What printed circuit boards are made up of?

For smooth functioning of electronic circuit cards, printed circuit boards play a vital role in it. In other words, they are designed to give a base to the electronic cards. With the help of conductive bonding materials parts are attached to the board and electricity is passed from one part to another, for the working of the board

However, before soldering the board, an engineer would first draw Printed circuit board design that would show where all the electronic cards would be placed and how will the cards would be connected with each other?

Once the design process is completed then comes the soldering part of the board. However, in order to prepare the board various materials are needed for it. Now, let’s have a look on those materials, which helps in making of printed circuit boards

• Core material: The first core material, which is used in making of printed circuit boards, is copper sheet. Two sheets of copper are used on either of the side or only on one side of the board. They are measured in ounces (oz) by the manufacturers and laid over the board after measuring the inch/mm thickness of the sheet.
• Pre-preg material: This also comprises of same material as that of core material. But comes in more standard-sized, soft and flexible form.
• Cooper foil: This is thin sheet of foil that is used with pre-preg materials. Basically, it’s done to adhesive the material with the board firmly, so that later on there is no further breach of wires that would affect the functioning of electronic system.
• Cooper plating: This is primarily done when the board is on the finished process stage. This helps in providing additional thickness to the board when the drilling part is performed.
• Solder flow: In order to protect the copper layer from oxidation and help in preparing the board for soldering process, solder is applied on the external surfaces of board. Then the board would go through the SMOBC (Solder Mask over Bare Copper) process. During this the board would be masked and only the exposed area of the board would be applied solder.
• Solder mask: As discussed above, during the SMOBC solder mask is being used, which helps in protecting the board from following things:

• Protect from solder bridges
• Protect from the effects of environmental problems
• Protect the components of the board
• Electrically protect the board
• Protect the board from the heat that is being generated from the components placed over the board

• Soldered pad: There are two types of pads- soldered surface mounted pad and soldered thru-hole pad. Surface mounted pad is being used for mounting surface and thru-hole pad is a pad that comprise of various holes on it and helps in placing the component with the help of lead through the hole.
• Slots: These are similar to plated/non-plated thru-holes but differ from them due to its characteristics and its shapes. Slots or cutouts should be cut according to the parameters of radius with a round bit. However, cutting should be performed slowly, so as to prevent breakage of the board.

Thus on the whole designer makes sure that everything is planned beforehand, during the electronic product design. So that nothing is misplaced that might hamper the working of printed circuit board