PIA Training Centre (PTC) Module 4 – ELECTRONIC FUNDAMENTALS

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MODULE 4
Sub Module 4.2

PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARDS

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Contents

Typical ................................................................................................... 1
TYPES OF PCBs ............................................................. 3
Single-Sided Boards............................................................................... 3
Double-Sided Boards............................................................................. 3
MULTI-LAYER BOARDS ................................................. 4
TECHNOLOGIES FOR COMPONENT PACKING ................ 5
Through Hole Technology - THT............................................................ 5
Surface Mounted Technology ............................................................... 5
Electromagnetic Compatibility Issues ................................................... 6

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A printed circuit board PCB mechanically supports and
electrically connects electronic or electrical components
mounted on it, by using conductive tracks, pads and other
features etched from one or more sheet layers of copper
laminated onto and/or between sheet layers of a non-conductive
substrate.
PCBs can be single layer or single sided board for simple
electronic devices and multi-layer for complex circuitry.
Typical PCB:
The bare board without components is also referred as a
'Printed Wiring Board' whereas the substrate of the board itself
is an insulating and non-flexible material. The thin wires that are
visible on the surface of the board are part of a copper foil that
initially covered the whole board. In the manufacturing process
this
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Module 4 – ELECTRONIC FUNDAMENTALS
Sub Module 4.2 – PCBs
copper foil is partly etched away, and the remaining copper
forms a network of thin wires. These wires are referred to as the
conductor pattern and provide the electrical connections
between the components mounted on the PCB.
Conductor Pattern
In a single sided PCB the components are fastened to the PCB
on one side called component side and the legs of the
components through holes are soldered to the PCB on the
opposite side of the board called Solder side.
If a component needs to be removable from the PCB after it is
manufactured, it is mounted on the board with the use of a
Socket. The socket is soldered to the board while the
component can be inserted and taken out of the socket without
the use of solder.
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Category –A/B1 Sub Module 4.2 – PCBs

The one shown below is a ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) socket,

which allows the component (here a processor) to be inserted
easily in place, and be removable. The lever on the side of the
socket is used to fasten the component after it is inserted.
Slot

Solder Mask is an insulating and protective coat which protects

the thin copper wires and prevents solder from attaching outside
the connection points for the components. It gives the PCB its
green or Brown color. On top of this colored mask a silk screen
is printed. The Silk screen is the text and symbols (often white)
ZIF Socket printed on the PCB for labeling the locations of the different
components that are to be mounted. The silk screen is also
To connect a PCB to another PCB an edge connector is often referred to as the legend.
used. The edge connector consists of small uncovered pads of
copper located along one side of the PCB. These copper pads
are actually part of the conductor pattern on the PCB. The edge
connector on one PCB is inserted into a matching connector
(often referred to as a Slot) on the other PCB. In a PC, graphic
cards, sound cards and other similar products are connected to
the main board with the use of edge connectors.

Green PCB with white silk screen

Edge Connector

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Single-Sided PCB, top view

Brown PCB without silk screen

TYPES OF PCBs

Single-Sided Boards

SSBs are the most basic boards which have the components
mounted on one side and the conductor pattern on the opposite
side of the board. Since there is only a conductor pattern on one
side, this type of PCB is called 'Single-sided' This type of board
has severe limitations when it comes to routing the wires in the Single-Sided PCB, bottom view
conductor pattern (since there is only one side no wires can
cross, and they have to be routed around each other), it is only Double-Sided Boards
used in very primitive circuits.
These types of boards have a conductor pattern on both sides
of the board. Having two separate conductor patterns requires
some kind of electrical connection between them. Such
electrical 'bridges' are called 'vias'. A via is simply a hole in the
PCB that is filled or plated with metal and touches the conductor
pattern on both sides. Since the surface available for the

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 PIA Training Centre (PTC) Module 4 – ELECTRONIC FUNDAMENTALS
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conductor pattern is twice as large compared to a single-side
board, and that wires now can cross (by routing them on
opposite sides of the board), double sided PCBs are much more
suited for complex circuits than the single-sided.

