Printed Circuit Board (PCB)

Electrical circuit created by laying (printing) ‘tracks' of a conductor such as copper on one or both sides of an insulating board. The Printed circuit board was invented in 1936 by Austrian scientist Paul Eisler, and was first used on a large scale in 1948.

A PCB is the acronym for Printed Circuit Boards, which are cards or circuit boards that are composed of a very thin flat metal or hard plastic-type board called an insulator. It is upon this that computer silicon chips and other similar electronic components are mounted. These boards are then used in electronic appliances like televisions, computers, washing machines, digital cameras, and so forth.

Components such as integrated circuits (chips), resistors, and capacitors can be soldered to the surface of the board (surface-mounted) or, more commonly, attached by inserting their connecting pins or wires into holes drilled in the board. The increased component density and complexity required by the electronics industry demands increasing use of multilayer PCBs which may have three, four, or more intermediate layers of copper conductor. PCBs include motherboards, expansion boards, and adaptors.

A PCB prototype is the first circuit board that is invented for a new electronic device. By using this prototype in the electronic device, the inventor can see if the prototype serves its purpose in the invention. Once the electronic device is made to function with the prototype, any mistakes that take place can be rectified in the prototype. In this way, the PCB prototype saves the inventor of the electronic appliance lots of money, as any mistakes that may be present in the PCB will be pinpointed before the actual commercial manufacture of the PCB.

Without having a prototype, the model of a new invention will be of no use if its board is not in good condition and up to requirements. Electronic appliances are getting more and more technologically advanced by the day. This advancement is done through changes on a prototype, which is then tried on the appliance to see if the advancement is in right order. Using different materials of the boards also account for changes in the prototype. You can use fiberglass, Teflon or cross-linked polystyrene for the PCB, and it is through the prototype that you find out which material best fits your needs. Nowadays, new PCBs are in use in electronic appliances, thanks to the prototypes.

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