Large often represent an increase in possibilities, and perhaps something that everyone, including you, would pursue. However, in electronics and particular circuit boards, the lure of smaller sizes has increasingly become preferable. The smaller the printed circuit board, the more suitable it becomes to incorporate in smaller digital devices. All these lead to what we will canvass in this article, the 1.6mm PCB. We will look at all the relevant information concerning the 1.6mm printed circuit board from all the relevant angles. So what does it all entail?
The 1.6mm Printed Circuit Board
Printed circuit boards come in all manner of thickness sizes, though the standard board thickness often ranges from 0.4mm to 4.2mm. Before we dig into the PCB 1.6mm board, it becomes crucial to understand what contributes and defines the thickness of printed circuit boards. For starters, a printed circuit board often encompasses building blocks that include the substrate material, the copper layer and traces, and the via. Other crucial components like connectors also exist, but we will restrict ourselves to the three for understanding board thickness.
The substrate often comes in a paper or glass epoxy resin, alternatively referred to as the fr4. In most instances, you will find board thickness getting referred to as fr4 1.6mm, fr4 0.4mm, fr4 4.2mm, etc. The copper layers often come in different sizes, with the thickness of the fr4 and copper layers influencing the depth of vias, a through-hole connecting either side of the board’s circuit.
The 1.6mm printed board comes as the general standard thickness of PCB in the market, despite the diverse types of thickness in existence out there. Because of this, such a 1.6mm printed circuit board can apply in different areas including in the manufacture of electronic equipment and products. It also proves sufficiently thick to sustain the weight of transistors, integrated circuits (ICs), and other standard RC components, though its surface dimensions often exceed 500mm*500mm.
The 1.6mm PCB can come in different formats, especially in the number of layers. It becomes incredibly simple to get different layers of layers such as two, three, four, or six layers within the 1.6mm thickness. However, stacking the layers during manufacturing at home can become complex when the layers go beyond four layers. For this reason, it would help you relied on manufacturing companies like us, the RayMing PCB, and Assembly Company to provide this solution, among other crucial PCB services and products, to you.
RayMing PCB and Assembly also provides assembly and fabrication services for your printed circuit boards besides manufacturing and other crucial PCB components. All you have to do entails going to our website homepage and sending your Gerber formatted circuit board design and layout to initiate the manufacturing, assembly, or fabrication process. You will also have to fulfill other crucial requirements like payment before getting your PCB or any other allied PCB product or service fast-tracked. What’s more, the company has a dedicated and qualified pool of professionals besides equipment to ensure a quality printed circuit board product.
Why You Require a 1.6mm Six-Layer Printed Circuit Board
Understanding the 1.6mm PCB requires a detailed example to get a better feel for and importance of the circuit board. Therefore, we will focus on the 1.6mm six-layer PCB to help you understand the 1.6mm PCB. So why is this necessary? How can you benefit from a 6mm six-layer PCB?
The advent of techs such as the IoT (internet of things) revolutionizing industries and smart wearables has put pressure on the need for device manufacturing companies to produce small devices. Consequently, it has increased the need for PCB designers to deliver smaller printed circuit boards footprints devoid of any compromises on the functionalities of the PCB.
Naturally, smaller PCBs with complex functionalities require an increased number of layers from the typical layer number on the 1.6mm printed circuit board. For plenty of designers, coming up with the 4-layer printed circuit board stack up represents no problem, though any extra layer incorporation requires difficult decisions.
While the extra layers assist in decreasing the printed circuit board surface, the inner layers can also play an instrumental role in separating high-frequency signals from power or analog signals. When you consider these advantages, the need for a six-layer printed circuit board becomes apparent. Such a 1.6mm six-layer printed circuit board can reduce the EMI emission and susceptibility when carried out correctly.
Printed Circuit Board Stack-Up for a Typical 1.6mm Six Layers
A 1.6mm printed circuit board can comprise six layers, especially incorporating an extra two layers to the standard four layers. It becomes possible to incorporate two copper-coated dielectric substrates, with the cores held together using prepregs. Prepregs often come as epoxy-based materials.
