

Basics of Printed Circuit Board

 Electronic equipment is a combination of electrical and
electronic components connected to produce a certain designed
function.
 In the era of vacuum tubes and even later, electronic equipment
was constructed by hand wiring and by point-to-point soldering.
 The equipment was obviously large, awkward and bulky
 The use of miniaturization and sub-miniaturization in electronic
equipment design gave birth to a new technique in inter-
component wiring and assembly that is popularly known as the
printed circuit board.
 The printed circuit board provides both the physical structure for
mounting and holding electronic components as well as the
electrical interconnection between components.
Advantages of Printed Circuit Boards

 The size of component assembly is reduced with a corresponding

decrease in weight.
 Quantity production can be achieved at lower unit cost.
 Component wiring and assembly can be mechanized.
 They ensure a high level of repeatability and offer uniformity of
electrical characteristics from assembly to assembly.
 Inspection time is reduced because printed circuitry eliminates
the probability of error.
 Printed wiring personnel require minimal technical skills and
training. Chances of miswiring or short-circuited wiring are
minimized.
Evolution of Printed Circuit Boards
 So, a Printed circuit board that is shortly known as PCB was first got
developed in 1930.
 the board first got operated in a radio system in 1936 based on the
design given by Charles Ducas.
 He used a stencil to form the conductors on the surface of insulation
material and applied a conductive paste in the lines desired.
 After that, the united states military adopted the technology and utilized
it during the second world war. Hence, the technology was released
publicly in 1948.
 Evolution of Printed Circuit
Boards
Mr. Francis T. Harmann filed a patent for the so-called subtractive
method of making PCBs. This development could be considered as the
forerunner of etching technology.
 The major contribution towards the development of modern printed
circuit technology was made by Dr. Paul Eisler, who proposed copper
clad insulation material in sheet form for use as the base material in
circuit board manufacture
 “a resist in the shape of the circuit pattern is printed onto the surface of
the copper cladding with the uncovered metal being removed by
etching”.
 Dr. Eisler is often called the Father of printed circuit board technology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8UCll0ptOI
Components of a Printed Circuit Board
 The essential components of a printed circuit board are:
The base, which is a thin board of insulating material, rigid
or flexible, which supports all conductors and
components
The conductors, normally of high purity copper in the form
of thin strips of appropriate shapes firmly attached to the base material.
 The base provides mechanical support to all copper areas and all
components attached to the copper. The electrical properties of the
completed circuit depend upon the dielectric properties of the base
material and must therefore, be known and appropriately controlled.
 The conductors provide not only the electrical connections between
components but also solderable attachment points for the same.
 The term printed became popular because the conductive areas are
usually generated by means of a printing process
Classification of Printed Circuit Boards
Single-sided Printed Circuit Boards
 ‘Single-sided’ means that wiring is available only on one side of the
insulating substrate.
 The side which contains the circuit pattern is called the ‘solder side’
whereas the other side is called the ‘component side’.
 These types of boards are mostly used in case of simple circuitry
Double-sided Printed Circuit Boards
 ‘Double-sided’ printed circuit boards have wiring patterns on both sides
of the insulating material, i.e. the circuit pattern is available both on the
components side and the solder side.
 The component density and the conductor lines are higher than the
single-sided boards.
Multi-layer Boards

