What is a Printed Circuit Board PCB?
What Is Its Role in Electronics?
To begin with, we cannot imagine the existence of an electrical equipment without a Printed Circuit Board. Printed Circuit Board (PCB) is one of the most fundamental part of any electrical equipment. A PCB provides the connectivity to the electrical components like resistor, capacitor, coil, diodes, FET, pots, transformer, transistor, etc. to develop a complete electronic circuit. A PCB not only provides overall connectivity among the electronic components of an electrical equipment, it also reduces the size and increase the working efficiency of the electronic equipment.
What are various types of a PCB?
There are three significant types of PCBs that are as follows:
- Single-Sided PCBs: there is a great need to know that these boards have a rigid shield of woven glass epoxy material. The material is used when made with a FR4 base. Further it is also covered with a copper coating. Along with this, the side that is applied, thickness varies depending on the need.
- Double-Sided PCBs: these boards come with the same base woven glass epoxy as we see in single-sided. However, a copper coating on both sides of the board van also varies according to the custom’s desire as well as requirement.
- Multi-Layered PCBs: these boards come with a base woven glass epoxy. However, these boards are made with copper foil. The copper file is used in order to make layers alternating between base material.
What are the main parts of a PCB?
Moreover, there are four significant parts of a PCB.
- Substrate: it is made of fiberglass that is capable to provide the core strength as well as also helps it to resist breakage.
- Copper Layer: the copper layer acts like the nervous system of a PCB. Bear in mind that one of the significant purposes of this layer is, in order to carry electrical signals to and from the PCB.
- Solder Mask: solid mask layer of the PCB is made up of polymer. It is responsible to protect the copper from short-circuit.
- Silkscreen: last but not the least, it is the part of PCB that is present on the component side. It is used in order to show symbols, switch stings as well as logos.
Relationship of electronics contract manufacturing (EMS) and PCB in the current market scenario
There is a great relationship of electronics contract manufacturing as well as PCB in. bear in mind that, almost every single electrical equipment we use these days has a PCB in it. The short product lifecycle and mass customization are playing a key role in changing the current market dynamics of the electronic industry which is having a sweeping effect on both consumer and producer (industry). Currently, a swiftly increasing portion of the end products in the electronic industry are never touched by the company whose brand they bear. Alternatively, the manufacturing of such products is outsourced to specialists which is creating an industry known as electronics manufacturing services (EMS).
There are a bunch of reasons which plays a vital role due to which outsourcing works really well in the electronics industry. First, from producer’s perspective, almost all electronic products are similarly designed and constructed and are not really complicated. Either we see personal computers we use in our everyday life or we see the medical equipment, all of them are assembled from a very limited number of standard parts like memory chips, capacitors, and resistors etc. which are used in many other different product designs. However, what makes these products distinguishable is the way these standard parts are mounted onto Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), the software programming these devices receives and other custom components which are essential part of these electrical equipment
Due to these fundamental similarities in these electrical devices, the electronic manufacturers are easily segmenting their skills, equipment, and information systems to handle many different work orders. Second, the adversely changing market dynamics of the electronic industry is forcing discipline on this manufacturing segment of EMS.