PCB Glossary | Commonly Used Terminologies In PCB Designing

PCB designing is a complex and intricate process. Getting a PCB professionally designed by a PCB contract manufacturer; You, realize very soon how important it is to be on the same page as the design manufacturer; in order to get the PCB design to align exactly with your design needs without having to suffer through unnecessary quote delays. This leads us to realize that, having a basic understanding of common PCB terminologies can make co-operation with a PCB manufacturing company much faster and easier. In today’s article, we are going to go over an in depth PCB Glossary; In which, we are going to cover the most commonly utilized PCB design terms in PCB manufacturing.

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Glossary of Common PCB Terminologies

Following list represents the glossary of PCB Designing:

1) AOI

AOI stands for Automated Optical Inspection. AOI is a type of pre/post reflow soldering inspection that helps in detecting the quality of the soldering, common issues in soldering & component alignment before and after soldering. In AOI testing, a camera autonomously scans the device under test for both catastrophic failure and quality defects.

2) Active Components

This term points to the kind of components that depend upon the directional flow of electrical current such as transistors, diodes, SCRs & ICs, etc.

3) AQL

AQL stands for acceptance quality limit. It refers to the acceptable limit of faulty boards produced during a single production cycle. AQL is an important figure for monitoring the quality of an assembler’s production practices.

4) Assembly Drawing

 An assembly drawing depicts the assembly requirements of a PCB. It includes the placement of components as well as the construction technologies. It also shows the methods and parameters needed to make it happen.

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5) Assembly House

Assembly house usually refers to the manufacturing site, where all the assembly operation take place. These fab houses contain important PCBA equipment such as printer, mounter, reflow oven, and more.

6) Buried Via

A Buried Via is a type of via technology that connects the top layer of a PCB to one or more inner layers. A buried via can only be seen from one side of the board when looking at it from the outside.

7) Blind Via

Blind vias are through-holes that connect inner layers of a PCB, but they cannot be seen from the exterior of the PCB.

8) CAD

CAD stands for Computer Aided Design. CAD refers to those design software and tools that PCB designers use to design and implement the initial layout of a PCB board. These software also help in visualizing the PCB layout in a 2D/3D environment.

9) CAM Files

CAM stands for computer aided manufacturing. The CAM files contain all the physical information of a PCB layout translated into machine code and are essential for the fabrication of a PCB board. CAM files include the Gerber file for photoplotters and the CNC drill file.

10) DRC

DRC is an acronym for design rule check. DRC check is an essential evaluating step necessary for each and every PCB layout. It runs a software verification of all the parts on the PCB, ensuring that there are no sources of errors such as small drill holes or traces placed too close together.

11) DIP

DIP stands for dual in line package. It is a packaging technology; that is commonly used for THT components. DIP packages generally function as housing for integrated circuits (ICs).

12) Drill Hits

A term that refers to where holes will be drilled in a PCB design.

13) ESD

ESD is an acronym for Electrostatic discharge. ESD discharges are particularly harmful for PCB, causing them to short and burn out.

14) Edge Connectors

Edge connectors are a category of on board PCB connectors; they are designed to be installed in the edge of your PCB board, in order to facilitate an add- on card such as a GPU card.

15) Functional Test

A type of electrical test that determines the fail/pass status of a finished PCB. It is a barrage of electrical/electronic tests that judges the assembly & viability of the PCB by simulating it in its final electrical environment.

16) Gerber File

Gerber file is sent by the user to the manufacturer to make the PCB. It contains information about drill size, where to make holes, how the tracks/routes connect, the naming of the components, etc.

17) Bill Of Materials (BoM)

Bill of material or BOM contains a list of all the necessary active and passive components that will go on the PCB. BoM also contains the electrical value of the components; As well as, the mechanical dimensions of all the components on the PCB.

18) FR4

FR4 is a material rating for any flame retardant material. It is also the most common material type used in PCB fabrication. The name also specifies that the resin material is capable of automatically extinguishing when it is aflame.

19) Laminate

A PCB terminology referring to the combination of different materials through heating, adhesive, and welding methods to create a new PCB material with multiple layers.

20) NC Drilling/Routing Machine

NC stands for numerical control. CNC (computerized numerical control) machines are an integral part of every PCB fab house that the designers use to drill holes and route traces on the PCB board.

21) Pad

A pad is a contact point for connecting components with a via through soldering.

22) Pick And Place Machine

A pick and place machine is a highly sophisticated PCB assembly machine; that serves the purpose of picking up SMT/THT PCB parts and places them in their area of designation on the PCB board.

23) Pitch

Pitch is the distance between two consecutive leads of a THT or SMT PCB part.

24) Route

A route or track represents an individual wire on a PCB board. A PCB route connects each individual PCB component with each other.

25) Silkscreen

This is the top most layer on the PCB board; The silkscreen is made out of an epoxy ink and contains the names of all the components on the PCB board. Typically, the color white is the most preferred for silkscreens as it is easier to see.

26) SMD

Short for surface mount devices, it refers to components designed to be soldered on the surface of PCBs, rather than through a thru-hole.

In conclusion, the above lists represent the PCB glossary of the most common PCB terminologies. By following the above PCB glossary you will be able to understand the basic terminologies used in PCB designing.