PCB DESIGN FLOW CHART and terrms related to PCB

In this Article I have drawn flowchart of PCB design flow.In this article I have tried to explain the PCB design steps. 

Now I am going to explain the terms which commonly used in PCB designing....

1. Layers

Everything which you draw is on layer. Each layer has different physical properties. For example Top layer is used to draw the component layout, Bottom layer or Inner layer are used for making connection between components and many more are also present.

2. Footprint

Footprint is the collection of pads and outline which make an individual component. PCB design software comes with a library which contains footprints of different components but the number of footprints that are available is limited. As we know today technology is changing and size of components is reducing, so sometimes we have to make the footprint of the component.

3. Solder mask

You all have seen the green, red, blue or shiny coating on the PCB. This coating is known as solder mask. Masking is done to avoid the solder which accidently drops on PCB and soldering of component also become easy. This also prevents the short circuit among close track. Being a beginner it may possible we use excess of solder while soldering which may short the tracks,  if solder mask is there it can be easily removed without melting.  This is a non conducting layer of a PCB.

4. Silkscreen

Silkscreen is done to represent the name or value of components so that user can easily identify the component during soldering. This is a good practise while designing the PCB. Silk-screening can be done on both sides of PCB (on component side or on copper side). This can also be used to indicate the name of the company or manufacturer. This is a non conducting layer of a PCB.

5. Jumper

Jumper wire forms electrical connections between two points on printed circuit board. Sometimes it happen while designing PCB that tracks may overlap each other as we make connections; in that case we used jumper wire.

6. Pads

Pads are used to make connections between component and track with the help of solder.Pads are small surface of copper available on printed circuit board. They are basically used to solder the leads of the components on board to make the mechanical joint strong. Different kinds of pads are used for Surface mount component and through hole component as shape and size of both the components vary from one another.

7. Copper traces

You have seen that green, blue or red lines are used to connect pads and vias. They are known as copper traces. They provide electrical conduction between pads and vias or between two pads and vias. Width of track varies according to the current flow through them.

8. Via

Suppose you are designing multilayer PCB and you want the connection between bottom layer and top layer then we use via. Via allows the current to pass through the board. This can be seen in the figure below. In this consider yellow colour pads as bottom layer and green colour pads as top layer so the yellow color circle shown are via.

11. Gerber

Gerber file is send by user to manufacture to make PCB. Gerber file is important because many PCB design software are available now a days and it is not necessary that software which you are using will be available at vendor side. Suppose I make my PCB on Eagle software and my PCB manufacturer does not have the same, at that time gerber file is useful. So now gerber file will help manufacture to know your project and manufacturer cannot make changes in gerber file. Gerber file contain information about drill size, where to make hole, how tracks are connected, naming of components etc.

I hope this Article will be useful for the begineers.

Thanks for reading my Article. If anyone is having query please ask me...

Regards,

Email id- jruby.kumari@gmail.com