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Posts Tagged ‘technology’

Printed Circuit Boards and Electronic Components

Posted on: July 21st, 2011 by admin

A printed circuit board (PCB), sometimes called an etched wiring board, is the base on which an electronic circuit is built. A printed circuit board mechanically supports and electrically connects many electronic components using conductive pathways or tracks. These pathways are etched from sheets of copper and then laminated onto a non-conductive substrate material. When electronic components are attached to the printed circuit board, it is then called a printed circuit assembly (PCA). Printed circuits are used in almost all commercially-produced electronic devices.

The earliest printed circuit boards were introduced in the early 20th century. Before printed circuits became popular, the less efficient and clumsier point-to-point construction was used in electronic circuits. This method has been nearly eradicated today. In early circuit boards, every electronic component had wire leads and the board had holes drilled into it for every wire of every component. These leads were passed through the drilled holes and soldered to the circuit board. This assembly method is called through-hole construction, and is now considered wasteful and expensive. More recently, the use of surface mount electronic components has become more popular due to the demand for smaller electronics, smaller packaging, and greater functionality has increased.

Electronic Components and Integrated Circuits

Surface mount electronic components differ from older components in that they are mechanically redesigned to have small metal tabs or end caps that may be soldered directly onto the surface of the printed circuit board instead of having protruding wires. This type of surface mounting allows excess electronic components to be placed on both sides of the board, which was more difficult to accomplish with through-hole construction. In turn, using both sides of the circuit board allows high circuit densities. Also, it is much easier with surface mount technology to manufacture circuit boards with an automated machine, which cuts labor costs and speeds up production.

Printed circuit boards are found in many electronic components. Often, they are used in conjunction with their smaller successor, the integrated circuit, or microchip. The integrated circuit is a much smaller circuit board that has been etched with light into a semi-conductive surface, such as silicon. These etchings are then filled with a diffusion of trace conductive elements to create a working electronic circuit. Because of their small size and singular construction, integrated circuits are very cost effective to manufacture. However, technology has not reached the point at which microchips can completely replace the printed circuit board, so the two technologies are often found side by side in the same electronic device.

Introduction to Circuit Boards

Posted on: June 17th, 2011 by admin

Introduction to Circuit Boards

Circuit boards or commonly known as printed circuit boards are boards that contain electronic components such as diodes, transistors, integrated circuits and other electronic components.  However, prior to being mounted with components the circuit boards are just plain sheets of insulating material such as fiberglass coated with conductive material which is usually copper on one side or on both sides.

There are some circuit boards that have multiple layers.  These types of boards are usually used for complex electronic devices such as Mother Boards found in computers.

Through-hole technology and Surface mount technology

In a printed circuit board the components are connected to each other using either one of two methods.  The first and older method is through-hole technology while the second and newer method is surface mount technology.

Through-hole technology uses thin wires or leads that are pushed through the small holes in the substrate of the board(which may be composed of fiberglass or a resin) and is secured by a solder to the opposite side of the circuit board. The components used in through-hole technology such as wires, diodes and transistors are much larger compared to its surface mount technology counterpart.

Surface mount technology, meanwhile, does not make use of drilling holes. Surface mount technology is performed by directly placing the components on the surface of the board.  The circuit board is then slowly preheated using infrared lamps, which slowly melts the solder of the mounted components unto the surface of the circuit board. The solder is then hardened by slowly cooling the finished circuit board.

Surface mount technology also enables more space and is more light weight as surface mount technology components are smaller compared to through-hole technology components. Integrated circuits are a very important piece of the puzzle.

As early as the 1850s

The earliest circuit boards are known to be used as early as the 1850s.  This was composed of metal strips or rods that are used to make a connection between enormous electronic components that were mounted onto wooden bases.

Eventually, the rods or metal strips where replaced by wires and the wooden bases were replaced by metal bases.

Soon, the increasing demands for smaller and much more compact designs eventually lead to the innovation of making electrical paths on the insulated surface of the circuit board. This was accomplished by printing while being guided by a stencil the conductive ink the electrical paths unto the circuit board. This was the first method of making a printed circuit board that was then patented in the US in 1925 by Charles Ducas. Circuit boards since then have been evolving slowly in size and in complexity.

Rise in the prices of Rare Earth Metals

Originally used by the military and other industries.  Circuit boards are now in almost all electronic devices.  These devices range from computers, mobile phones and other portable devices that use electronic components.

This has resulted in and the substantial rise of the prices of rare earth metals. Although the rare earth metals are not used to manufacture circuit boards, they are used for the components that are surface mounted onto these circuit boards.

A known fact is that China holds more than half of the world’s rare earth metal deposits and is slowly using it to bolster their position economically and politically.

As the information age forces us to adapt to technology at an ever-increasing pace, the production of circuit boards along with the electronic components that require rare metals is critical to the perpetuation of the ever-increasing amounts of information that we process daily.