Printed circuit boards can be found in almost all electronic devices today, from portable radios to personal computers. These devices consist of an insulating board with metallic copper tracks and offer a convenient way to combine common electrical components such as resistors, capacitors and inductors. Amateur electricians can create their own PCBs by designing the board and then sending the design to a manufacturer. Ultimately the PCB will be more robust and smaller than the vari-boards typically used by amateurs.
Instructions
1 Design the PCBs using computer aided design software. CAD software allows you to design a number of layers. Different parts of the PCB should be separated into different layers. An example layer protocol is shown below:
Layer 0 is the board outline
Layer 1 is the copper tracks
Layer 2 is the drilled holes.
2 Save the CAD drawing as a Gerber file. This is the industry format for PCB design. A file will be saved for each layer in the drawing. Open each Gerber file and check that the layer contents are correct.
3 Create a text document that includes the board dimensions, a description of each layer, the copper weight required, which is the thickness of the copper tracks, and the lead time required.
Email the Gerber file and text description to a manufacturer. They will normally get back to the you in a day with a PDF of the designs. Check these designs before the manufacturing process starts.
