Pcb sample is the most important step for any electronic hardware design engineer in electronic products, and it is also the beginning of all electronic products.
From pcb design to finished electronic products, gadgets, smart phones, home appliances or electrical appliances, and so on, all electronic products and equipment you can think of and see. Pcb samples are very important. It allows a given design to be tested to determine if it works. In this way, you can debug and correct any errors. This is also very useful before mass production. Without pcb prototype, the mass production of electronic circuit boards and related products is still at risk.
In complex circuit boards, minor errors can be very expensive and time-consuming and difficult to correct. The wrong design may make the welding of electronic components very difficult. It is also more difficult to point out the error points on the circuit board. Therefore, it is wise to design PCB sample proofing before actual production to avoid any future risks.
Now, what is a Printed circuit board?
Most electronic devices and products have pcb circuit boards. Printed Circuit Board (PCB/PWB) is a board made of non-insulating and highly heat-resistant insulating materials such as glass fiber. These plates are also called substrates. PCB substrate A can only have a single layer (single-layer circuit board) or more than one layer (multi-layer circuit board). Conductive metals such as copper are used to make conductive paths or traces to promote current flow. Once the PCB is soldered, it is called “printed circuit board”. After soldering the electronic components, the same PCB is called a semi-finished printed circuit board (PCBA).
Pcb proofing
When designing a new circuit, it is very important to draw the circuit board schematic diagram before pcb proofing. The schematic diagram will help to debug and fix any errors in the process. If the circuit on the circuit board is simple, you can use a very simple and understandable sample board. In the case of complex and customized circuit boards, it is necessary to make sample pcb boards.
Design software of pcb layout
To start making pcb samples, you need PCB manufacturing materials such as Gerber file. The layout software of PCB can be used for this purpose. A circuit board layout software draws the layout and all traces of the circuit board, and points out that the electronic components will be soldered on the circuit board. The PCB layout looks like a diagram. PCB layout software allows editing the layout until the required layout is achieved.
How to make PCB circuit board?
Manufacturing PCB involves several complicated processes.
1: Film drying: In this process, the mask or photomask is combined by chemical etching to subtract the copper area from the PCB substrate. Use CAD PCB software program to design and create photomask with photo plotter. Photomasks are also created using laser printers.
2: Lamination: Multi-layer PCB circuit board consists of multi-layer thin etched boards or trace layers, which are bonded together by lamination process.
3: Drilling: Each layer of PCB circuit board needs the ability of connecting one layer to another; This is achieved by drilling a small hole called “VIAS”. Drilling is mainly done by using an automatic computer-driven drilling machine.
4: Soldering on the pads: Soldering or chemically depositing gold on the pads of the electronic components on the PCB board, so as to solder the electronic components. Bare copper is not easy to weld. It requires the surface to be plated with materials convenient for welding. Earlier lead-based tin was used for plating surfaces, but with the compliance of R oHS (Hazardous Substances Restriction), newer lead-free materials such as nickel and gold are now used for electroplating.
5: Testing PCB: Before soldering electronic components to PCB, you need to test them. This test can be performed by using a test rack tester or a flying probe tester, which is other computer-operated circuit board testing equipment.
Whether it’s PCB proofing or batch manufacturing, the manufacturing process and process are similar, except that the cost of manufacturing PCB samples is different from the cost of the early tools shared in batch manufacturing.
Conclusion: When making PCB proofing, it is very important to follow the rules from film making to testing. Any slight error may make PCB useless. In the case of mass production, sample proofing of PCB is necessary. However, perfect PCB manufacturability design is required before proofing. Due to the lack of simple and practical manufacturability design analysis tools, most engineers directly ignore DFM analysis process in the design process. This will lead to a large number of design risks flowing into the production end, and eventually lead to a series of problems such as scrapping PCB, delaying the development cycle and missing the opportunity of product listing.