What Is PCB Design?
PCB design is the design of a Printed Circuit Board (PCB).
A printed circuit board is a so-called patterned circuit board in which copper is applied to a PCB board made of materials such as glass, fiber, or paper phenol, and then etched using a solvent known as etching, leaving only the copper foil for the circuit portions.
In other words, PCB design is the detailed design of patterns and layer configurations on PCB boards, along with chip components such as ICs and LCRs to be placed, using dedicated circuit diagrams, simulators, wiring layouts, and CAD tools for electromagnetic field, heat generation, and stress analysis.
Uses of PCB Designs
The ultimate purpose of PCB designs is to be used in practical applications in the form of PCBs, which are used inside electrical appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators, and televisions. The tools used to materialize the PCB as an electronic circuit board to be built into the product are dedicated schematic CAD and board pattern design CAD.
The PCB design procedure generally consists of designing an electronic circuit, converting the circuit into an actual parts list, and then creating a copper foil pattern circuit on the board in the form of a pattern that represents the circuit and mounted parts.
Principles of PCB Designs
To explain the principle of PCB designs, it is necessary to understand it from the principle of PCB, which, as mentioned above, refers to printed circuit boards, which are made of insulators such as glass, fiber, or paper that do not conduct electricity. The PCB is the result of etching the copper foil except for the areas that are to be electrically conductive.
The pattern design information necessary to form the pattern circuit on the PCB is the PCB design itself, which is the embodiment of how the circuit will be realized on the PCB. The pattern design information is the electronic circuit to realize the necessary functions of the product at the first stage, as described in the usage of the product as the main source of information.
Without this circuit diagram, nothing can begin. After the circuit diagram and mounted components such as ICs and chip components are created and registered in CAD, the circuit diagram information is then dropped into a dedicated board pattern design CAD system. This work is usually handled by staff dedicated to pattern design or by an outsourcing company.
The circuit designer is in charge of inputting the necessary information, and the minimum information required at that time is the board dimensions, hole diameters, board, and copper foil thicknesses, and the placement of mounted components, which must be specified in advance.