PART 1

PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD

MODULE 1
 Introduction & Brief History What is PCB, Difference between PWB and PCB,
Types of PCBs: Single Sided (Single Layer), Multi-Layer (Double Layer), PCB
Materials
Bread board
 Advantages:
 A quick check for easy and complex circuits both and verifies circuits at initial stage
 Reusable
 No soldering required.
 Can be debugged easily.
 Cheap and connections can be changed
 disadvantages:
 unreliable
 delicate
 temporary
 heavier
PCB
 A PCB is an acronym for printed circuit board
 PCB were first developed by an Australian engineer Paul Eisler
 It contains tracks, lines and paths to electrically connect different electronics
components
 It consists of a substrate on which copper material is laminated to create a conduction
path between different components
 A PCB serves two purposes in the construction of an electronic device
 it is a place to mount the components
 it provides the means of electrical connection between the components
 Types of PCBs According to Mounting System
1) Through-hole PCB:
 In this type of PCB, we have to make hole using drill on PCB
 In these holes, leads of components are mounted and soldered to pads situated on
opposite side of PCB
 This technology is most useful because it gives more mechanical support to
electrical components and very reliable technology for mounting of components
 but drilling in PCB make it more expensive
 In single layer PCB, this mounting technology is easy to implement
 but in case of double layer and multi-layer PCB making hole is more difficult
2) Surface mounted PCB:
In this type of PCB, components are small in size because these components have
very small lead or no leads are required for mounting on the board
Here, in this technology, SMD components are directly mounted on the surface of
the board and not require to make hole on board
Need of PCB

 To make a permanent circuit

 To avoid short circuit
 To avoid wires
 To reduce the cost of circuit
 To reduce the size of circuit
 To reuse the PCB design
 TYPES OF PCB
 Three ways are used for the construction of PCB
single layer, double layer and multilayered
 Single layer PCB 
 It usually contains only one layer of base material (substrate)
 One side of the base material is laminated with metal that is used to build an electrical
connection between the components soldered on the board
 Copper metal is mostly used for creating a conducting path because it acts as a good
conductor and comes with low resistance
 A solder mask is used on the top of the copper layer that provides solid protection
 On the top of the solder mask, there exists a silkscreen coating that is used for
marking the elements on the board
 Single-layer PCB is an ideal choice for beginners, as mostly used in simple
electronics which don't involve complex circuitry.
 They are easy to manufacture in which circuits and components are soldered on one
side of the substrate.
 Cheap cost and easy availability make these PCBs an ideal choice for mass
production
 These low-cost boards are widely used in many applications including stereo
components, calculators, cameras, power supplies and printers.
  Double-Sided PCB
 It contains two layers of copper material and substrate material in between these copper
layers.
 Circuits on the one side of the board are connected on the other side of the board by means
of holes drilled on the board.
 Components on these PCB boards are connected using two different technology i.e
Through Hole Technology and Surface Mount Technology.
 Double-sided PCB features a moderate level of complexity and mostly used in a wide
range of applications including automotive dashboard, LED lighting, vending machines,
amplifiers, HVAC system, instrumentation and many more.
• Multilayer PCB
• It contains multiple layers of copper and is designed with a combination of single-sided
and double-sided PCB boards.
• A layer of insulation(substrate material) is placed between each board in order to
provide protection that prevents the components from burning in case excessive heat is
produced.
• Multilayers on the boards allow the professionals to make complex and thick designs
which help in accomplishing more complex electrical tasks.
• The extra layers incorporated in the multilayer design are very helpful and often used
for preventing the electromagnetic interference which is usually emitted by the design
itself.
• Multilayer PCBs are widely used in a number of applications including Satellite
systems, GPS technology, Data storage, File servers and Weather analysis
 PCB TERMINOLOGY
 Bare board : This term refers to a circuit board with no components mounted on it
 Trace : This term refers to the copper width of the PCB wires
 Via : Interconnection of signal between different layers of a PCB
 Pad : This is one of the most basic units of PCB
 A pad is a contact point used to connect components with a via and is the point to
which the components are soldered.
 Pad: Pad is nothing but a piece of copper on which lead of components are mounted and on which soldering
are done. Pad provides the mechanical support to the components.
 Trace: InPCB, components are not connected with the help of wires. All components are connected with a
conducting material like copper. This copper part of PCB which is used to connect all components that is
known as trace.
 Layers: According to application, cost and available space of circuit, user can choose the layer of PCB.
Most simple in construction, easy to design and most useful in routine life is single layer PCB. But for very
large and complex circuit, double layer PCB or Multi-layer PCB is most preferred compared to single layer
PCB. Now a day, in multi-layer PCB, 10-12 layers can be connected and most critical thing is to
communicate between the components in different layer.
 Silk layer: Silk layer is used for printing line, text or any art on the surface of PCB. Usually, for screen
printing epoxy ink is used. Silk layer can be used in top and/or bottom layer of PCB according to user
requirement which is known as silk screen TOP and silk screen BOTTOM.
 Top and bottom layer: In Top layer of PCB, all components are mounted in this layer of PCB. Generally,
this layer is green coloured. In bottom layer of PCB, all components are soldered through the hole and lead
of components is known as bottom layer of PCB. Sometime, in top and/or bottom layer PCB is coated with
green colour layer, which is known as solder mask.
 Solder Mask: There is one additional layer on the top of copper layer called as Solder Mask. This layer
generally has green color but it can be of any color. This insulating layer is used for to prevent accidental
contact of pads with other conductive material on PCB.
Difference between PWB and PCB
PWB
Printed Wiring Board
It means a board without components
PWB are the boards used for creating
interconnections between components.
PCB
Printed circuit Board
It means a board with components
PCB is a complete circuit board ready for
installation on electronic devices
PCB Materials
 The main element is dielectric substrate which is rigid or flexible. This dielectric
substrate is used with conducting material like copper on it. As dielectric material, the
glass epoxy laminates or composite materials are used
1) FR4:
FR is stand for FIRE RETARDENT. For all type of PCB manufacturing, most
common glass laminated material is FR4. Based on woven glass-epoxy
compounds, FR4 is a composite material which is most useful because it provides
very good mechanical strength

