Wednesday 19 June 2013

PCB Design Services An Overview

By Linda Maynard


Many view electronics as little more than modern day witchcraft, as they can't actually see how things work. It can be confusing to the majority but where would modern day man be without electronics. So if you don't know a resistor from a capacitor, but still need electronics in your device it makes sense to use professional PCB design services.

Electrical devices proliferate the world today, they are everywhere that you look. Your TV remote control for example, the television itself, and even within your vehicle you can find these devices. Each one of them has a common link, and that is that they all have printed circuit boards.

Many will have accidentally opened a device to see what is inside, and these circuit boards will have been one of the first things that they will have noticed. They will be the beige or green boards. The ones with all of the bits and pieces stuck on them, confronted with this it is small wonder that people get confused.

The easy thing to do is to think of an electronic system, as a miniaturised electrical system. Power goes in, it does something and comes out again and goes to earth. In much the same way as a simple lighting circuit, power comes in, you operate the switch completing the circuit, the power goes through the filament illuminating the bulb, and out to earth.

Looking at one of these boards can be very daunting to most people. There seems to be so many tiny things all squashed together. It is difficult to know which component is which, never mind what they do.

The board is built up to an even thickness, by compressing layers of material. Closer inspection reveal metallic lines on one side. These only allow the current to flow along its designated path. The components populate the other side of the board, but their legs are fixed to the tracks. Under the components you might spot a plan inked in white.

This layout plan is a circuit that has been devised to carry out the operation that a customer wants. It also tells the engineer which device has to be placed where for the circuit to operate properly. They will also be working from a large paper schematic too, so the engineer will be checking off one against the other.

Once the theoretical aspect has been devised it is time to construct a life size example to test the circuit. Using the circuit diagrams mentioned previously, the correctly rated capacitor is placed into its position and soldered in place. This continues until all of the components have been correctly fitted to the board. The finished board can now be used to ensure that it will fit into the space allocated for it, and also that it does all that the client has asked for.

This will have given you a brief insight into these boards. Hopefully you now have more of an understanding about what PCB design services can offer. It is easy to see why modern industry turns to the professionals for help, with their expertise they can do these cheaper and faster.




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