As discussed in our earlier blogs, Printed Circuit Board Designing is quite a process. In today’s section, we are going to discuss some basic tools that would be needed to design your PCB. When we refer to tools, they aren’t the usual tools that one might find in a hardware shop but are software and programs especially designed to assist you while designing a PCB. They are electronic software that supports your Gerber file, Excellon file and CAD software. Also, the Internet for finding the right avenues to source your components from. We also require physical tools such as stencils and soldering tools.

The engineer requires these tools at different stages of designing and manufacturing a PCB. When all the required materials are allocated, the basic framework of the printed circuit board has been drawn, and a proper grid has been sketched to understand the working of the PCB; these stages of designing and manufacturing begins when we put to use the above-mentioned tools. Let’s discuss the usage of each.

Stencils:

Stainless foils used for applying solder paste onto the board are stencils. There are laser-cut openings on the stencil that are used to deposit solder paste on designated places on a bare PCB board. A solder mask is used to prevent any excess solder paste deposition on selected areas.

Soldering Machine:

Comprising of a lead or a tin solder, the machine helps in attaching all the electrical components onto the Printed Wiring Board.

CAD Software:

CAD or the Computer Aided Design software comes in handy for the engineer while transferring a design from paper to computer. The software is used to define the schematics, components, and connections within the PCB.

Gerber File

Gerber is a file format that contains information on each physical board layer of the PCB design. It comes in handy for the engineer while creating the artwork for circuit board imaging. Circuit board objects, like copper traces, vias, pads, solder masks and silkscreen images, are all represented by a flash or draw code and defined by a series of vector coordinates.

Excellon File

Excellon file or the drill file s a file format has all the information regarding drill tool number, hole size and quantity, and whether or not the holes are plated. It is used to govern the sizes and locations of finished holes on the printed circuit board.