Printed Circuit Board (PCB)

Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) form the backbone of all

major electronics. These miraculous inventions pop up in nearly all
computational electronics, including simpler devices like digital
clocks, calculators etc. For the uninitiated, a PCB routes electrical
signals through electronics, which satisfies the device's electrical
and mechanical circuit requirements. In short, PCBs tell the
electricity where to go, bringing your electronics to life.

PCBs direct current around their surface through a network

of copper pathways. The complex system of copper routes
determines the unique role of each piece of printed circuit board.
 Printed Circuit Board (PCB)

There are three main types of circuit boards that get

manufactured on a consistent basis, and it’s important to understand
the differences between each so you can decide the right circuit
board for your requirements. The three main types of circuit boards
in current manufacture are:
 Single & Double Sided
Circuit Boards
A single sided board is
made from rigid laminate
consisting of a woven glass epoxy
base material clad with copper on
one side of varying thickness.

Double sided boards are

made from the same type of base
material clad with copper on two
sides of varying thickness.
 Multi-Layer Boards

Multi-layer boards are

made from the same base material
with copper foil on the top and
bottom and one or more inner
layer cores.
The number of layers
corresponds to the number of
copper foil layers.
 Four Main Parts of PCB
Substrate: The first, and most important, is the substrate,
usually made of fiberglass. Fiberglass is used because it provides a
core strength to the PCB and helps resist breakage. Think of the
substrate as the PCB’s “skeleton”.
 Four Main Parts of PCB
Copper Layer: Depending on the board type, this layer can
either be copper foil or a full-on copper coating. Regardless of
which approach is used, the point of the copper is still the same
— to carry electrical signals to and from the PCB, much like
your nervous system carries signals between your brain and your
muscles.
 Four Main Parts of PCB
Solder Mask: The third piece of the PCB is the solder mask,
which is a layer of polymer that helps protect the copper so that it
doesn’t short-circuit from coming into contact with the environment.
In this way, the solder mask acts as the PCB’s “skin”.
 Four Main Parts of PCB
Silkscreen: The final part of the circuit board is the
silkscreen. The silkscreen is usually on the component side of the
board used to show part numbers, logos, symbols switch settings,
component reference and test points. The silkscreen can also be
known as legend or nomenclature.
 Step One: Designing the PCB
The beginning step of any PCB manufacture is, of course,
the design. PCB manufacture and design always starts with a plan:
the designer lays out a blueprint for the PCB that fulfills all the
requirements as outlined. The most commonly-used design software
used by PCB designers is a software called Extended Gerber —
also known as IX274X.

When it comes to PCB design, Extended Gerber is an

excellent piece of software because it also works as an output
format. Extended Gerber encodes all the information that the
designer needs, such as the number of copper layers, the amount of
solder masks needed and the other pieces of component notation.
Once a design blueprint for the PCB is encoded by the Gerber
Extended software, all the different parts and aspects of the design
are checked over to make sure that there are no errors.
 Step One: Designing the PCB
Once the examination by the designer is complete, the
finished PCB design is sent off to a PCB fabrication house so that
the PCB can be built. On arrival, the PCB design plan undergoes a
second check by the fabricator, known as a Design for Manufacture
(DFM) check. A proper DFM check ensures that the PCB design
fulfills, at minimum, the tolerances required for manufacture.
 Step Two: Printing the PCB Design
After all the checks are complete, the PCB design can be
printed. Unlike other plans, like architectural drawings, PCB plans
don’t print out on a regular 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. Instead, a special
kind of printer, known as a plotter printer, is used. A plotter printer
makes a “film” of the PCB. The final product of this “film” looks
much like the transparencies that used to be used in schools — it’s
essentially a photo negative of the board itself.

The inside layers of the PCB are represented in two ink colors:

Black Ink: Used for the copper traces and circuits of the PCB

Clear Ink: Denotes the non-conductive areas of the PCB, like the
fiberglass base
 Step Two: Printing the PCB Design

On the outer layers of the PCB design, this

trend is reversed — clear ink refers to the line of
copper pathways, but black ink also refers to areas
where copper will be removed.

Each PCB layer and the accompanying

solder mask gets its own film, so a simple two-layer
PCB needs four sheets — one for each layer and
one each for the accompanying solder mask.

After the film is printed, they’re lined up

and a hole, known as a registration hole, is punched
through them. The registration hole is used as guide
to align the films later on in the process.
 Step Three: Making the Substrate

Woven glass fiber is unwound from a roll and fed through a

process station The above illustrations show an enlarged section of a
PCB where it is impregnated with epoxy resin either by dipping or
spraying. The impregnated glass fiber then passes through rollers
which roll the material to the desired thickness for the finished
substrate and also remove any excess resin.

The substrate material passes through

an oven where it is semicured. After the oven,
the material is cut into large panels.
 Step Three: Making the Substrate

The panels are stacked in layers,

alternating with layers of adhesive-backed
copper foil. The stacks are placed in a press
where they are subjected to temperatures of
about 340°F (170°C) and pressures of 1500
psi for an hour or more. This fully cures the
resin and tightly bonds the copper foil to the
surface of the substrate material.
 Step Four: Drilling and Plotting the Holes
Several panels of substrate, each large enough to make
several printed circuit boards, are stacked on top of each other and
pinned together to keep them from moving. The stacked panels are
placed in a CNC machine, and the holes are drilled according to the
pattern determined when the boards were laid out. The holes are
deburred to remove any excess material clinging to the edges of the
holes.
The inside surfaces of the holes designed to
provide a conductive circuit from one side of the
board to the other are plated with copper.
Non-conducting holes are plugged
to keep them from being plated or are drilled
after the individual boards are cut from the
larger panel.
 Step Five:
Creating the printed circuit pattern on the substrate

The printed circuit pattern may be created by an "additive"

process or a "subtractive" process.

