How Printed Circuit Board Is Made？

The PCB manufacturing process is very important to anyone in the electronics industry. Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are widely used as the basis of electronic circuits. Printed circuit boards are used to provide a mechanical foundation that can be used to build circuits.

The PCB board manufacturing process can be implemented in many ways, and there are many variations. Although the changes are small, the main stages of the PCB manufacturing process are the same.

Basic PCB Board Manufacturing Process
After selecting and using the bare PCB board, the next step is to create the required traces on the board and remove the unwanted copper. The manufacture of PCBs is usually achieved using chemical etching processes. The most common form of etching used on PCBs is ferric chloride.

In order to obtain the correct track pattern, photographic processing is used. Usually, the copper on the bare printed circuit board is covered by a thin layer of photoresist. Then expose it to light through a photo film or photomask, detailing the required trajectory. In this way, the image of the track is transferred to the photoresist. After completing this step, place the photoresist in the developer so that only the areas on the board that need to be routed are covered with the photoresist.

The next stage of the process is to place the printed circuit board in ferric chloride to etch areas that do not require traces or copper. After knowing the concentration of ferric chloride and the thickness of copper on the board, it takes a certain amount of time to put it in the etching foam. If the printed circuit board is left in the etching for too long, some clarity will be lost because ferric chloride will impair the performance of the photoresist.

Although most custom made circuit boards are manufactured using photographic processing, other methods can also be used. One is to use a special high-precision milling machine. Then control the machine to grind away copper in those areas where it is not needed. The control is obviously automated and driven by files generated by the PCB design software. This form of PCB manufacturing is not suitable for mass production, but it is an ideal choice in many cases, where a very small number of PCB prototypes are required.

The PCB manufacturing process is an important part of the product life cycle of electronic products. In order to meet the needs of more electronic product production and manufacturing, PCB board manufacturing has adopted many new technical fields, which have made significant improvements in reducing the size of the components and traces used and the reliability of the circuit board.