4.

PCB Designing
4.1 Printed circuit board:
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. It is also referred to as printed wiring board
(PWB) or etched wiring board. A PCB populated with electronic components is a printed circuit
assembly (PCA), also known as a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA). Printed circuit boards
are used in virtually all but the simplest commercially-produced electronic devices. PCBs are
inexpensive, and can be highly reliable. They require much more layout effort and higher initial
cost than either wire wrap or point-to-point construction, but are much cheaper and faster for
high-volume production; the production and soldering of PCBs can be done by totally automated
equipment. Much of the electronics industry's PCB design, assembly, and quality control needs
are set by standards that are published by the IPC organization.
4.1.1 History:
The inventor of the printed circuit was the Austrian engineer Paul Eisler who, while
working in England, made one circa 1936 as part of a radio set. Around 1943 the USA began to
use the technology on a large scale to make rugged radios for use in World War II. After the war,
in 1948, the USA released the invention for commercial use. Printed circuits did not become
commonplace in consumer electronics until the mid-1950s, after the Auto-Sembly process was
developed by the United States Army. Before printed circuits (and for a while after their
invention), point-to-point construction was used. For prototypes, or small production runs, wire
wrap or turret board can be more efficient. Predating the printed circuit invention, and similar in
spirit, was John Sargrove's 1936-1947 Electronic Circuit Making Equipment (ECME) which
sprayed metal onto a Bakelite plastic board. The ECME could produce 3 radios per minute.
During World War II, the development of the anti-aircraft proximity fuse required an
electronic circuit that could withstand being fired from a gun, and could be produced in quantity.
The Centralab Division of Globe Union submitted a proposal which met the requirements: a
ceramic plate would be screenprinted with metallic paint for conductors and carbon material for
resistors, with ceramic disc capacitors and subminiature vacuum tubes soldered in place.
Originally, every electronic component had wire leads, and the PCB had holes drilled for
each wire of each component. The components' leads were then passed through the holes and
soldered to the PCB trace. This method of assembly is called through-hole construction. In 1949,
Moe Abramson and Stanislaus F. Danko of the United States Army Signal Corps developed the
Auto-Sembly process in which component leads were inserted into a copper foil interconnection
pattern and dip soldered. With the development of board lamination and etching techniques, this
concept evolved into the standard printed circuit board fabrication process in use today.
Soldering could be done automatically by passing the board over a ripple, or wave, of molten
solder in a wave-soldering machine. However, the wires and holes are wasteful since drilling
holes is expensive and the protruding wires are merely cut off.
In recent years, the use of surface mount parts has gained popularity as the demand for
smaller electronics packaging and greater functionality has grown.
4.1.2 Materials used in PCB:
Conducting layers are typically made of thin copper foil. Insulating layers dielectric are
typically laminated together with epoxy resin prepreg. The board is typically coated with a solder
mask that is green in color. Other colors that are normally available are blue, black, white and
red. There are quite a few different dielectrics that can be chosen to provide different insulating
values depending on the requirements of the circuit. Some of these dielectrics are
polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon), FR-4, FR-1, CEM-1 or CEM-3. Well known prepreg materials
used in the PCB industry are FR-2 (Phenolic cotton paper), FR-3 (Cotton paper and epoxy), FR-
4 (Woven glass and epoxy), FR-5 (Woven glass and epoxy), FR-6 (Matte glass and polyester),
G-10 (Woven glass and epoxy), CEM-1 (Cotton paper and epoxy), CEM-2 (Cotton paper and
epoxy), CEM-3 (Woven glass and epoxy), CEM-4 (Woven glass and epoxy), CEM-5 (Woven
glass and polyester). Thermal expansion is an important consideration especially with BGA and
naked die technologies, and glass fiber offers the best dimensional stability.
FR-4 is by far the most common material used today. The board with copper on it is
called "copper-clad laminate".
Copper foil thickness can be specified in ounces per square foot or micrometres. One
ounce per square foot is 1.344 mils or 34 micrometres.
4.2 Layout Designing:

Figure 4.1: PCB Layout
Before etching the board, you need to have a layout pattern. For this, you use a layout
editor. A layout editor is a program that allows you to draw out all of the traces and place all of
the parts onto the board. It's a lot like a drawing program specifically for circuit boards. Most
have 'libraries' that have common parts' layouts (like integrated circuits, resistors, capacitors...).
You can use parts from those libraries or make up your own for specialized applications. They
also allow you to draw out all of the traces and move things around until you get it exactly as you
want it. I personally use Express PCB. The freeware version of the software is somewhat
limited but it is sufficient for most simple circuits. The image below shows what it looked like in
the editor. I was using a 4"x6" board which was more than I needed. That's why there's a lot of
blank space at the top. I let the polygon that covers all of the unused areas of the board extend to
the full size of the board. This allows the unused copper to be covered by the mask and not dilute
the etching solution.
4.3 Screen printing on PCB:
Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking
stencil. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink or other printable
materials which can be pressed through the mesh as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate. A
roller or squeegee is moved across the screen stencil, forcing or pumping ink past the threads of
the woven mesh in the open areas.
Screen printing is also a stencil method of print making in which a design is imposed on a
screen of silk or other fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance, and
ink is forced through the mesh onto the printing surface. It is also known as silkscreen,
stereography and serigraph.
There is considerable and semantic discussion about the process, and the various terms
for what is essentially the same technique. Much of the current confusion is based on the popular
traditional reference to the process of screen printing as silkscreen printing. Traditionally silk
was used for screen-printing, hence the name silk screening. Currently, synthetic threads are
commonly used in the screen printing process. The most popular mesh in general use is made of
polyester. There are special-use mesh materials of nylon and stainless steel available to the
screen printer.
Encyclopedia references, encyclopedias and trade publications also use an array of
spellings for this process with the two most often encountered English spellings as, screen
printing spelled as a single undivided word, and the more popular two word title of screen
printing without hyphenation.
4.4 PCB Etching:
The developed PCB is etched with a 220 gram solution of ammonium peroxydisulfate
(NH
4
)
2
S
2
O
8
a.k.a. ammonium persulfate, 220 gram added to 1 liter of water and mix it until
everything is dissolved. Theoretically it should be possible to etch slightly more than 60 grams of
copper with 1 liter etching solution. Assume an 50% efficiency, about 30 grams of copper. With
a thickness of 35 m copper on your PCB this covers a copper area of about 1000 cm
2
.
Unfortunately the efficiency of the etching solution degrades, dissolved ammonium
peroxydisulfate decomposes slowly. You better make just enough etching solution you need to
etch. For an etching tray of about 20 x 25 cm a minimum practical amount is 200-250 ml
solution. So you dissolve about 44 grams ammonium peroxydisulfate into 200 ml or 55 grams
into 250 ml water.
Etching at ambient temperature might take over an hour, it is better to heat up the etching
solvent to about 35-45 degrees Celcius. The etching solution heating up could be done in a
magnetron, this takes about 40 to 60 seconds in a 850W magnetron depending on the initial
temperature of the etching solution (hint: first try this with just water to determine the timer
setting of the magnetron). The etching - rocking the etching tray - takes about 15-30 minutes at
this temperature. If you have a heated, air-bubble circulated etching fluid tank available, this is
probably the fastest way to etch. At higher temperatures the etching performance decreases. The
etching process is an exothermic reaction, it generates heat. Take care, cool your etching tray
when necessary! You should minimize the amount of copper to etch by creating copper area in
your PCB layout as much as possible. When starting the etching process and little to etch it is
difficult to keep the etching solution at 35-45 degrees Celcius. It helps to fill for example the
kitchen sink with warm water and rock the etching tray in the filled kitchen sink.
When the ammonium peroxydisulfate is dissolved it is a clear liquid. After an etching
procedure it gradually becomes blue and more deeper blue - the chemical reaction creates
dissolved copper sulfate CuSO
4
. Compared to other etching chemicals like hydrated iron (III)
chloride FeCl
3
.6H
2
O a.k.a. ferric chloride or the combination of hydrochloric acid HCL and
hydrogen peroxide H
2
O
2
, using ammonium peroxydisulfate is a clean and safe method.
4.5 Removing the Toner:
Before you can solder the components into the board, you need to remove the toner. This
may be done with steel wool or a 'Scotch Brite' type scrubbing pad. When you're finished, you'll
have a shiny copper layout. Try not to touch the copper with your fingers because it will cause it
to oxidize. Later you'll apply a clear coating to protect it. You'll notice that every little crack or
pin hole in the toner mask has resuted in the copper being removed. If one of those cracks were
across a trace, it would cause an open circuit and would have to be repaired. After the board is
cleaned, look for areas where the copper hasn't been completely removed (between traces, pads
or anything else). If there are any short circuits, they must be removed now. If they are not and
the device is powered up, there could be significant damage to the board and the electrical
components. To cut them free, you can use something like an Exacto knife. Be very careful and
take your time.
4.6 Drilling:
Holes through a PCB are typically drilled with tiny drill bits made of solid tungsten
carbide. The drilling is performed by automated drilling machines with placement controlled by
a drill tape or drill file. These computer-generated files are also called numerically controlled
drill (NCD) files or "Excellon files". The drill file describes the location and size of each drilled
hole. These holes are often filled with annular rings (hollow rivets) to create vias. Vias allow the
electrical and thermal connection of conductors on opposite sides of the PCB.
Most common laminate is epoxy filled fiberglass. Drill bit wear is partly due to
embedded glass, which is harder than steel. High drill speed necessary for cost effective drilling
of hundreds of holes per board causes very high temperatures at the drill bit tip, and high
temperatures (400-700 degrees) soften steel and decompose (oxidize) laminate filler. Copper is
softer than epoxy and interior conductors may suffer damage during drilling.
The walls of the holes, for boards with 2 or more layers, are made conductive then plated
with copper to form plated-through holes that electrically connect the conducting layers of the
PCB. For multilayer boards, those with 4 layers or more, drilling typically produces a smear of
the high temperature decomposition products of bonding agent in the laminate system. Before
the holes can be plated through, this smear must be removed by a chemical de-smear process, or
by plasma-etch.
4.7 Placing and Soldering Parts:
Now its time to move each component onto the pcb and begin the tedious work of
making all those components fit together. This is where youll find that pcb design is really a
jigsaw puzzle. Before proceeding with the detailed PCB design and layout, it is necessary to gain
a rough idea of where components will be located and whether there is sufficient space on the
board to contain all the required circuitry. This will enable decisions about the number of layers
needed in the board, and also whether there is sufficient space to contain all the circuitry may
need to be made.
Once a rough estimate has been made of the space and approximate locations of the
components, a more detailed component layout can be made for the PCB design. This can take
into account aspects such as the proximity of devices that may need to communicate with each
other, and other information pertaining to any RF considerations for example.
In order that components can be incorporated into the PCB design they must have all the
relevant information associated with them. This will include the footprint for the printed circuit
board pads, any drilling information, keep out areas and the like. Typically several devices may
share the same footprint, so this information does not have to be entered for each component part
number. However a library for all the devices used will be built up within the PCB layout design
system. In this way components that have been used previously can be called up easily.


Figure 4.2: Hardware of Handwriting recognition