In the additive process, copper is plated, or added, onto the

surface of the substrate in the desired pattern, leaving the rest of
the surface unplated.

In the subtractive process, the entire surface of the

substrate is first plated, and then the areas that are not part of the
desired pattern are etched away, or subtracted. We shall describe
the additive process:
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 Step Five:
Creating the printed circuit pattern on the substrate

The foil surface of the substrate is degreased. The panels

pass through a vacuum chamber where a layer of positive
photoresist material is pressed firmly onto the entire surface of the
foil. A positive photoresist material is a polymer that has the
property of becoming more soluble when exposed to ultraviolet
light.
The vacuum ensures that no air bubbles are trapped
between the foil and the photoresist. The printed circuit pattern
mask is laid on top of the photoresist and the panels are exposed to
an intense ultraviolet light. Because the mask is clear in the areas
of the printed circuit pattern, the photoresist in those areas is
irradiated and becomes very soluble.
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 Step Five:
Creating the printed circuit pattern on the substrate

The mask is removed, and the surface of the panels is

sprayed with an alkaline developer that dissolves the irradiated
photoresist in the areas of the printed circuit pattern, leaving the
copper foil exposed on the surface of the substrate.
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 Step Five:
Creating the printed circuit pattern on the substrate

The panels are then electroplated with copper. The foil on

the surface of the substrate acts as the cathode in this process, and
the copper is plated in the exposed foil areas to a thickness of about
0.001-0.002 inches (0.025-0.050 mm). The areas still covered with
photoresist cannot act as a cathode and are not plated.
Tin-lead or another protective coating is plated on top of the
copper plating to prevent the copper from oxidizing and as a resist
for the next manufacturing step.
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 Step Five:
Creating the printed circuit pattern on the substrate

The photoresist is stripped from the boards with a solvent to

expose the substrate's copper foil between the plated printed circuit
pattern. The boards are sprayed with an acid solution which eats
away the copper foil. The copper plating on the printed circuit
pattern is protected by the tin-lead coating and is unaffected by the
acid.
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 Step Six: Attaching the contact fingers

The contact fingers are attached to the edge of the

substrate to connect with the printed circuit. The contact fingers
are masked off from the rest of the board and then plated. Plating
is done with three metals: first tin-lead, next nickel, then gold.

Step Seven: Fusing the tin-lead coating

The tin-lead coating on the surface of the copper printed

circuit pattern is very porous and is easily oxidized. To protect it,
the panels are passed through a "reflow" oven or hot oil bath
which causes the tin-lead to melt, or reflow, into a shiny surface.
 Step Eight: Sealing, stenciling, and cutting the panels

Each panel is sealed with epoxy to protect the circuits

from being damaged while components are being attached.
Instructions and other markings are stenciled onto the boards.
The panels are then cut into individual boards and the
edges are smoothed.
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 Step Nine: Mounting the components

Individual boards pass through several machines which

place the electronic components in their proper location in the
circuit. If surface mount technology is going to be used to
mount the components, the boards first pass through an
automatic solder paster, which places a dab of solder paste at
each component contact point.
Very small components may be placed by a chip
shooter which rapidly places, or shoots, the components onto
the board. Larger components may be robotically placed. Some
components may be too large or odd-sized for robotic
placement and must be manually placed and soldered later.
 The components are then soldered to the circuits. With
surface mount technology, the soldering is done by passing the
boards through another reflow process, which causes the solder
paste to melt and make the connection.
The flux residue from the solder is cleaned with water
or solvents depending on the type of solder used.
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 Packaging

Unless the printed circuit boards are going to be used

immediately, they are individually packaged in protective plastic bags
for storage or shipping.
 PCB Problems and Solutions
1. Dark and granular contacts appear on the PCB circuit
board. PCB boards have dark or small grain joints. Most of them
are caused by solder contamination and excessive oxides in the tin.
The solder joint structure is too brittle. The dark color caused by
solder is confused.

Solution: Be careful not to use low tin content.

2. The impurity content in the composition of the solder

used in
the PCB manufacturing process changes is too much.

Solution: It is necessary to add pure tin or replace the solder.

 PCB Problems and Solutions
3. Substrate is too hot. Physical changes in the layered glass
fiber layer, such as separation between layers, but this situation is
not a bad solder joint.

Solution: Need to reduce the preheating

and soldering temperature or no judgment
and substrate speed.

4. The PCB circuit board solder joint turns golden yellow. In

general, the solder of the PCB board is silver-gray, but occasionally
there are golden solder joints. The main reason for this problem is
that the temperature is too high.

Solution: The temperature of the tin furnace needs to be lowered.

 PCB Problems and Solutions
5. PCB circuit board short circuits:

a. PCB circuit board short circuit is one of the common

faults that cause the PCB board to work, and the biggest cause of
this problem is improper solder pad design.

Solution: The circular pad can be changed to an elliptical shape to

increase the distance between the point and the point to prevent
short circuit.
 PCB Problems and Solutions
5. PCB circuit board short circuits:

b. The design of the PCB board

part is not appropriate, and it will also
cause the board to be short-circuited and unable to work. If the foot
of SOIC is parallel to the tin wave, it will easily cause a short
circuit accident.

Solution: It can be modified if the part is removed, so it is easy to

cause a short circuit. The solder joint needs to be more than 2mm
away from the line.