Double-Sided PCB, top view

MULTI-LAYER BOARDS

To increase the area available for the wiring even more these
boards have one or more conductor pattern inside the board.
Double -Sided PCB, bottom view This is achieved by gluing (laminating) several double-sided
boards together with insulating layers in between. The number
of layers is referred to as the number of separate conductor
patterns. It is usually even and includes the two outer layers.
Most main boards have between 4 and 8 layers, but PCBs with
almost 100 layers can be made. Large super computers often
contain boards with extremely many layers, but since it is
becoming more efficient to replace such computers with clusters
of ordinary PCs, PCBs with a very high layer count are less and
less used. Since the layers in a PCB are laminated together it is
often difficult to actually tell how many there are, but if you
inspect the side of the board closely you might be able count
them.
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The vias described in the section about double-sided PCBs

always penetrate the whole board. When there are multiple
layers of conductor patterns, and you only want to connect
some of them, such vias waste space that could be used to
route other wires. 'Buried' and 'Blind' vias avoid this problem
because they only penetrate as many layers as necessary.
Blind vias connect one or more of the inner layers with one of
the surface layers without penetrating the whole board. Buried
vias only connect inner layers. It is therefore not possible so see
such vias by just looking at the surface of the PCB.
Through Hole Components (soldered on bottom side)
In multi-layer PCBs whole layers are almost always dedicated to
Ground and Power. We therefore classify the layers as Signal,
Power or Ground planes. Sometimes there is more than one of Surface Mounted Technology
both Power and Ground planes, especially if the different
components on the PCB require different supply voltages.
The legs of components that are made using 'Surface Mounted
Technology' are soldered to the conductor pattern on the same
TECHNOLOGIES FOR COMPONENT PACKING side of the PCB as the component is mounted. This technology
does therefore not require a hole in the PCB for every leg of the
Through Hole Technology - THT component.
The components that are mounted on one side on the board
while its legs are soldered on the opposite side are called
'Through Hole' (THT: Through Hole Technology). Such
components take up a large amount of space and require one
hole to be drilled in the PCB for every leg. Hence, their legs
occupy space on both sides of the board, and the connection
points for them are also fairly large. On the other hand, THT
components are fairly good mechanically connected to the PCB
compared to Surface Mounted devices, which will be discussed Surface Mounted Components
below. Connectors for cables and similar devises also have to
withstand mechanical stress and are usually THT. Surface Mounted Components could even be mounted on both
sides
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of the PCB directly underneath each other.
Surface Mounted Components mounted on the solder-side of a
PCB
SMT components are also much smaller than THT components.
This makes PCBs with SMT components much more dense
compared to similar PCBs with THT components. Today SMT
components are also cheaper than THT components. It is
therefore no surprise that most components on main boards
nowadays are SMT.
Since the connection points and component legs are so small it
becomes very hard to solder on a SMT component manually.
Considering that machines do almost all assembly, this issue
only becomes important when repairs have to be done.
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Module 4 – ELECTRONIC FUNDAMENTALS
Sub Module 4.2 – PCBs
Electromagnetic Compatibility Issues
An electronic device that is designed without considering
Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) is likely to radiate
electromagnetic energy that can cause undesirable interference
in nearby electronics. EMC is a design requirement that has
maximum limits for Electromagnetic Interference (EMI),
Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) and Radio Frequency
Interference (RFI). This requirement ensures both the proper
operation of the electronic device itself and other nearby
devices. It compels the design to limit the radiative or
conductive emission from one device to another and reduce the
device's susceptibility to external sources of EMF, EMI or RFI.
In other words the goal is to prevent stray electromagnetic
energy from entering or leaving a device. This is a rather difficult
issue to deal with. Common techniques are the use power and
ground planes, and place the PCB inside a metal box. Power
and Ground planes tend to shield emission to and from the
signal layers, while a metal box also shields the components.
We will not go more into detail about that here.
The maximum speed of a circuit depends on how well the EMC
requirement is met. Internal EMI like leakage currents between
conductors increases in magnitude when the frequency of the
circuit increases. The distance between connectors must
therefore be increased if there is a big potential difference
across them. This also tells us that it is important to avoid high
voltages and keep the power consumption of the circuit at a
minimum. The latency in the wires is also crucial, so their length
must be as short as possible. Hence, a small and well-routed
PCB tends to be capable of running at higher speeds than a
large PCB.
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NOTES:

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