The Difference Between PCB&PCBA

What is PCB? What is PCBA? What are the differences between them?

Simply speaking, (Printed Circuit Board), often referred to as PCB or PWB, is a support for electronic components, in which there are metal conductors as lines connecting electronic components. Traditional circuit boards use the printing etching resist method to make the circuit lines and graphics, so they are called (printed circuit boards).

A printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) describes the finished board after all the components have been soldered and installed on a printed circuit board (PCB). The conductive pathways engraved in the laminated copper sheets of PCBs are used within a non-conductive substrate in order to form the assembly.

Now let’s introduce it specifically, what are the differences between them?

What is PCB, circuit board, PC board?

The full name of PCB in English is "Printed Circuit Board". The direct translation in Chinese is "printed circuit board", which is referred to as "circuit board". Some people call it "PC board" in both Chinese and English. It actually has another English name called "PWB". (Printed Wire Bord), PWB is commonly used by foreigners in some countries, but it is almost always called PCB in Taiwan and mainland China.

As the name suggests, the manufacturing of printed circuit boards is really a printing technology that imitates book paper. It is made by projecting light onto a negative film through a film, and then using chemical etching methods to print copper foil circuits on pieces of hard boards. Yes, with the advancement of technology, the manufacturing of printed circuit boards has become more and more sophisticated and complex, but the printing process technology and operations still exist.

The reason why today's electronic products have so many functions is basically composed of electronic circuits and electronic components. These circuits must have a carrier, and PCB is this carrier. So PCB is basically a board (carrier) with printed electronic circuits. It must also carry electronic components on it without losing functionality. It is also responsible for the communication channels between electronic components. Therefore, if the earth is the carrier, electronic circuits are the roads connecting towns, and PCBs are the earth already covered with roads, and electronic components are the cities and towns.

If you are careful, have you noticed the positioning of PCB here? Yes, it is like a country that has already planned its territory, waiting for the person in charge to install towns (components) with different functions into specific locations, and only after all the electronic components are assembled on the PCB. It's called PCBA, so you should have a rough idea of the difference between PCB and PCBA by now.

We generally call this kind of PCB that has printed electronic circuits but has not assembled components as "blank board", "bare board (Mainland term)", "bare board" to distinguish it from PCBA, because the two There is really only one English word missing, so it is easy to make a mistake.

PCB can be regarded as one of the very important electronic parts in today's electronics industry. It is the support body of electronic components and the carrier of electrical connections between electronic components. Of course, FPC (flexible circuit board) can also do the same. PCB has the same carrier function, but their hardness and softness have their own needs and applications. In most electronic product designs, "rigid PCB" is still the main application.

The reason why PCB can be widely used in the current industry, its uniqueness can be summarized as follows:

1. High wiring density, small size, and light weight are beneficial to the miniaturization of electronic products. Recently, the density of PCBs has gradually moved closer to early integrated circuit technology, and certain processes have also tended to gradually adopt semiconductor equipment.

2. The reproduction has high stability and can be produced in large quantities to achieve repeatability and consistency, reducing the problem of assembly errors when using cable wiring. Modular design can increase the time for equipment maintenance, debugging and inspection.

3. Can be produced automatically. PCB and PCBA can now be produced almost fully automatically, which reduces labor costs and operating errors, improves labor production efficiency, and helps reduce product prices and popularize the market.

4. The design can be standardized or designed as a module. When different functions are required, just replace the entire PCBA board.

What is PCBA?

The difference between PCB and PCBA is "PCBA = PCB + Assembly", that is, a board without assembled electronic components is called PCB, while a board with assembled electronic components is called PCBA.

With the earth as an analogy, you should know that PCB is the earth with paved roads but no towns yet, while PCBA is the earth with paved roads and towns.

PCBA is actually the English abbreviation of "Printed Cicrcuit Board Assembly". Some people call it simply PCA. Of course, some people call it PWA (Printed Wire Assembly). In Chinese, we generally call it "assembled circuit board" or "assembly board". However, few people in the industry use the above Chinese to refer to PCBA. Generally, if there is only one board in a complete machine, they will directly call it "Main board" or simply omit the "board". If there are more than two PCBAs, , then functions will be used to distinguish the motherboard, IO board, and charging board.

Thanks so much for your reading!