Circuit Board Design Methods

When creating an electronic device, a printed circuit board (PCB) is required to attach the various components to the board. The various resistors and capacitors, transistors, inductors and integrated circuits need a way to be housed and mounted into one place. The PCB provides the backbone and the medium to create that circuit.

It is possible to order pre-made circuit boards. They come with the soldermask, the silkscreen, the pre-drilled through-holes, and lead pins ready to go. These ready-made parts are perfect for the functions that don’t need to be re-designed. However, when designing a brand new device, a new circuit board design must be created. There are a few ways to go about creating a new design for the device.

Breadboard Circuit Board Design

This is the most common way of designing a new circuit board. The breadboard comes from the old method of grabbing an old bread board and physically attaching wires and components on the actual board to create circuits. The name has stuck, and the components have shrunk in size. The breadboard requires no soldering which is handy for a new design. It’s also quite useful when looking at testing a new piece such as an integrated circuit. The constant wiring and re-wiring is much easier to help understand a piece when it can be simply done on a board with wires. The problem with the bread board is that the pieces tend to be small and hard to work with on a constant basis. The pieces can break and the connections can be delicate and fragile.

CAD Design

More and more computer programs are being created to support the design of a circuit board on the computer. Components can be assigned values and “dragged and dropped” into holes on the virtual space. The computer program can test the theoretical circuit and assess the design. Certain companies offer the service of approving the CAD design before printing a circuit board with a flaw. It’s a great way to assess a circuit with no moving parts needed. The disadvantage is that is does not give a physical understanding of how the components will go together on the board.

Trial and Error

Among engineers and designers, this is still a popular method for circuit testing. If an engineer understands the basic principles and functions of most of the circuit, a test and retest method can be done on the actual circuit board. This gives a real-time assessment of the circuit and how it actually will perform on the given PCB. However, it can be time consuming to solder points and re-solder if the design fails.

A new circuit board design can be a frustrating experience to create, but the rewards can be worthwhile. A new design can be sold off to create newer and better devices in the future. The designer gets to have the payoff for the time spent testing and retesting the original design. The best method is the one that the designer persists with, no matter the cost.