A Single-Sided PCB is the most basic type of printed circuit board. It consists of only one conductive copper layer above the substrate. The electrical components are soldered or mounted on to one side of the board and the entire etched circuit can be seen on the other side of the board. Single-sided PCBs are easy to design and manufacture. They are also the most cost-effective PCBs. Since these boards have only one conducting layer the conductive paths cannot cross or overlap and thus tend to take up a large amount of space. Due to this, such a printed circuit board is ideal for low-density design requirements.
History and Background:
The single-sided printed circuit board is in the early 1950 s with the emergence of transistors, developed products, centered in the United States was the main method for copper foil etching method directly for the mainstream. For the first time in 1953 t0 1955, the Japanese use imported copper foil made paper phenolic copper foil substrates, and a large number of applications in the radio. In 1956, the Japanese professional circuit board manufacturer, manufacturing technology, and rapid progress of single-sided PCB board. In terms of material, early with paper phenolic copper foil substrate is given priority to, but because of the low phenolic electrical insulation material, welding heat resistance is poor, the distortion factors, such as paper ring gas with resin, fiberglass epoxy resin, such as material was developed, the current consumer electronic machine for single panel, almost use the paper, phenolic backing board.
Single PCB production process single-sided PCB production: copper clad, blanking, scrub, dry, drilling or punching, screen printing line etched pattern or resistance using dry film - check fix plate curing - etching copper - to resist printing material, dry scrub, dry - screen printing resistance welding graphics (commonly used green oil), UV curing, character marking graphics screen printing, UV curing, preheating, punching, and appearance - electric open and short circuit test - scrubbing, drying - precoating run-off antioxidant (dry) or spray tin hot air leveling, packing, finished products inspection.
Working Principle of Single-sided PCB:
PCB uses raw insulating material to isolate the surface copper foil conductive layer. Due to this, the current flows in various components along a pre-designed route to complete functions such as work, amplification, attenuation, modulation, demodulation, encoding, etc.
What are the Benefits of Using Single-Sided PCB?
You must be thinking, why these single-sided boards are considered the best choice for a huge list of applications. It is because of the numerous advantages that these PCBs have. Following are some advantages of single-sided printed circuit boards:
- Single-sided PCB is easily understandable by most manufacturers. Besides this, they are commonly used in a wide variety of applications, which makes them popular.
- Single-sided printed circuit boards are considered a perfect choice for simple low-density designs.
- These PCBs face lesser issues at the time of the manufacturing process. This helps speed up the manufacturing process.
- These types of single-layer PCB can be availed at lower costs, particularly in the case of high-volume orders.
Where are the Single-Sided PCBs Used?
Single-sided PCBs find their application across a wide range of applications including:
- Calculators
- Camera Systems
- Radio and Stereo Equipment
- Industrial and Automotive Relays
- Solid State Drives
- Power Supplies
- Printers
Structure of single-sided PCB:
The single-layer PCB mainly consists of pads, vias, mounting holes, wires, components, connectors, filling, and electrical boundaries. Single-sided board The main functions of each part are as follow:
Pad: A metal hole used to solder the pins of components.
Via: A metal hole used to connect electronic components pins between layers.
Mounting hole: Used to fix the circuit board.
Wire: The copper film of the electrical network used to connect
the pins of the surface mount components.
Connectors: Used to connect components between single layer PCB.
Filling: Used for copper layer coating of ground wire network, which can effectively reduce impedance and manufacturing issues.
Electrical boundary: Used to determine the size of the circuit board; all the components on the single-layer board cannot exceed the boundary.
Single Side PCB Function
After electronic equipment adopts circuit boards, manual wiring errors can be avoided due to the consistency of similar circuit boards. Electronic components can be automatically inserted or mounted, automatic soldering, and automatic detection, ensuring the quality of electronic devices or equipment and improving labor productivity, reducing costs, and facilitating maintenance.
