PCB Printed Circuit Boards are one such example of developed and advanced electronic equipments. PCB’s have now taken a huge leap owing to advanced technologies.

Basically, PCB is nothing but an electronic unit used to make conductive connection. Sometimes, it is also used for cell phones, computer systems, electronic appliances, etc.

Quality is of so much essence for boards. Though, there are numerous manufacturers that claim to fulfill all PCB needs, but the actual guarantee and authenticity is obtained from a very few manufacturers of PCB Printed Circuit Boards. PCB manufacturers offer single sided, double sided as well as multi-layer circuit boards.

Only a businessmen or a manufacturer can know the importance of superior quality boards. That is why they offer their customers variety of options to chose from. They emphasize quality over quantity so as to create a good image of their business as well as gain trust in the market. To ensure quality, they go through rigorous tests to make sure their product is more effective as well as efficient than any other Printed Circuit PCB. All these things facilitate quality PCB Printed Circuit Board.

The design of a PCB is equally important to its quality, and once the design of a PCB is ready, it is manufactured via mass production and that too inexpensively. However, to avoid any mishap, it is essential to test the PCB so that its problems can be ruled off, if any.

One of the best things that a manufacturer could do is to include a good PCB service after manufacturing. This is valid for anything and everything, i.e. from producing PCB’s to ensuring its quality control with the help of PCB testing.

This also means that in case, the customer has some concerns regarding the design or working of Printed Circuit PCB, then the manufacturer will provide the customer with apt service at reasonable rates. In short, it should be a good deal for the customer…

PCBs are the most commonly used method to electrically connect and mechanically support the electronic components using conductive tracks, pathways or signal traces. They are essentially made of insulating layers of one or multiple copper conductor patterns. They are also known as the printed wiring boards or PWBs. They are used in almost all types of commercial electronic devices available in the market.

Some of the common alternatives to PCB include the point-to-point construction and wire wrap. These printed circuit boards should be properly designed and laid out; hence they are expensive when made individually. However, when manufactured in a large quantity, they can become considerably cheaper and faster to produce. The design and quality control requirements of PCBs used in the electronics industry are determined by the IPC organization.

The manufacturing costs for printed circuit boards are based on many factors that must be considered when designing them. The beginners in the field should learn to optimize their designing taking into account the cost factors. There are many new designers who fail to understand the significance of spacing, basic width and other rules that greatly influence the total manufacturing costs and the price per unit.

If you are a newbie in the field and wish to reduce your manufacturing and tooling costs then we recommend that you follow the guidelines provided below:

Small Board Size: When trying to reduce the costs, you must be careful about choosing the right board size for the circuit. A bigger board size will obviously add up to the manufacturing costs. The cost of producing a unit is almost proportional to the area of board used.

Board Shapes: You must try to use only the regular board shapes such as rectangles and squares as the irregular shapes are more expensive. Furthermore, you should prevent using the internal cutouts or slots, unless very essential for escalating purposes. There are some PCB shops that might charge extra for the irregularly shaped boards. Unless required for a specific project, we would recommend that you choose square or rectangular boarding shapes to reduce the costs.

Size of the Holes: When making the printed circuit boards, you should make sure that you use the bigger holes because small sized holes and annular rings mean higher costs. The reason is pretty simple. Making smaller holes require more precision and this increases the cost in several ways. There are many manufacturers who would cost you extra if you need holes with diameter less than 0.4 mm. As a general rule of thumb, you must talk to your manufacturer before deciding what size of hole would be best suited for the PCB.

Finally, the size and gap between the copper objects are important for determining the price of printed circuit boards. When the gap between the objects decreases, the price increases. This makes sense because smaller spacing means better precision and this increases the overall manufacturing costs.

The PCBs of yesterday were mostly rigid. In this modern era of mobile technology where everybody is inching toward miniaturization, a need was felt for circuit boards that were lightweight, flexible, thin, small, and had high wiring density. Flexible printed circuit boards were invented to answer these requirements. These are printed boards that can be three-dimensionally wired and can be reshaped to fit available space.

What Are Flex Circuits?

A flexible PCB is made up of a flexible board, wirings provided on the flexible board, and connection pads to be conductive through wirings, which are provided on the edge of the flexible board. A copper foil is laminated to a resin substrate the layers and joined with adhesive or with the application of heat and pressure into an integral board. There can be more than one conductive layer for making circuitry on both sides. There are insulating layers, adhesive layers, and encapsulating layers between the conductive layers to ensure sufficient insulation. The plastic substrate of flexible printed circuit boards is formed of polyimide or similar thermoplastic material, such as polyetherimide.

The substrate is then coated with an adhesive and includes a cable with a plurality of embedded electrically conductive lines. Apertures may be formed in one of the insulation layers for electrical connection to other electronic components. Electronic devices are then connected to each other. In general, the front and rear surfaces of them are covered with insulating layers for preventing a wiring pattern from being conducted to other wiring pattern formed on other circuit board.

Six Step DIY Basic Flexible Printed Circuit Boards

* Take thin polyimide sheets that are copper plated on both sides. Cut the sheet into the required size. Ensure that the copper is not smudged and the edges of the sheet are not uneven, which can harm the printer later.

* Take a solid ink printer that prints in melted wax. Wax forms a layer on the copper that protects it later while etching.
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Use Computer Aided Design (CAD) software to draw a diagram of your circuit.

* Use the printer to print this design on the polyimide sheet. The printed areas will come up as copper traces. Use dark, easily distinguishable colors, such as black or magenta.

* Soak the printed polyimide sheet in ferric chloride. We are now at the stage called etching, wherein ferric chloride is a copper etchant. It can take up to half an hour for the copper traces to dissolve and the polyimide to show up.

* The circuit is now ready for mounting. You can cut it into smaller circuits if needed or use it as it is. Holes are drilled with laser to mount electronic components. The circuit is now ready to solder.