OVERVIEW OF PCB DESIGN

AND FABRICATION
PCB DESIGN AND FABRICATION CPE 314N

CONNECTIVITY IN ELECTRONIC
EQUIPMENT
Electronic equipment is a
combination of electrical and
electronic components
connected to produce a certain
designed function. In the era of
vacuum tubes and even later,
electronic equipment was
constructed by hand wiring and
by point-to-point soldering.

CONNECTIVITY IN ELECTRONIC
EQUIPMENT
A natural evolution took place in several
areas. Smaller components were
developed and modular design became
popular, basically intended to decrease
the time between unit failure and repair
due to easy replaceability. The use of
miniaturization and sub-miniaturization in
electronic equipment design gave birth to
a new technique in inter-component
wiring and assembly that is popularly
known as the printed circuit board.

PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD

The printed circuit board provides the
physical structure for mounting and
holding electronic components as well as
the electrical interconnection between
components.
Printed circuit board is usually
abbreviated as PCB and quite often
referred to as board. However, in the
USA, the term PWB (Printed Wiring
Board) is more often used instead of PCB.

ADVANTAGES OF PRINTED CIRCUIT

BOARDS
i.

The size of component assembly is reduced with a

corresponding decrease in weight.

ii. Quantity production can be achieved at lower unit cost.

iii. Component wiring and assembly can be mechanized.
iv. Circuit characteristics can be maintained without
introducing variation in inter-circuit capacitance.

ADVANTAGES OF PRINTED CIRCUIT

BOARDS
v. They ensure a high level of repeatability and offer uniformity
of electrical characteristics from assembly to assembly.

vi. The location of parts is fixed, which simplifies identification

and maintenance of electronic equipment and systems.

vii.Inspection time is reduced because printed circuitry

eliminates the probability of error.

viii. Printed wiring personnel require minimal technical skills

and training. Chances of miswiring or short-circuited wiring

are minimized.

EVOLUTION OF PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARDS

1904 - Frank Sprague (Sprague Electric)
March 2, 1925 - Mr. Charles Ducas: filed a patent application for
his proposal to mount electrical metal deposits in the shape of
conductors directly onto the insulation material to simplify the
construction of electrical appliances.

1936 - Dr. Paul Eisler (The father of printed circuit board

technology) - proposed copper clad insulation material in sheet
form for use as the base material in circuit board manufacture.

EVOLUTION OF PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARDS

World War II - technology developed by the US National
Bureau of Standards was used in the volume production of US
army VT proximity fuses for rockets.

1953 55, Motorola introduced the copper metal plating

process to provide interconnection between two sides of a
board, which was found to be more suitable for the mass
manufacturing process.
and the rest is development and beyond.

COMPONENTS OF A PRINTED CIRCUIT

BOARD
The essential components of a printed circuit
board are:

The base, which is a thin board of insulating

material, rigid or flexible, which supports all
conductors and components; and

The conductors, normally of high purity

copper in the form of thin strips of appropriate
shapes firmly attached to the base material.

Why the term

printed?

CLASSIFICATION OF PRINTED CIRCUIT

BOARDS
Before: Consumer PCBs and Professional PCBs
Now: A more simple and understandable classification is now
used, which is based on the number of planes or layers of
wiring, which constitute the total wiring assembly or
structures, and to the presence or absence of plated-through
holes.

CLASSIFICATION OF PRINTED CIRCUIT

BOARDS
Single-sided Printed Circuit Boards
Single-sided means that wiring is
available only on one side of the
insulating substrate. The side which
contains the circuit pattern is called
the solder side whereas the other
side is called the component side.
These types of boards are mostly
used in case of simple circuitry and
where the manufacturing costs are
to be kept at a minimum.

CLASSIFICATION OF PRINTED CIRCUIT

BOARDS
Double-sided Printed Circuit Boards

Double-sided printed circuit boards

have wiring patterns on both sides of
the insulating material, i.e. the circuit
pattern is available both on the
components side and the solder side.
Obviously, the component density
and the conductor lines are higher
than the single-sided boards. Two
types of double-sided boards are
commonly used:

Double-sided board
with plated throughhole connection (PTH);

Double-sided board
without plated
through-hole
connection (non-PTH).

CLASSIFICATION OF PRINTED CIRCUIT

BOARDS
continuation:

CLASSIFICATION OF PRINTED CIRCUIT

BOARDS

Multi-layer Boards

The multi-layer board makes use of more than two printed circuit boards with a thin
layer of what is known as prepreg material placed between each layer, thus making a
sandwich assembly. The printed circuit on the top board is similar to a conventional
printed circuit board assembly except that the components are placed much closer to
avoid having many terminals, which necessitates the use of additional board layers for
the required interconnections.

Cross-section of a multi-layer board with four layers

CLASSIFICATION OF PRINTED CIRCUIT

BOARDS

Multi-layer Boards

Multi-layer lay-up details (a) four-layer board (b) eight-layer board

CLASSIFICATION OF PRINTED CIRCUIT

BOARDS

Rigid and Flexible Printed Circuit Boards

Printed circuit boards can also be classified on the basis of the type of
insulating material used, i.e. rigid or flexible. While rigid boards are made of a
variety of materials, flexible boards use flexible substrate material like
polyester or polyamide. The base material, which is usually very thin, is in the
range of 0.1 mm thickness. Laminates used in flexible boards are available with
copper on one or both sides in rolls. Rigid-flex boards, which constitute a
combination of rigid and flexible boards usually bonded together, are threedimensional structures that have flexible parts connecting the rigid boards,
which usually support components. This arrangement gives volumetrically
efficient packaging and is therefore gaining widespread use in electronic
equipment. Flexible PCBs may be single-sided, double-sided (PTH or non-PTH)
or multi-layer.

