- A PCB - Printed circuit board is a thin board made of fiberglass, or other laminate material. Conductive pathways are etched or printed onto board, connecting different components on the PCB, such as transistors, resistors, and integrated circuits.
- All the components are connected from side to side with traces on the board.
- It is absolutely possible to develop very large circuits on small printed circuit boards with the availability of very small sized electronic components.
Types of PCB:
Depends upon the spatial and density requirement, and the circuitry complexity determines the type of board to be produced.
- Single sided PCB:
- It has conductors on only one surface of the dielectric base of the printed circuit board.
single sided PCB board
Paths of circuits connected
- Double sided PCB:
- Conductors on both sides of a dielectric material and the layers interconnected by plated through holes (PTH).
- These kind of circuit boards used to connect the circuits on every side using one of two techniques: through-hole & surface mount technology.
- Through-hole technology uses wires for connection and soldered into the board, whereas Surface mount technology doesn't use wires, have leads to get soldered into the board. It executes more functions in lesser time, less space and cost effective.
- It is used in regulators, hard drives, LED lighting, printers, power monitoring.
Double sided PCB
- Multilayer PCB:
- Conductors on three or more layers separated by dielectric material and the layers are interconnected by PTH or pads.
- As it contains multi layers, designers can make high compound designs. Extra layers used in this are Power layers which are to provide supply to the circuit. It have flexibility, fast accessing, less space but high cost.
- It is used in computers, data storage, x-ray equipment, handheld device, mobile transmissions, GPS technology.
Multilayer PCB
Advantages:
- Saving of time
- Immune to movement
- Tight connections and short circuits avoided
- Ease of repair
- Low cost
- Compact size and saving of wire
Disadvantages:
- As the copper tracks are very thin they can able to carry less current hence a PCB can not be used for heavy currents because in that case the strips will be heated up and cause problems.
- Soldering needs precautions on the risk of strips being over heated and destroyed are always there.
Applications:
- Medical devices
- Industrial Machinery
- Marine applications
- Telecommunication industry