Training Notes (4.

2 Printed Circuit Boards)

 Description and use of printed circuit boards.

 Introduction:-
 It can be shortly called as PCB. PCB is a non conductive substrate that
mechanically supports and electrically connects the electronic components
using tracks, pads and other features etched on a laminated copper sheet.
 A PCB populated with electronic components is called a printed circuit
board assembly (PCBA)
 PCBs can be a Single-sided (one copper layer), Double-sided (two copper
layers) and Multilayer.
 Instead of copper sometimes the conducting material like aluminum, silver
and Ni used.

 ADVANTAGES OF PCB

 Compact Size and Saving of Wire

 Ease of Repair and Diagnostic
 Saving of Time
 Immune to Movement
 Tight connections and Short Circuits Avoided
 Low Electronic Noise
 Low Cost

 Disadvantages of Printed Circuit Boards

 As the copper tracks are very thin they can able to carry less current hence a
PCB cannot be used for heavy currents because in that case the strips will be
heated up and cause problems.
 Soldering needs precautions on the risk of strips being over heated and
destroyed are always there.
 Material in PCB:-

 SUBSTRATE:-

 The circuit board substrates are usually dielectric composite materials.

 The composites contain a matrix (usually an epoxy resin) and a
reinforcement (usually a woven, sometimes nonwoven, glass fibers,
sometimes even paper), and in some cases a filler is added to the resin (e.g.
ceramics; titanate ceramics can be used to increase the dielectric constant).

 TYPES OF PCB:-

1. Single Layer PCB:-

2. Double Layer PCB:-
3. Multi Layer PCB:-

1. Single Layer PCB:-

 Single layered boards have the electronics components mounted on the

opposite side of the board where the copper traces are exposed.
 The conductive paths or traces were created with the copper foil on one side
of the board and components located on the opposite side.
 PCB with non-plated through holes are of course less expensive and take
less time to manufacture.
2. Double Layer PCB:-

 Circuit boards can be single-sided, but more often are double – sided with
copper circuit trace and components on the side.
 Surface mount technology allows more components and circuits to be placed
on the same PCB since they are attached on both sides of the board.
 In high volume manufacturing, a robot will pick and place the various
electronic components from assorted bins and place them on PCBs at pre-
programmed location on the board.

3. Multi Layer PCB:-

 As electronic components have reduced in size , so have the methods used to

connect them , principally through the evolution of the printed circuit board
to multi-layer technology.
 PCB Manufacturing process:-

 PREPARING THE ARTWORK

 Firstly design the required circuit. The best option is to design the circuit on
a computer and print or plot a 1:1 artwork onto a transparent film. Ideally
print the artwork via a Laser printer onto Laser Star film or on an Inkjet
Printer with Jet Star Premium film . If the software allows print a mirror
image of the circuit as this will ensure the black areas of the artwork will be
in contact to the PCB's Photo resist during UV exposure.
 Pattern transfer:-

 There are lots of people mentioned about using Inkjet Glossy Paper to do
Toner Transfer. It can be done. But it is not easy to remove it after ironing.
You have soak the PCB in hot water for more than ten minutes. It is quite
time consuming. If you cannot remove the coating completely. It cannot be
etched.
 I have tried to use Konica Minolta Photo Quality Matte Paper/ chromolin
film. Then design your own circuit and print it on the Matte Paper.
Remember, before printing it. You need to mirror board. Otherwise, the
circuit will be inversed.
 ETCHING

◦ The developed and washed board is then placed into the Etching
Tank.
◦ The removal of unwanted copper from the board to give the final
pattern of the circuit is known as etching. The solution which is used
for etching process as etchant.
◦ The different etchants are used for etching process like ferric chloride,
cupric chloride , chromic acid and alkaline ammonia. But out of these
ferric chloride is widely used because it has short etching time and can
be stored for long time.
◦ For very fine detail, the board should be turned upside-down halfway
through the etching cycle (always spray wash the board before
handling).
◦ When etching is completed, sprays wash as before.
 SCRUB CLEANING

 The board is then thoroughly dried and mechanically scrubbed with a PC180
Polifix Silica Block. This will ensure that the copper circuit is perfectly
clean by removing any oxidization, chlorides left by the water as well as any
other impurities.