1.6mm Six-layered PCB possesses some variants of stack-ups that get deployed, with each stack-up coming with its challenges and benefits. For instance, the first variant contains layer aspects such as top layer (signal), ground, inner layer one and inner layer two (both proving signals), power, and bottom layer (signal). It is a six-layered variant setup offering the greatest signal routing because of the many conductive layers.
On the other hand, the second six-layered variant has the top layer as the signal, ground, and an inner layer one proving signal. After that, a large gap exists before having the inner layer two (signal), power, and bottom layer (signal). Such a setup containing the large gap between the third and fourth layers reduces the cross-coupling of signals in both layers. Such a gap can get fast-tracked by snowballing the thickness of the core, separating the layers.
The third six-layered variant has a stacking progression of the signal (upper/top layer), ground, the power layer, and large gap between this layer and the subsequent layer (inner layer one/signal), the ground, and the bottom layer (signal). It represents a stack-up layer that offers a better noise immunity because of the absence of adjacent layers, which reduces the cross-coupling risks and the existence of two grounds/ground planes that minimize noise. Additionally, this stack-up progression also makes it simpler to strategize for the signal layer return paths. However, this stack-up layer progression reduces the signal layer, something that comes as a negative.
Crucial Considerations for the 1.6mm Six-Layer PCB Design
Are you a PCB designer who wants to design a 1.6mm six-layer printed circuit board? If so, then you have to take note that the return paths always take priority. Whenever high-speed signals travel long distances, the impact always entails integrity degradation of the adjacent signals. Therefore, it becomes essential in these instances to have an extra ground plane to help. However, you have to make sure the continuity of the ground plane to offer the shortest or express return path.
It also becomes essential to become smarter regarding the management of the stack-up layer progression. It cannot help to have an equal distribution of the layers, especially in creating a lower EMI susceptibility of the six-layer printed circuit board. It implies having a denser inner prepreg and thinner prepreg on the PCB’s outer part. Remember, having excellent design software can go a long way in helping the creation of the 1.6mm six-layer printed circuit board.
Advantages
- The 1.6mm PCB has an improved capacitance interplane besides also having an enhanced power decoupling.
- Improved track-plane coupling is also another aspect that the 1.6mm PCB has besides other thinner printed circuit boards.
Disadvantages
- The 1.6mm printed circuit board always poses plenty of problems regarding the assembly process, especially regarding the six-layered type.
- You can also face plenty of problems with the 1.6mm printed circuit board’s twist, which you cannot face with thicker printed circuit boards.
- The manufacture of the 1.6mm printed circuit board will cost you additional money, especially when it involves six or more layers. It arises because of more material costs besides the complexity of finishing the PCB production process.
Important Attributes to Consider Before Choosing a 1.6mm PCB
If you are not sure about picking the 1.6mm printed circuit board, then you should consider the following insights to see whether the 1.6mm PCB proves a perfect fit for your use.
- Space. Like many thin boards, the 1.6mm PCB takes a lesser space when it comes to your packaging, unlike other thicker PCB options. It especially applies to smaller devices like Bluetooth headsets, small USB dongles, etc., which deploy thinner PCBs to save space.
- Connections. The thickness of the 1.6mm PCB makes it ideal for use with edge connectors and USB-A connectors based on the printed circuit board trace. Such connectors often need the printed circuit board to properly prove the correct thickness to fit the connector’s mating portion.
- Impedance matching. It often happens that two plus layers act as an in-between trace capacitor, especially on neighboring layers. Additionally, the board’s thickness defines the dielectric, leading to the determination of the capacitance value. Consider the nature of the frequency signals beside the impedance matching to determine the correct thickness.
- Flexibility. Before picking a 1.6mm PBC design, you have to determine your end-use, especially its flexibility aspect. For instance, picking a thinner PCB for P&P machines can prove problematic when too big or panelized incorrectly.
- Component compatibility. It would help if you considered the through-hole component before settling on the 1.6mm thickness of the PCB.
- Weight. Consider the desired potential weight of your PCB and the intended device before settling on the 1.6mm PCB. It will also influence shipping costs.
Conclusion
A 1.6mm PCB can prove a perfect circuit board option for your small electronic devices, something that proves crucial in this era. Therefore consider everything canvassed before going ahead and placing your order.