Single Side PCB Material
Printed single-sided PCB is generally made of foil-clad and copper-clad laminates. The plate selection should consider electrical performance, feasibility, processing requirements, economic indicators, etc. Commonly used copper-clad laminates include copper-clad phenol paper laminates, copper-clad epoxy paper laminates, and copper-clad laminates. For multilayer PCBs, foil epoxy glass cloth laminate, copper-clad epoxy phenol glass cloth laminate, copper-clad PTFE glass cloth laminate, and epoxy glass cloth are used.
How to maintain Single Side PCB?
Circuit board engineers have their maintenance methods and ideas. However, the maintenance steps can be summarized in the following six steps. To understand the board’s failure to repair, first understand the failure situation and set the failure judgment within a smaller range to facilitate the maintenance work. Therefore, understanding the failure of the circuit board is very important for starting maintenance.
1. Board observation:
Board observation is preliminary
research. The purpose is to understand what input and output interfaces the board have, what functions the board implements, and the distribution of various control parts of the board.
2. Circuit Test:
After completing the fault observation and analysis, perform preliminary inspections on the board. The initial circuit test may not find the board’s fault point, but experienced circuit board maintenance personnel manually perform the test, exclude a wide range of faults, and pave the way for the next repair.
3. Component inspection:
In most component inspections, the components need to be removed from the circuit board with a soldering iron and inspected by professional equipment. This process will damage the circuit board’s external integrity, so under normal circumstances, maintenance personnel will not dismantle circuits components.
4. Fault maintenance:
From line testing to component inspection, the maintenance steps are designed to deal with the faults discovered, including line repair, component replacement, and transformation.
5. Test on the computer:
The board that has completed the maintenance work needs to be tested again. After confirming that there is no fault, it is tested on the computer.
Single Side PCB Application and Characteristics:
The single-sided PCB is more and more widely used because it has many unique advantages; the summary is as follows.
High density:
For decades, high-density printed boards have developed with the improvement of integrated circuits integration and the advancement of mounting technology.
High reliability:
Through a series of inspections, tests, and aging tests, the PCB can work reliably for an extended period (usually 20 years).
Designability:
For the various performance (electrical, physical, chemical, mechanical, etc.) requirements of the single-sided PCB panel, the printed board can be designed through design standardization in a short time and with high efficiency.
Producibility:
With modern production management, it can be standardized, scaled (quantified), automated, etc., to ensure product quality consistency.
Testability:
Complete test methods, standards, various test equipment, and instruments have been established to detect and appraise the eligibility and service life of the single PCB.
Assembled:
The circuit board facilitates the standardized assembly of various components and enables automated and large-scale mass production. At the same time, single-sided PCB and various component assembly parts can be assembled to form larger parts and systems, up to the complete machine
Maintainability:
Single-sided PCB and various component assembly parts are manufactured in standardized design and scale. If the system fails, it is convenient to replace components quickly; the system can be restored promptly with such flexibility. There are more examples, such as miniaturization and weight
reduction of the system, and high-speed signal transmission.
LT PCBA as Single Sided PCB Supplier:
LT PCBA is a high-tech enterprise specializing in the production and R&D of various single-sided PCB. The single-sided PCB, single-sided aluminum PCB, single-sided circuit boards, and other various
FR4 circuit boards are produced with comparable advanced foreign products.
Product specifications apply to electronic watches, calculators, general-purpose computers, as large as computers, electronic communication equipment, and military weapon system. Lastly, PCBs are used for electrical interconnection if there are electronic components such as integrated circuits.
Time required for Single Side PCB Production:
What’s should be the focus on for single-side PCB?
- Production time:3-5 days for sample, 5-7 days for
- mass production
- Quality request: The customer’s detailed requirements,
- size, thickness, craftsmanship, whether it is invoiced, can it be
- collected by express delivery, and are there any special requirements?
- Is mass production required in the
- future? Is it long-term cooperation? All of them should be figured
- out one by one.
How to improve long delivery time for single-sided PCB?
1. Make more boards in stock
2. Arrange the full day production
3. The delivery date needs to be negotiated with the customer
