Printed Circuit Boards

Printed circuit boards were invented in the1930’s and are used in a variety of electronic circuits.  The uses range from simple one-transistor amplifiers to super computers.  Printed circuit boards are a large part of technology in the modern world.  They can be found in products such as cars, toys, TV’s, computers, telephones, oven etc.

In my report I am going to itemise and explain the process involved in producing a printed circuit board with the characteristics below.

There are many methods to making printed circuit boards.  The first method is a traditional manual method.  It involves using subtractive techniques; this is where the excess copper layer is removed from a board coated in copper, therefore leaving the artwork exposed.  This traditional method of making a printed circuit board involves six main stages.

The first is drawing a schematic diagram of the circuit; this is the diagram to show the circuits components and how they are connected.  The schematic diagram can be designed in many different ways, it can be drawn and designed by hand and then transfer the image onto the circuit board.  Computer aided design can also be used to design the schematic drawing by using applications on software on a computer.  By using computer aided design to design the printed circuit board it makes the task a lot simpler because it’s easier to decide on the location of components, and the drawing of the interconnections.  There are special schematic computer packages that will help to design the printed circuit board by it picking components, rout traces to artwork, check your design and then at the end find missing connections, spacing violations and many other problems.  The schematic diagram is usually tested using a prototype before committing to a printed circuit board. This will verify that the symbols and words are an accurate representation of the circuit you want to build.

Join now!

Overleaf shows a picture of a schematic diagram for a Kodak camera.

The next step to making a printed circuit board is to design the artwork of the printed circuit board. The artwork (or layout) is the pattern that is to be etched in the copper. The artwork can be produced in many ways also; the traditional and popular method is by using special opaque press on or rub on patterns, which are laid out on drafting film-using tapes. There are now new methods being used, ...

This is a preview of the whole essay