PCB board – Professional PCB fabrication and PCB Assembly Service Manufacturer

what is PCB board?

PCB board meaning the printed circuit board or PCB refers to the bare board that we use to store our layout data and mount our components. This type of board is commonly used to mechanically support and connect electronic devices using conductive pathways and signal traces.

When a board has only copper features and tracks, and no circuit elements, such as capacitors, are manufactured into its actual substrate, it’s referred to as a printed wiring board or etched wiring board. The term “printed wiring board” or “printed wiring board” has fallen by the wayside due to the blurred distinction between what is considered to be a real circuit board and what is just a wiring board.

Today, printed wiring boards are commonly used in almost all electronic devices, and they allow the automated assembly of components that were previously not practical or possible. This type of board is referred to as a printed circuit assembly, or a PCBA. In informal use, the term “PCB” is often used to refer to both assembled and bare boards.

PCB board material

There are some materials refer to PCB board as below:

FR4

Typically, fiberglass serves as the substrate, or foundation material. Historically, “FR4” has been used to designate this fiberglass the most frequently. The stiffness and thickness of the PCB are a result of its solid core. Additionally, flexible PCBs constructed from flexible high-temperature plastic exist (Kapton or the equivalent).

Other materials, like as epoxies or phenolics, which are substantially less expensive but lack the endurance of FR4, will be used to make cheaper PCBs and perf boards (seen above). When soldering to this sort of PCB, you will be able to tell since they have a very foul smell. These substrates are frequently used in budget consumer electronics. Phenolics delaminate, smoke, and burn when the soldering iron is held on the board for an excessive amount of time since they have a low thermal decomposition temperature.

Copper

The board is laminated with a thin layer of copper foil as the next layer using heat and glue. Copper is applied to the substrate on both sides of standard double-sided PCBs. The PCB in cheaper electrical devices could only have copper on one side. When we talk about a double-sided or two-layer board, we’re talking about the two copper layers that make up our lasagna. There may be just 1 layer or up to 16 layers or more.

Weight, expressed in ounces per square foot, is used to specify the copper thickness, which might vary. The majority of printed circuit boards (PCBs) include 1 ounce of copper per square foot, however certain PCBs that handle extremely high power may utilize 2 or 3 ounces of copper. Copper is approximately 35 micrometers thick, or 1.4 thousandths of an inch, per square ounce.

Soldermask

The soldermask layer is the one that sits on top of the copper foil. The PCB’s green or red hue comes from this layer. To protect the copper traces from unintentional contact with other metal, solder, or conductive bits, it is layered over the copper layer. This layer aids the user in soldering in the appropriate locations and eliminates solder jumpers.

Silkscreen

On top of the soldermask layer is put the white silkscreen layer. The PCB is given letters, numbers, and symbols on the silkscreen that make assembly simpler and serve as markers for people to better comprehend the board. Silkscreen labels are frequently used to specify each pin’s or LED’s purpose.

Paste stencil

a thin, metal (or occasionally plastic) stencil that is placed over the board during assembly to allow solder paste to be applied to certain locations.

Solder paste

Before adding the components to a PCB, surface mount pads are coated with tiny balls of solder suspended in a gel using a paste stencil. Reflow creates mechanical and electrical connections between the pads and the component by melting the solder in the paste.

PCB board price

If you want your PCB board price cheaper, below factors you should consider in the PCB board design.

Pilot holes that penetrate all layers are price cheaper than buried holes. because drilling the concealed hole is required prior to connecting.

Optic testing is often lower price than electronic testing employing flying needle detection. In most cases, optical testing is sufficient to verify that the PCB is error-free.

The diameter of the component pin determines the size of the hole on the PCB board. Because the machine can’t drill all the holes with the same drill bit when there are parts with different types of pins on the PCB board, it is comparatively time-consuming and also indicates that the production cost is significantly raised.

The size of the PCB board is obviously important. The price of a PCB decreases with its size. A few PCB dimensions have become commonplace. As long as the size is adhered to, the price will inevitably drop.

Because the parts on the PCB will be more numerous and compact, using SMT will be lower price than using THT.

