Tuesday 20 August 2013

A Brief Look At PCB Design Services

By Andrea Davidson


Everywhere that a person looks they are confronted by a device which uses electrical power. Most will contain electronic components, but not many people will be aware how these components interact to produce a desired result. Businesses know what they want a product to do, and the smarter businesses will make use of specialist PCB design services.

Many firms utilise these specialist firms for a variety of reasons. The main one being that it means that they do not have the need to set up their own such department. These firms deal with such tasks daily and have their own team of specialists and technicians.

As with most projects there will be an initial consultation where many key issues will be discussed. This could be the company explaining how they see their new product functioning, to letting the specialists know how much room they have available to fit their circuit board. Maybe there are also weight issues.

When space or weight are limiting factors, it is often decided to utilise a type of circuit board known as surface mount. This is so called because the electronic components are mounted on the surface of the board. The components can be on just one side or both sides, depending on the complexity of the circuit. The components are very small and weigh very little.

Another common form of Circuit board is called a through board. These are often bigger, as the components themselves are larger. The body of the electronic component is on one side of the board, the component legs are passed through the board, and soldered to the metal tracks on the opposing side. These types will need more room, and are a little heavier.

As mentioned earlier the dimensions that the populated circuit board has to fit into are very important. This effectively limits the size of the board that the specialists have to work with. They will begin to devise the circuit plan, one important factor being how will the required power get to this newly designed circuit.

The power supply is normally overcome in a couple of different ways. Often wires are used to link the power supply directly to the new circuit board. The other method is to connect the board into a socket, pads will connect the board itself with sprung pins within the socket body, and then on to the metal tracks. It travels via these tracks until it meets the soldered leg of a component, and it will then cause that component to operate.

Different electronic components operate in different ways. Voltages might be reduced or increased. Relays might be made to open or close, and capacitors could be charged up. It is not surprising that people are confused by electronics, as they cannot actually see these operations taking place.

Therefore it is not surprising that industry and businesses decide to make use of these specialised PCB design services. They are the experts in the field and know how to use these components to gain full advantage. They will even make sure that the costs are kept to a minimum for the business.




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