Circuit boards have become the heart and soul of modern day electronics. A circuit board is a circuit design that uses physical wiring to connect electronic circuits and communicates information between them. The most common use for circuit boards is in personal computer systems where individual components are soldered to a motherboard. These components are then wired together and attached to one another via conductors that are bonded to the board. An integrated circuit board (ICB) is made up of several ICs which are wired together via one or more conductors that are bonded to the board. The ICs on an ICB are typically a variety of digital ICs such as microprocessors, digital logic gates, diodes and transistors.
Circuit Boards – Printed Circuit Board Assembly
There are two major types of circuit boards: printed circuit boards (PCBs) and solid state circuit boards (SSBs). A printed circuit board mechanical supports and insulates electrical or physical components with non-insulated pads, conductive traces and other components etched on or between non-resin layers of plastic or metal plated sheet. The printed circuit boards have individual components that can be easily soldered together through mechanical means. On the other hand, solid state component devices are built with semiconductor components that are electrically attracted to one another. This means that when one device gets hot, it will melt the other.
The working mechanism of printed circuit boards works on the following principles. Components get hot; a conductive component is bonded to a pad and then it is protected by a barrier then the entire system is isolated from the ambient environment. This isolated system is then fitted with an LED or light emitting diode (LED) which is charged and passes electricity through it. The LED lights up when the current passes through it and the current generated when the current passes through the resistive components that are hot, consumes the heat from the components thereby protecting them from damage.