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Ask the Experts
Ask the Experts Panel share experiences, theories and practices to help solve problems associated with advanced electronics manufacturing and assembly.
Expert Panel Contributors:
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Which term to use, PWB or PCB? Is there any real difference between the terms Printed Wire Board (PWB) and Printed Circuit Board (PCB)? Which do you recommend we use for internal and external documents? R. D.Expert's Panel Responses
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Comments and Questions I think the standard naming should be updated to CWC "Circuit Wiring Carrier". This would include rigid, rigid-flex, flex, and any other exotic of the like, and would also be inclusive of all process technologies that would yield the same general commodity as the end result. Any kind of common sense update would be refreshing! M.C. Another consideration - although "PCB" was the most commonly used term years ago, during the 1970's and 80's there was a lot of negative publicity about polychlorinated biphenyls (aka PCBs) as carcinogenic environmental pollutants, and the circuit board industry in the U.S. turned to favor "PWB" to avoid any confusion or association with those pollutants. K.W. I have been in this industry for well over 35 years, and what we are talking about have always been referred to as PCBs. There was actually something we called a printed wire board that was litterally wires layed down on a board with a coating of resin covering it to keep the wires in place. At the time there weren't multilayer boards, so high density could be achieved this way. It was sort of like wire wrap, but the wires were "welded" to the pads instead of wrapped. J.S. Printed circuit boards is the modern term for the bare board, also called the fabricated board. Circuit Card Assembly (CCA) is the term used to describe the finished assembly, not PWA. R.S. Looking at Mr. Leo Lambert's comment, the different between the two terms is mainly in having the printed components or not. What are "Printed components"? Does this refer to legend printing or component mark printing? T.I. The boards in question essentially provide a substrate with interconnect traces and pads. Some have embedded components but are NOT a functional circuit by any stretch of the imagination. I seem to recall that in the 1970s the board industry agreed that PCB was incorrect and that PWB accurately reflected the functionality. Some old timers, who resist change, clung to the inaccurate PCB term. Apparently, laziness has prevailed for man but PWB is frequently used now. If you think about it, using lithography, today's SoCs (systems on a chip) are the only true "printed circuits", requiring only power. T.T. We have been a manufacturer of printed circuit boards for 37 years now, our UL Card says Printed Wiring Board. But most people say PCB or Circuit Board. R.K. |
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