
Large numbers of PCBs can be fabricated at the same time, and the layout has to be done only once. Mass-producing circuits with PCBs is cheaper and faster than with other wiring methods, as components are mounted and wired in one operation.
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Electronic computer-aided design software is available to do much of the work of layout. PCBs require additional design effort to lay out the circuit, but manufacturing and assembly can be automated.

Alternatives to PCBs include wire wrap and point-to-point construction, both once popular but now rarely used. Printed circuit boards are used in nearly all electronic products. Components are generally soldered onto the PCB to both electrically connect and mechanically fasten them to it. PCBs mechanically support electronic components using conductive pads in the shape designed to accept the component's terminals, and also electrically connect them using traces, planes and other features etched from one or more sheet layers of copper laminated onto and/or between sheet layers of a non-conductive substrate. Another manufacturing process adds vias, plated-through holes that allow interconnections between layers. The second is to provide reliable electrical connections (and also reliable open circuits) between the component's terminals in a controlled manner often referred to as PCB design. Each of the conductive layers is designed with an artwork pattern of conductors (similar to wires on a flat surface) that provides electrical connections on that conductive layer. The first is to affix electronic components in designated locations on the outer layers by means of soldering. Part of a 1984 Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer board, a PCB, showing the conductive traces, vias (the through-hole paths to the other surface), and some electronic components mounted using through-hole mounting.Ī printed circuit board ( PCB) or printed wiring board ( PWB) is a laminated sandwich structure of conductive and insulating layers.
