A printed circuit board is composed of different layers and materials, which together perform different actions in order to bring more sophistication to the modern circuits. In this article, we will discuss all the different composition materials and items of the Printed Circuit Board in detail:
Substrate Material – FR4
The base or substrate material of the printed circuit board where all the components and equipment on the printed circuit board are supported is usually fiberglass. If taken into account the data of PCB manufacturing, the most popular material for the fiberglass is FR4. FR4 solid core provides the Printed Circuit Board its strength, support, rigidity and thickness. Since there are different types of prinyed circuit boards like normal PCBs, flexible PCBs etc. they are built using flexible high-temperature plastic.
Thickness of Printed Circuit Boards
There are printed circuit boards with varying thicknesses. 1.6mm is the common thickness of the substrate material for the printed circuit boards. Another layer of the base material of the printed circuit board is 0.88 mm.
Perf board
There are also cheaper Printed Circuit Boards available in the market which may be manufactured with other materials such as phenolics or epoxies. These materials lack the durability of FR4 but are cheap as compared to them so they are more useful for making heap products or where high durability is not required. These types of Printed circuit boards may be also hard to solder and they may give a bad small on soldering. These types of substrates or base materials are also present in low-end and cheap consumer electronics. Phenolics have a low thermal decomposition temperature that results in delaminating them. There may be smoke and char when the process of soldering iron is performed on the printed circuit boards for a long period of time.
Copper
Above the substrate or base material is a layer of Copper etched on the surface. It is a thin copper foil, which is laminated to the printed circuit board. Heat and adhesive process maybe used in order to etch the copper on the surface of the substrate. There are double sided PCBs as well where the copper is present on both sides of the base or the substrate material. In cheap electronic gadgets and equipment the Printed Circuit Boards may be double sided copper. There can be many double sided PCBs for using in the gadgets.
Synergise PCB Inc. has capabilities of creating Printed Circuit Boards with multiple layers. There are highly useful where highly sophisticated functions need to be performed by the PCBs.
Thickness of Copper on the Printed Circuit Boards
The copper thickness can change and is dependent by weight and current requirement. The weight of the Printed Circuit Boards is usually measured in ounces per square foot. Most of the Printed Circuit Boards have 1 ounce of copper per square foot etched on the side of the substrate, however, some Printed Circuit Boards, which may use 2 or 3-ounce copper. The copper on the sides of the substrate translates as follows
- 1 ounce to about 35 micrometers
- 1 ounce to 1.4 thousandths of an inch of material of copper.
