PCB

A Printed Circuit Board, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, tracks or traces etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate (usually fiberglass). It is also referred to as printed wiring board (PWB) or etched wiring board. A PCB populated with electronic components is a printed circuit assembly (PCA), also known as a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA).

Printed circuit boards can have one or more layers of copper traces. The copper traces form the "wires" that connect different parts of the circuit.

Manufacturing Techniques

There are many different ways to make circuit boards. Copper clad FR4 is easily available on eBay and from some electronic stores. Copper can be selectively removed to form wire traces through many methods:

• Etching using an photosensitive acid resistive coating
• Etching using toner transfer
• Milling using a CNC mill

Self-manufacturing

There are also several ways for hobbyists to have professionally made circuit boards:

• Sparkfun's BatchPCB service has a $10 setup fee, then is $2.50 per square inch.
• Advanced Circuit's BarebonesPCB service
• DorkbotPDX's Group PCB Order is $5 per square inch and includes three copies of the board
• Sunstone's ValueProto service has a $25 setup fee, then is $3 per square inch

References

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printed_circuit_board

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