My Views and Opinions

Printed circuit board finds its use in many electronic devices and across various industry segments. With the world going digital there is no device without a PCB. PCB Manufacturing is an important industry that gains its importance as the number of electronic devices is on the rise. Although the printed circuit board looks simple there are various steps involved in the PCB Manufacturing. Single and double sided boards and multilayer PCB are manufactured for various devices.

The first step in PCB Manufacturing is to setup the processes, materials and other requirements based on the customer requirement that is got from the Gerber file. This file gives all the details of the PCB layout including vias, traces, and details for drilling and milling. The next process in the printed circuit board manufacturing is called imaging where the details from the Gerber file are transferred to an etch-resistant film. This film is used to etch out the unwanted copper from the copper layer in the etching process. Multilayer pressing is the next step in which the copper is aligned with the dielectric layers and pressed to form the board. The next steps in the process includes drilling, plating, second drilling, masking, finishing, silk screening, routing, quality control and finally electrical testing. PCB Manufacturing is such a complex process although the printed circuit board looks simple!