MANUFACTURING OF BASIC PRINTED

CIRCUIT BOARDS
The most popular process in creating PCB is the print and
etch method, which is purely a subtractive method.
Four major phases were observed in manufacturing during the
early times:
Design
Fabrication
Assembly
Test

SINGLE-SIDED BOARDS
(DESIGN AND
FABRICATION PROCESS)
Schematic Diagram
Artwork Generation
Panel Preparation
Image Transfer
Etching
Board Drilling
Coatings

Hot Air Solder Level

Immersion Precious Metal Plating
Organic Surface Protectant (OSP) Coating
Conformal Coatings

Testing

 Schematic Diagram - also called the circuit or logic diagram,

represents the electronic components and connections in the most
readable form.

Artwork Generation - The PCB layout defines the final physical form of
the circuit and labelling details are finalized as the layout is
completed.

Panel Preparation - Before any processing can be undertaken on a

board, it must be cleaned to get rid of the contaminants, which may
be in the form of organic material (oils and greases), particulate (dust
and machining particles), and oxides and sulphides on the copper
surface.

 Image Transfer - The raw material for printed circuit boards is a

copper clad laminate with copper on one side only. The sheets of
the laminate are sheared to provide panels of the required size,
keeping it slightly longer than the master pattern of the PCB.

Etching - The etching process is the core of the PCB manufacturing

process, based on subtractive method which involves removal of
copper from undesirable areas in order to achieve the desired
circuit patterns (ex. immersion, splash, bubble, spray).

Board Drilling - For small scale production, boards are drilled by

using single head manually controlled machines.

 Coatings - All printed circuit boards necessarily use some form

of a surface finish on the exposed pads to which electronic
components are to be soldered. This involves a masking
material called soldermask.
Hot Air Solder Level tin/lead solder
Immersion Precious Metal Plating electroless nickel/immersion gold,

silver or tin
Organic Surface Protectant Coating nitrogen-bearing compound
Conformal Coatings acrylics, polyeurathanes, epoxies, silicones

Testing

Bare board test checks for shorts, opens and net list connectivity
Loaded board test - analysis of manufacturing defects and in-circuit,
functional and combinational tests

DOUBLE-SIDED PLATED
THROUGH HOLES
(DESIGN AND
FABRICATION
PROCESS)
Panel Preparation
Hole Drilling
Electroless Copper Plating
Image transfer
(Photolithography)

Tin-Lead Plating
Etching
Hot-air leveling
Solder masking
Organic Surface Protectant

MARKET DRIVERS
Major market drivers for PCBs
indicate that
complexity/performance are
increasing while size/form
factor are falling. Similarly,
there is a demand for higher
reliability/quality while cost
and time to market are
expected to decrease

STANDARD ON PCB
ISO (International Organization for Standardization)
IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission)
ANSI (American National Standards Institute)
IPC (Institute for Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic
Circuits)

DoD USA (Department of Defense)

DIN (Deutsches Institut fr Normung) German Standards

ELECTRIC COMPONENTS

An electronic component is any device

that handles electricity.

BASICS OF ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS

Passive / Active
Discrete / Integrated Circuits
Component Leads: Through hole / Surface Mount
Polarity of Components: + / Component Symbols

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)

ACTIVE VS PASSIVE

COMPONENT LEADS
Method attachment
a. through-hole component
b. surface mount
Lead configuration
(discrete)
c. axial leads
d. radial leads
IC (Single in-line package
and dual in-line package; e
& f)
Pin-grid arrays (g)
Leadless components (h)

COMPONENT SYMBOLS

Component-Identification, IPC-DRM-18F

ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS
PCB DESIGN AND FABRICATION CPE 314N

RESISTORS
a passive component which
exhibits a controlled value of
resistance across its two leads.
Carbon
Metal
Wire-wound
Thick film

VARIABLE RESISTORS OR
POTENTIOMETERS
consist of a track of some type of
resistance material with which a
movable wiper makes contact
Carbon
Cermet
Wire-wound

LIGHT-DEPENDENT RESISTORS
Light-dependent Resistors are made of cadmium sulphide.
They contain very few free electrons when kept in complete
darkness and therefore, exhibit very high resistance. When
subjected to light, the electrons are liberated and the
material becomes more conducting.

THERMISTORS
Thermistors are resistors with a
high temperature co-efficient of
resistance. Thermistors with
negative temperature co-efficient
(fall in resistance value with an
increase in temperature) are the
most popular.

CAPACITORS
A capacitor, like a resistor,
is also a passive
component, which can be
used to store electrical
charge.
Paper
Mica
Ceramic
Plastic
Electrolytic

INDUCTOR
Inductance is the characteristic
of a device which resists change
in the current through the
device. Inductors work on the
principle that when a current
flows in a coil of wire, a
magnetic field is produced,
which collapses when the
current is stopped.

DIODE
A diode is an active component through which the current
flows more easily in one direction than in the other. As the
name implies, diode means a two-electrode device: one
electrode is made of n-semiconductor material while the other
is p-type.

DIODE
Serves as:
Switch
Rectifier
Detector

Special Diodes
Zener
Varactor
Varistor
LED (Light Emitting Diodes)
Photodiode
Tunnel

LABORATORY EXERCISE #2