Getting Familiar

PCB stands for printed circuit board which are used for wiring up of the component of circuit . Single side PCB have copper foil on one side while the double sided PCB have a copper foil on both side of laminate Thickness of copper foil is 35 micrometer minimum on cheaper PCB and 70 micrometer on a costly PCB Tracks are made by masking the track part of copper with each resist enamel paint and later dipping the laminate in ferric chloride solution to dissolve all the copper except under the mask part

 The most important task in making any project is to design its PCB. PCB is an abbreviation of Printed circuit board. Printed circuit board is a copper clad board on which tracks are designed through which the current flows according to the circuit diagram.

 Take a copper clad board of appropriate size according to the circuit layout. Draw the PCB layout on the transparency sheet with the help of permanent marker. Take a photo film of appropriate sizes according to the PCB layout Put the photo film and transparency sheet in the proto contact machine.

 After one or two minutes take out the photo film from the machine and rinse into the solution of Ammonium sulphate until we see a complete layout. After that wash the photo film in water and Ag fix solution and finally negative is prepared. Now put the copper clad board into the Dip coat machine for two three times for coating a smooth layer of gum.

 After that put the copper clad board into the dryer machine for 5 to 7 minutes. Suitably placed the copper clad board and negative in the Ultraviolet Exposure machine for two minutes. After that put the copper clad board into the Developer machine for 5 to 7 minutes. Now put the copper clad board into the dye machine, so that the PCB layout is printed on the copper clad board and dry it.

 Design the tracks with the help of a permanent marker on the copper clad board. After finishing track designing once, do at least 3 coats of permanent marker on the copper glad board to make the tracks darker so that the copper beneath the permanent marker coating may not be removed during the etching process which is explained in the next point

 Now our PCB is ready to be etched. In this step we pour our PCB in an etching solution. Etching solution is nothing but a chemical solution of Ferrous Chloride (FeCl3). This solution reacts with the copper of copper glad board and except the copper beneath the permanent marker coating. Rest of the copper is washed away from the copper glad board. This process takes 5 minutes approximately. Wash the PCB with clean water and dry it. Once the whole PCB is etched, the permanent marker coating has to be removed from the board. For this the PCB is rubbed by an iron scrubber.

 This is the time to check the PCB for short circuit between the tracks. For this purpose, we use a digital multimeter. Continuity is checked between all the tracks where there is a possibility of short circuiting. Now the time is to mount the components into the PCB. But for this we have to make holes where we want to mount our components. The holes are to be drilled with the help of a drilling machine using a 1mm drill bit. The holes have to be drilled exactly at the place as shown in the PCB layout. Mount the components into the PCB and solder them with the help of a fine tip solder iron. Soldering should be done very carefully there are chances of short circuits in between adjacent tracks. Now the PCB is ready to use in our project.

1. Negative development through Proto Contact Machine: In this machine the negative exposure is done. After this, the negative is passed through 2 types of solution. First one is ammonium sulphate solution and second one is fixer solution i.e. Ag fixer solution. 2. Dip Coat Machine: This machine conatins a solution of photoresist material of E1020 type. 3. Photocure: this woks as a drier. After dip coating PCB is dried in this machine. 4. Ultraviolet Exposure machine: In this machine the negative made is printed on PCB.

5. Developer and Dye Machine: After UV exposure PCB is placed in developer machine which contains developer solution. After that PCB is put in Dye machine which fixes the layout on PCB. 6. Etcher Machine: This machine contains FeCl3 solution which removes all the extra copper on PCB. 7. Drilling Machine: The drilling is done on the drilling machine.