The wiring, on the other hand, must be thinner and the required equipment must be comparatively higher if the pieces on the PCB board are particularly thick. To minimize power consumption and other issues that may influence the circuit, the materials used should also be more sophisticated, and the wire design should also be more attentive. More money can be spent on these issues than can be saved by shrinking the PCB.

The price increases with the number of layers. A PCB with fewer layers, however, typically grows in size.

The fewer pilot holes, the better, as drilling takes time.

PCB board design

It will take you a long time to get the final design of a PCB board. Whether it’s the basics of managing your solder and copper, or trying to ensure that the printed circuit board ends up as designed, it’s important to have the right software for the job.

A PCB board design involves a lot of different steps. From basic printed circuit boards to complex non-reflex PCBs, there is a lot of work involved in creating an electronic device. In Altium Designer, you can easily create modern PCB layouts by following the steps below:

Schematic

If you are planning on creating a printed circuit board, then it is important that you first learn how to create a functional and beautiful design using a diagram. This is similar to the design of your device’s blueprint. Before you start working on your project, it is important that you understand what is shown in the diagram.

Hierarchical design principles allow complex designs to have significant organization in their new board. For instance, if you have a hierarchical structure in your design, you can place different blocks in different schematics.

One of the main advantages of using Altium Designer is its ability to create and edit circuit diagrams. This eliminates the need for manual step-up design and allows you to focus on developing your product. Its database of parts also allows you to access thousands of component libraries. The Vault, which is a part of the Altium Designer, provides you with flexible access to the latest version of the software.

In addition to creating circuit diagrams, you can also create footprints and design your own symbols. If you’re a fan of pre-existing components, then try using the manufacturer part search panel.

When creating complex and large circuit diagrams, it’s important to keep track of all of your details in them. One of the most important steps that you can take is to create net name assignments for each component in the diagram. This will help keep things organized and allow you to easily identify the various components in the circuit.

This will also help keep track of the various components in the circuit when you’re testing your prototype. You’ll be able to easily locate these components in the corresponding layout in Altium Designer.

PCB Layout

After you’ve created a schematic, you’ll need to use the Altium Designer tool to import the components into a blank circuit board layout. This process will generate a PcbDoc file.

If you have already determined the dimensions, shape, and layer stackup of your printed circuit board, then you can set them now. However, if you want to change them later, you can do so by following the steps below. You can also use the SchDoc to get the necessary information about your board.

The compilation process is performed to ensure that the design is correct and that the various project documents that you have created allow you to inspect and correct it before it is transferred to the PcbDoc. It is also important that you update the Project Options to ensure that the information is correct.

PcbDoc

In a single design environment where the schematic, printed circuit board layout, and BOM are connected and accessible at once, Altium Designer’s tools all function. While creating your circuit board design, Altium Designer automatically compiles your schematic data for you, unlike other tools that have you do it manually. Click on Design » Update PCB Filename of the new PCB to transfer SchDoc data to the newly produced PcbDoc. PcbDoc. All of the parts and nets from the schematic are listed in an Engineering Change Order (ECO) window that opens.

PCB Stackup

Component footprints are displayed in addition to the selected board outline when you upload your schematic data to the PcbDoc. The PCB layout (i.e., form, layer stackup) should be defined before putting components using the Layer Stackup Manager.

If you’re new to the field of printed circuit design, the majority of contemporary PCB board design concepts will start with a 4-layer board on FR4, while Altium Designer allows you to create any number of layers. Additionally, you may benefit from the Materials Stackup Library, which offers a variety of laminates and special materials from which to chose for your printed circuit board.

Use the built-in impedance profiler if you’re designing a high speed/high frequency circuit board to ensure impedance management. The impedance profile tool adjusts the shape of your traces to a target impedance value using an integrated electromagnetic field solver from Simberian.

Before you begin computing impedances, make careful to choose your routing strategy. Will you, for instance, use a coplanar line on a bigger dielectric layer—as in this case—or a typical microstrip or stripline on a thinner dielectric? These decisions are crucial because they influence the trace width that may be used in the circuit board design; various routing patterns will impose various trace widths in order to meet your specified impedance.

