A very basic printed circuit board is a flat, rigid, insulating material that has thin conductive structures adhering to one side. These conductive structures create geometric patterns consisting of, for example, rectangles, circles, and squares. Long, thin rectangles function as interconnections and various shapes function as connection points for components. A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, tracks or signal traces etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate.
A printed circuit board such as the example in the image has only one conductive layer. A single-layer PCB is very restrictive; the circuit realization will not make efficient use of the available area, and the designer may have difficulty creating the necessary interconnections.
A conductive interconnection is called a trace, and connection points for components are called pads and through-holes. Basic PCB design consists of arranging pads and through-holes so that components can be properly installed, and then connecting these pads and through-holes using traces. Not all drilled holes are for through-hole components. We often need to transfer a signal or supply voltage from one PCB layer to another, and this is accomplished using small, conductive holes called vias.
Many PCBs also include mounting holes, which have a mechanical rather than an electrical function and therefore don’t need to be plated. The term “plating” in this context refers to a conductive material that has been deposited onto the interior of a drilled hole.
A copper pour is a relatively large section of a PCB layer that is filled with a conductive material. Copper pours can be used to provide a very low-resistance or low-inductance connection between components and to improve thermal performance
A PCB layer that consists entirely of one large copper pour is called a plane layer. We frequently use an internal layer as a ground plane and create ground connections by placing vias next to component pins.
A through-hole or via begins as a circle of copper and then becomes a hole when a drill bit passes through the circle. The term annular ring refers to the width of copper that remains after the hole has been drilled.
Printed circuit boards include a variety of “supplemental” information that has no role in the electrical functionality of the device. For example, reference designators uniquely identify components, dots indicate proper component orientation, and project titles or serial numbers help us to keep track of the many circuit boards that accumulate in a lab. We refer to this information as the silkscreen.
With the introduction of silicone and the integrated circuits, the cost, as well as the size of the electronics components, began decreasing. The prevalence of electronics as consumer goods started increasing. The intense pressure of reducing the manufacturing cost and the size of the electronic products brought rather compulsions for the manufacturers to look for alternatives. This is how the idea and concept of PCB came to prominence.
PCBs are green in color although it is beyond any standard rule or color code. The components of the PCB include capacitors, resistors as well as integrated circuits. Depending upon the complexities of the electronic gadgets PCBs can have as much as twelve layers. After each and every component has been mounted on the printed circuit board the finalized board appears to be as Printed Circuit Board Assembly.
There are two steps involved in the making and assembling of the PCB assembly manufacture company. Simulation and Prototyping. The basic purpose of the simulation is to verify whether the circuit design will meet its performance and functionality criteria or not. Electronic circuit simulation is an extremely important instrument as it eliminates the manufacturing of the boards that are unable to meet the requirement of the objectives.