FR4 Glass transition temp

•Most common and widely used
Standard 130
•Cheapest
With higher glass •Compatible with the lead free reflow
170-180
transition temp. technology
•Compatible with the lead free reflow
Halogen free --
technology
2) FR-1 and FR-2:
o This material is made from paper and phenol compounds and this material is used for only single layer
o PCB Both FR1 and FR2 has similar characteristic, the only difference is glass transition temperature
o FR1 has higher glass transition temperature compared to FR2
o These materials is also sub divided in standard, halogen free and non-hydrophobic

3) CEM-1:
o These material is made from paper and two layer of woven glass epoxy and phenol compounds
o This material is used for Single sided PCB only
o CEM-1 can used instead of FR4, but price of CEM1 is higher than FR4

4) CEM-3:
o This material is white coloured, glass epoxy compound which is mostly used in double layer PCB
o CEM-3 has lower mechanical strength compared to FR4, but it is cheaper than FR4
o So, this is a good alternative of FR4.
5) Polyimide:
o This material is used in flexible PCB
o This material is made from kepton, rogers, dupont
o This material has good electrical properties, felicity, wide temperature range and high
chemical resistance
o Working temperature of this material is -200 ͦC to 300 ͦC.

6) Prepreg:
o Prepreg means pre-impregnated
o It is a Fiberglass impregnated with resin
o These resins are pre- dried, so that when it heated, it flows, sticks and completely immersed
o Prepreg has adhesive layer which gives strength similar to FR4
o There are many versions of this material according to resin content, SR- standard resin,
MR- medium resin and HR- high resin
o This is chosen according to required thickness, layer structure and impedance
o This material also available in high glass transition temperature and halogen free.
 Advantages of PCB

• Miniaturized circuits
Fabrication of complex circuits over a small area is completely possible using PCB as smaller components also
available cheaply and in bulk.
• Increased life span
Due to the protection of electrical connections on board with the insulated mask coating, the life of PCBs increase
significantly.
• Easy manufacturing process
PCB designing and fabrication as a whole is relatively an inexpensive and simple task than making wired
connections without any PCB.
• High circuit complexity
Even the circuits with highest levels of complexity can be easily designed and fabricated which only increases the
number of layers on the same PCB board.
• Low electrical noise
Due to reduced length of connection wires, the effects of stray electrical signals due to neighbouring connections is
reduced significantly.
• Easy replication
Replication of a circuit design becomes significantly easy as once the design the ready, multiple boards can be
manufactured with the same design
• Easy troubleshooting
Inspection, troubleshooting and repairing of faulty components or connections is very easy on PCBs.
• Completely portable
PCBs can be moved from one place to other quite easily without any damage as compared to wired circuits.
Applications of PCBs

Due to their superiority in performance compared to traditional circuits, PCBs

find application in many electronic devices, equipment, and systems, including, but not
limited to, the following:
 Appliances
 Automobiles
 Consumer electronics
 Medical equipment
 Smart technology
 Solar energy systems
 Unmanned vehicles (UMVs)
 Wearables