Additionally, make a note of whether the design will include any differential pair routing. You may establish both needs and apply these while routing since the impedance solver in the Layer Stack Manager supports differential pair solutions in addition to single-ended solutions. It’s time to set up your circuit board design guidelines so that you can begin inserting and routing components after creating the layer stack and determining any impedance profiles.

DFM and Design Rules

There are many different types of PCB board design guidelines, thus you might not utilize them all for every design. By performing a right click in the PCB Rules and Constraints Editor on the rule you wish to select or deselect from the list.

These guidelines are intended to make sure a board can be manufactured at the desired scale using the typical capabilities of your fabricator. Using queries or Net Class objects, these rules can be applied to single objects, groups of items, or both. See how to create a Net Class in Altium Designer by reading this article.

The guidelines you do follow, particularly for production, should be in line with the requirements and tolerances for the machinery used by your PCB board maker. Advanced circuit board designs, such as impedance regulated designs and a variety of high speed/high frequency designs, may necessitate the adherence to highly strict design guidelines. Always look for these design guidelines in your component datasheets. You may use the Design Rule Wizard in Altium Designer to establish new circuit board design rules as needed.

Place Components

You have a lot of versatility with Altium Designer, and you can easily add components to your circuit board. Your parts may either be manually placed or they can be automatically ordered. Additionally, by combining these two choices, you may benefit from auto-speed placement’s while ensuring that your board is set up in accordance with best practices for component placement. The most recent version of Altium Designer now has the option to link components together as an additional advanced feature. These groups may be defined in the PCB layout or on the schematic using Cross Select Mode, which is available under the Tools menu.

Drill Holes inserting

Placing your drill holes before routing your traces is a smart idea (mounting and vias). You might need to change at least some of the via positions during trace routing if your circuit board design is complex. From the Properties dialog, this is simple to perform.

The design for manufacturing (DFM) requirements of your PCB manufacturer should serve as a guide for your choices in this area. As you include vias, drill holes, pads, and traces in your layout, Altium Designer will automatically verify these criteria if you already set your PCB DFM requirements as design rules (see Step 5).

Route Traces

You can route your traces after placing your components and any other mechanical components. Try to plan your routing such that you complete the most crucial routes first, then, if needed, fill in the gaps with the other connections. Your power nets, any impedance-controlled nets, and any noise-sensitive nets, such as low-level analog signals, are a few examples of the crucial pathways. Use helpful routing instructions and the tools in Altium Designer to make the process easier, such as the ability to highlight nets and use interactive routing capabilities.

Numerous useful features are included in Altium Designer to make your routing experience simpler and more efficient. There is an autorouter engine that can traverse layer pairs with vias and route traces using a contemporary method. The online DRC engine will automatically enforce design rules as you route, and the auto-interactive routing tools let you direct an automated routing feature to expedite challenging routes between components. These tools will work on numerous nets at once, making it simple to route many traces concurrently.

Add Labels

You are now prepared to add labels, IDs, marks, logos, and other images to your circuit board once the layout has been confirmed. Reference designators for components are a good idea since they will help with PCB board assembly. Additionally, keep all labels, pin 1 indications, and polarity indicators visible because these will help with PCB assembly and testing. Additionally, it will be useful if you need to troubleshoot the board during testing. The PCB Editor’s text and image tools may be used to add a corporate logo and component numbers. In the PCB layout, these components must be positioned in the Top Overlay or Bottom Overlay layers.

Output Files

It’s usually a good idea to do a design rule check on your circuit board layout before creating your manufacturer deliverables (DRC). When you arrange your components and route your circuit board design in Altium Designer, this is done automatically, but it never hurts to run another DRC by hand. You are prepared to provide your manufacturer deliverables if your board passes inspection.

Once the final DRC for your board has been completed, you must produce the design files for your manufacturer. To ensure that your manufacturer is aware of your specifications, the design files should contain all the information and data required to produce your board, as well as any notes or unique requests. You should be able to utilize a set of Gerber files for the majority of manufacturers.

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