 used in situations where the density of connections needed is too high

to be handled by two layers
 The multi-layer board makes use of more than two printed circuit boards
with a thin layer of what is known as ‘prepreg’ material placed between
each layer
Manufacturing of Basic Printed Circuit Boards
 The most popular process is the ‘print and etch’ method,
which is a purely subtractive method
 In this process, the base material used is copper clad laminate
to which all the electronic components are soldered, with one
or more layers of etched metal tracks making the connection.
 The etching process involves achieving a conductive pattern
formed on one or both sides of the laminate
 The term ‘printed wiring’ or ‘printed circuit’ refers only to the
conductive pattern that is formed on the laminate to provide
point-to-point connection.
 Four specific phases of the PCB manufacturing process need
to be understood. These are design, fabrication, assembly
and test.
Single-sided Boards
 Schematic Diagram
 The schematic diagram, also called the circuit or logic diagram, represents
the electronic components and connections in the most readable form.
 The circuit diagram will often start on paper and finish in computer-aided
design (CAD).
Single-sided Boards
 Artwork Generation
 The components and connections in the PCB layout are derived from the
circuit diagram, and physically placed and routed by the designer to get the
best results in term of board size and its manufacturability.
 The PCB layout defines the final physical form of the circuit and
labelling details are finalized as the layout is completed
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVyU9CVr4_4
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRJ6YL_R8a8
 Panel Preparation
 The raw material for printed circuit boards is a copper clad
laminate with copper on one side only.
 The commonly used laminates for general purpose applications
are normally paper base type, whereas epoxy glass laminates
are preferred for superior mechanical and electrical properties.
 Before any processing can be undertaken on a board, it must
be cleaned to get rid of the contaminants, which may be in the
form of organic material (oils and greases), particulate (dust
and machining particles), and oxides and sulphides on the
copper surface
 The cleaning is done in cleaning machines as the board is
made to pass through de-greasing solvent solution, scrubbing
stage, wet brushing and acid wash followed by a series of
washes with light quality de-ionized water.
Copper Clad Laminate Epoxy Glass Laminate
Image Transfer
 The next step in manufacturing printed circuit boards is the
transfer of original artwork pattern to the copper surface on
the card.
 The artwork may be in the form of a photographic negative
or positive.
 Therefore, processing of the film is usually done in a room
with red light. After the image to be printed is available on
a photographic film, a screen is prepared and the panel
screen printed.
 All the conductive areas required on the final PCB are
covered by the screening ink, which will act as an etch
resist during etching.
Etching
 The etching process is the core of the PCB manufacturing
process, based on subtractive method which involves removal of
copper from undesirable areas in order to achieve the desired
circuit patterns.
 Several chemical processes have been developed and used for
etching
 The oldest and still used etchant is ferric chloride, which oxidizes
copper to cuprous chloride from the areas which are not
protected by etch resist
Board Drilling
 For small scale production, boards are drilled by using single head
manually controlled machines
 Jigs are used to ensure that correct drill sizes are used and that no holes
are missed. Boards can be stacked so that many of them can be drilled
simultaneously.
 Mass production usually utilizes numerically controlled drilling machines
with several heads. The vias and pads have copper etched from the
centre to facilitate centering of the drill.
Coatings
 The base metal conductor used in the fabrication of printed circuit boards is
copper.
 Copper is chosen because of its excellent properties as a conductor of heat and
electricity.
 However, it quickly oxidizes in the presence of air and water.
 If the copper surface on the printed circuit board is not coated or treated with a
protective agent, the exposed area would rapidly become unsolderable.
 Therefore, all printed circuit boards necessarily use some form of a surface finish
on the exposed pads to which electronic components are to be soldered.
 The current practice in PCB manufacturing also typically requires circuit traces to
be protected with a masking material called soldermask
 The soldermask is removed only when electrical access to the circuitry is required
for soldering of electrical components
Testing
 There are two types of PCB tests: bare board test and
loaded board tests.
 The bare board test checks for shorts, opens and net
list connectivity, whereas the loaded board tests
include analysis of manufacturing defects and in-
circuit, functional and combinational tests
 With an increase in the track density and the number
of through-holes, it has become necessary to test the
printed circuit board before assembly.
 If the boards are not tested at the pre-assembly
stage, the failures at a later stage may prove to be
extremely expensive in the case of high density and
multi-layer boards.
Basics of Electronic Components
 Electronic components come in many different shapes and sizes, and
perform different electrical functions depending upon the purpose for
which they are used.
 There are broadly two types of components: passive components and
active components.
 A passive device is one that contributes no power gain (amplification) to
a circuit or system. It has no control action and does not require any
input other than a signal to perform its function.
 Active components are devices that are capable of controlling voltages
or currents and can create a switching action in the circuit.
Discrete vs Integrated Circuits

 When a component is packaged with one or two

functional elements, it is known as a discrete
component. For example, a resistor used to limit the
current passing through it functions as a discrete
component.
 On the other hand, an integrated circuit is a
combination of several interconnected discrete
components packaged in a single case to perform
multiple functions. A typical example of an integrated
circuit is that of a microprocessor which can be used
for a variety of applications.
Component Leads
 Components can be classified into two types on the basis of the method
of their attachment to the circuit board.
 Through-hole components are those components which have leads that
can be inserted through mounting holes in the circuit board.
 On the other hand, surface mount components are so designed that
they can be attached directly on to the surface of the board.
 Two types of lead configurations are commonly found in discrete
components.
 The components with axial leads have two leads, each extending from
each side of the component like arms.
 These leads need to be bent for insertion through the holes of a printed
circuit board.
 The other configuration of leads in the components is radial (Figure
2.2d) wherein the leads emanate from the bottom of the components
like legs.
 In the case of integrated circuits, there are a large number of leads
which are placed in a row in single line (single in-line package) or in two
parallel rows (dual in-line package).
 These leads can be inserted in the through-holes in the PCB.
 High density integrated circuits now come in the form of pin-grid arrays
that have several rows of round pins extending from the bottom of the
component.
 Leadless components are also available in the surface mount devices in
which no metal leads stick out of the component body.
 They are attached to a circuit board using some type of metallized
termination.
Polarity in Components
 Some components are polarized and therefore have leads which are
marked with positive and negative polarity.
 They must be placed on the board in the correct orientation when
connected to the board.
Resistors
 The most commonly used component in an electronic assembly is the
resistor
Variable Resistors or Potentiometers
 Variable resistors basically consist of a track of some type of resistance
material with which a movable wiper makes contact.
 Capacitors
which can be used to store electrical charge.
 Inductors
Inductance is the characteristic of a device which resists change in the
current through the device.
Diodes
 A diode is an active component through which the current flows more
easily in one direction than in the other.
Light Emitting Diodes (LED)
A light emitting diode is basically a pn junction that emits light when
forward biased.
Transistors

The most commonly used semiconductor device is the transistor having

the characteristic to control voltage and current gain in an electronic
circuit.