 DRILLING

 Drilling of the component mounting holes in to PCB’s operating in PCB

production, PCB’s holes are made by drills, whenever the superior hole
 finish for the plated through holes, process is required and where the tooling
constant for the punching tool can’t be justified therefore drilling is applied
by all the professional grade PCB manufacturers.
 Holes through a PCB are typically drilled with drill bits made of solid
coated tungsten carbide.

 Drill Bits:

 The drilling of the holes into PCB with drill bit made of high speed does not
cause any difficulties. However, if the same bit is used for glass epoxy
material it will cause difficulties.
 Drill bits made up of tungsten carbide are also preferred because very high
operation time between re-sharpening also excellent qualities of holes based
on this fact.
 MOUNTING:

 It is the process of mounting all electronics components on PCB with

appropriate circuit diagram.

 MOUNTING OF IC’s:

 Components are basically mounted on the one side of the board. It is never
expected to put the IC’s on the PCB directly and then solder if for the IC’s
the leads of the IC’s are fitted in IC base and then base is soldered.
 SOLDERING PROCESS:

 Soldering is a process in which two or more metal items are joined together
by melting.
 The soldering helps to connect the electronic components permanently.

 Types of soldering:-
1) Soft soldering:-

 It is a process for joining small parts having low melting points which
damages when soldering process is carried out at high temperature. It uses
tin-lead alloy as filler material. The melting point of the filler material
should be below 400 0C . It uses gas torch as the heat source.
2) Hard soldering
 In this process, hard solder connects two pieces of metals by expanding into
the pores of the work piece opened by high temperature. The filler material
possess high temperature above 450 0C
3) Silver soldering

 It is a clean process useful for fabricating small fittings, doing odd repairs
and making tools. It uses an alloy containing silver as filler material. Silver
provides free flowing characteristics but silver solder is not good at gap
filling hence, different fluxes are recommended for précised silver solder.
4) Brazing
 Brazing is a process of joining two pieces of base metals by creating melted
metallic filler that flows by capillary attraction across the joints and cools to
form a solid bond through atomic attraction and diffusion. It creates an
extremely strong joint. It uses brass alloy as filler material.

 Soldering Tools:

 A soldering iron should supply sufficient heat to the metal solder, heat
transfer when the iron tip is applied to the connection to be soldered is
selected and controlled according to artwork to be performed normally
controlled by variable power supply occasionally by tip selection.

 Soldering Gun:

 Soldering gun is usually heavier and generates more heat than that of
average pencil soldering heavy duty conductors and connectors required.
The use of gun because it can generate enough heat to quickly being a heavy
metal joint up to the proper soldering tools is called as gun.
 Flux:
 Sometimes to aid the PCB in soldering process, another substance known as
flux. Flux is needed to avoid the oxidation of the surface of metal to be
soldered, from a protective film that prevents re-oxidation, which the solder
metal melts.
  After the component mounting and soldering extra part of the lid of
component coming out of the PCB must be cut with the help of cutter.

 TECHNOLOGIES FOR COMPONENTS PACKAGING:-

 Electronic Packaging: Housing and interconnection of integrated circuits to

form electronic systems
 Electronic Packaging must provide
– Circuit support and protection
– Heat dissipation
– Signal distribution
– Manufacturability and serviceability
– Power distribution

1) Through (Thru) Hole Mounting:-

 Benefits

 Easy to solder, either automatically (wave) or by hand

 Easy to de-solder and test
 Implement interconnections between upper and lower layers (vias) in
nonplated hole technologies

 Drawbacks

 Signals must necessarily go through all PCB layers

 Low density due to minimum pin diameter and only one-sided mounting
2) Surface-Mount Technology (SMD) :-

 The pins of the devices are mounted directly onto the surface of the PCB

 Benefits

 Much higher density: pins can be thinner, devices can be mounted on both
sides of the PCB, components do not block signals in inner layers
 Higher degree in the automation of the mounting process
 Less parasitic inductance and capacitance
 Reduced costs (½ to ¼) and size (¼ to one tenth)

 Drawbacks

 Poor manual solder ability and reparability

 Reliability issues due to thermal/mechanical stress during soldering and
operation (different thermal expansion coefficients)
 Classic verification procedures no longer valid