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HOLDING SLOT
The Printed Circuit board was invented by Paul Eisler during the 1930's. Born in Vienna in 1907 he escaped to the UK in 1936 and, working in a bedsit in Hamstead, began making a radio using the idea of copper tracks on a substrate rather than a mass of wires.....
Eisler is recognised for his contributions to PCB development. Early PCB’s used manually soldered circuits between layers. In 1936, Eisler’s development of plated through-hole technology negated the inconsistencies found within manually soldered circuits, leading to early industrial-scale PCB production during World War II.
Earlier iterations of the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) were by German inventor Albert Hanson in 1902. Demand was largely driven by the telecommunications industry with operaters manually connecting hundreds of circuits at their switching platforms.
Hanson developed his circuits a year later, not only to include copper conductors on both sides for high density interconnects, but also holes to select inter-conductor connections. This has shaped what we know today as double-sided through-hole circuitry, and he later went on to patent multilayer circuitry to achieve an even higher conductor density.
Fast-forward over 100 years and these core concepts remain the foundation of our PCB products. Whether it is a traditional rigid circuit board, modern versions of flexible circuitry, or a combination of both, they all include developed versions of these early circuit boards.
Multi-Layer Rigid
Description
Multi-layer rigid Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) are constructed from three or more conductive copper layers, with integral substrate boards for insulation between each layer. Copper plated through-holes are used to provide circuit connections between layers.
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Double Sided Rigid
Description
Double sided PCBs are restricted to two conductive copper layers with a substrate between. Usually the layers are connected with copper plates holes making the PCB a Plated through hole or PTH PCB.
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Single Sided Rigid
Description
Single sided PCBs are entry level circuit boards but are still used in a variety of electronic devices. As the names suggests, they have a conductive copper layer on one side only.
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Flex
Description
A basic flexible PCB consists of a single-sided / single-layered patterned circuit arrangement, placed on a flexible insulating substrate base material (usually a polymer), then finished with a variety of flexible soldermask and/or coverlay finishes. We offer a range of flex circuits (outlined below) which vary in complexity and capability depending on the use case.
Typical use cases include:
- Flex-to-install: any application that requires a circuit to bend or flex due to space constraints, with minimal movement when in situ
- Dynamic flex: any application with intermittent moving parts (example: hinges)
- Continuous flex: any application with constant moving parts (example: disk drive)
As a general rule within basic flex-to-install circuits, the flex-radius should exceed 10x the board thickness. Advanced techniques are employed to go beyond this rule.
Flex PCBs can be produced in Multilayer, Double Sided or Single Sided formats.
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Flex Rigid
Description
A combination of flexible and rigid circuitry that have been laminated together to form a flex rigid PCB. Depending on the application of the PCB, flex rigid boards often consist of multiple layers of substrates. They are usually designed to be permanently flexed when installed in their final application.
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Sculptured Flex
Description
A version of PCB that falls under the flexible circuit umbrella, Sculptured Flex is a particularly specialised PCB. Its main feature is copper conductors that vary in thickness. The thicker areas offer greater strength or conductivity at particular points in the circuitry, allowing slimmer areas of copper to create flexibility.
These copper contacts can then be used instead of separate connectors. This allows the sculptured flex to be a very light and adaptable option.
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Surface Mount Interconnects
(SMI)
Description
Surface Mounter Interconnects or SMIs are designed to provide low cost interconnections from rigid to rigid PCBs. SMIs are machine placeable and are supplied in tape and reel format.
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At The EuroTech Group plc, we have been providing our customers with competitive advantage since 1968. We take great pride in our ongoing ability to manufacture the highest quality high-end PCB’s at any of our dedicated manufacturing facilities:
- 4000m² PCB manufacturing site in Exmouth
- 1000m² flexible PCB manufacturing site in Poole
- 1000m² machining, plating and hermetic assembly site in Honiton
- Extensive offshore sites and collaborations
The EuroTech Group plc is certified to AS9100D, ISO9001:2015 and ISO14001 standards, and we continue to meet and exceed industry standards through rigorous and continuous quality assurance testing. See our latest certification here