Power Bank PCB: Charging, Protection and Layout What the Board Does A power bank board manages energy in both directions. On the input side it takes power from a USB charger, charges the lithium cell safely and reports the charge state. On the output side it boosts the cell voltage…

Arlon PCB Materials: Grades, Properties and Selection What Arlon Materials Are Arlon is a family of high performance laminates rather than a single material. The name covers several different resin systems made for different problems: radio frequency circuits that need a low and stable dielectric constant, high speed digital boards…

Megtron 6 PCB: High Speed Low Loss Laminate What Megtron 6 Is Megtron 6 is a high speed, low loss laminate used for boards that carry fast serial links or high frequency signals. It is a filled resin system reinforced with glass fabric, and its value is in two electrical…

Switching Power Supply PCB: Layout Rules That Work Why the Layout Decides the Supply A switching supply is a schematic that almost never works as drawn. The circuit is simple, an inductor, a switch, a diode or a synchronous rectifier, a controller and a handful of capacitors, but the currents…

Ultra-Thin Flex PCB: Design and Manufacturing What Ultra-Thin Flex Means An ultra-thin flexible circuit is a flexible board whose total thickness is measured in tens of micrometres. The dielectric is a polyimide film thinner than 50 micrometres, the copper is a thin foil, and the protective coverlay is thinner again,…

Black Solder Mask PCB: Properties, Process and Cost What Black Solder Mask Is Solder mask is the polymer coating that protects the copper and the laminate of a finished board except where a joint has to be made. It is applied as a liquid photoimageable ink, exposed and developed like…

DVD Player PCB: Main Board Design and Repair What the Board Does A DVD player main board takes the raw data from the optical pickup and delivers a finished video and audio signal at the output connectors. Between those two points it amplifies and shapes the pickup signal, runs the…

Metal Detector PCB: Coil Drive and Signal Processing What the Board Does A metal detector board drives a search coil with an alternating current, listens to the tiny change that a metallic object causes in the coil’s magnetic field, amplifies that change and decides whether it represents a target. The…

Air Conditioner PCB: Control Board Design and Reliability What the Board Controls An air conditioner control board takes a request from a remote control or a wall thermostat and turns it into a coordinated sequence of mechanical actions: start the compressor, run the indoor and outdoor fans, position the reversing…

Digital Piano PCB: Key Matrix and Sensing Design What the Board Does A digital piano or MIDI keyboard board has one primary job: detect which key was pressed, how hard it was pressed and when it was released, and turn that into a note with the right volume and timing.…