circuitboard

Chip mounting surface

A circuitboard is a flat board made of insulating material with conductive pathways etched or printed onto it, forming the physical foundation for electronic components.

The components—chips, resistors, capacitors—are mounted and soldered to the board, which routes electrical signals between them.

Nearly every electronic device contains at least one: The technician replaced the fried circuitboard.

Also spelled as two words: circuit board.

fabrication

etching

Acid-incised metal print

  • copperReddish-brown metallic element
  • tracesSlight remaining amounts
  • solderFusible bonding alloy

multilayer · laminate · substrate · silkscreen · via · through-hole · surface-mount · reflow · drilling · plating

structure

PCB

Electronic component substrate

nodes · connections · pads · vias · solder joints · bus lines · breakout · backplane · ribbon cable · header

components

resistor

Current-limiting circuit element

microchip · inductor · relay · LED · fuse · oscillator · potentiometer · varistor · thermistor · transformer

design

schematic

Simplified technical diagram

  • layoutSpatial arrangement of elements
  • routingPath selection process
  • CADTechnical drawing technology

prototype · debugging · footprint · clearance · decoupling

Opposites
substrate vs. wiring

circuitboardwiring

Installed electrical conductors

wire · cable · jumper wire · ribbon cable · integrated circuit

electronic vs. mechanical systems

circuitboardgears

Toothed rotating machine parts

clockwork · pulley system · hydraulics · pneumatics

artificial vs. organic processing systems

circuitboardbrain

Seat of cognition

neural tissue · nervous system · neurons · cerebral cortex · grey matter

Family

circuit, board, circuits, boards, circuited, circuitry, boarding, boarded, boarder

Familiarity
Top 1,000,000
Profile
Known to kids · Used worldwide · Timeless · Concrete · Everyday, not technical · Rated G