What is Green PCB?
Do you conscious that most PCBs are green? And why are PCBs green?
This is because of a soldering mask that shields the copper circuitry placed on the glass fiber interior to avoid short circuits, soldering mistakes, etc. The hue of the solder mask makes the board look like that.
PCBs must not be green. Various colors might be beneficial to differentiate or modify multiple PCBs. ABL Designs provide colorful circuitry. Green, Blue, Black, White, and Red are offered as standard or custom colors or commercial goods on request.
A manufactured green PCB isn’t green. The green component is merely the outside layer of the epoxy known as the solder mask or solder resistance and oil. This is a colorful polymer that is put to printing on the boards. The solder mask is designed to shield the underlying electrical traces from moisture and contamination and regulate molten solder flux. The center of a conventional FR-4 circuitry is primary, drab, and yellow; however, the solder mask may be available in numerous colors, including blue, red, white, black, and yellow. More unusual hues such as orange, red, purple, smooth, and even combined colored boards may be available. So, there’s still a mystery, why green?
Top Reasons Why Green PCB is better:
In the early stages, owing to technical constraints, quality controls depended on humans to manually verify the boards directly. There are factors why the green PCB is superior to the other Circuit boards. The exterior of PCBs is frequently shown using a solder mask. This is a role in reducing polymer that protects copper rails against oxidation, humidity, and particle damage. The overlay avoids the formation of solder crosses between a proper application that are close together again and cause short circuitry. Let’s look at them,
Green may Visually Relieve:
It is exhausting to work on tiny circuits every day, but psychologists and neurologists agree that the spectrum of green light has a soothing impact on the body and may relieve tiredness. Furthermore, the receptors in human eyes or cones have been particularly robust to green signals. The distinction between circuit tracks, electrodes, silkscreen etching, and empty areas is thus higher. Just simply seeing the panels from outside, flaws in the external layers may be readily seen.
Of course, PCB makers nowadays employ flying probe methods and Automatic Optical Inspection (AOI) for this duty. But the main technical reason is that so many PCBs are green.
Costs Cutting:
The solder mask is usually used with silkscreen methods. A massive glob of oil is pulled through a screen mesh below the circuitry. For curing, the PCB is withdrawn, and the next panel is placed below the mesh. But you can order another color for the solder mask. Furthermore, the extra solder mask oil must be removed, and the silkscreen washed until the new color is applied. Silkscreen equipment is otherwise required for each color. In addition, you will also need another facility for black silkscreen ink to provide white or light solder mask colors. The chemicals don’t keep very long. When you notice that one hue is not especially popular, chemicals are squandered, and efficiency is affected.
Similarly, certain plants do not tolerate particular combinations of PCB characteristics in colors other than green since green is the preferred color by default.
Usually, several diverse orders are put together in a Quick turn PCB fabrication house on one board (panelized). This enables them to use PCB property and decrease waste. However, several techniques need the whole panel to be treated the same, such as surface ends and coating for the molded hole. All circuits on a curtain panel must thus have the exact specifications.
The plant is more likely to wind up with inadequate layouts to fill a board on the one hand by introducing more and more unique features. The parameters added to the image, such as solder mask color or board thickness, multiply potential configurations, increase loss, and raise costs. Even if the plant is willing to make your specific request, you might find yourself paying the whole panel. Thus, by limiting specific color and feature combos, manufacturers may save expenses.
It is not easy to design new solder mask oils that are performing, applies and clings to an electric circuit uniformly, cures, and appears aesthetically attractive. You can anticipate paying a higher price for particular demands, such as matte brown.
There are so numerous reasons for devotion, not green love. What do you enjoy most, or why? And why? Join the current survey to choose your favorite one. Many PCB Manufacturing service provides a wide choice of colors suited to your deep ocean blue, sunny red, sleek black, whitish and of course better oil’ green prototypes, all at no additional cost.
Now the companies offer Matte Black solder mask oil for all PCB fabrication services for this additional high-end appearance.
Green Solder Mask is superior physically:
Because of the conventional element of employing green colors, R&D is focusing on the traditional green hue for developing superior solder mask oils. The organic chemical pigments are used to impact the resin’s functionality during and in the environment. When demand reaches its limitations, nobody cares about keeping pink boards. Consequently, the green solder mask currently has more extraordinary qualities than other aesthetically oriented colors.
Conventional green solder mask seems to be the only color that can make 0.1 mm solder mask dams consistently (4milFurther up are red, blue, and yellow, with a diameter of 0.12 mm, then white and black, usually just 0.15 mm. Solder mask barriers are necessary for ICs and micro pitch parts as they are important in avoiding solder spans.
Green PCBs is Environmental Healthy:
The green is chlorine, mostly in green solder mask oils. Chloride and Bromine present in green PCB materials are halogens that seriously affect health and the environment if they are disposed of improperly. Free halogen oils and boards are available for soldering. You may easily swap to another color for a halogen-free solder mask.
Facility to Examine:
The contrast it offers and the soothing impact it has while screening for failures is another reasonable argument to use green.
Green is regarded as the ideal color for the inspection of printed boards so that people who spend all their time searching for problems are not tired. Inspectors use strong lights to point out any faults, so anything that reduces the need to break down is worthwhile.
Today, automated test equipment implies that fewer manual checks are necessary for PCB production, although they have not been entirely removed. Therefore, it’s important to do whatever to minimize the aesthetic effect of manual inspection boards.
Best Layering Contrast:
On the element side of rigid panels, a white silkscreened identity is typically printed. Green is the optimum complement to the human legible font for this layer. Indeed, as per Peter Skipping, who’s one of the founders of Artech Devices in the 1960s, his notion was the nearest mark. The standard PCBs manufactured by Peter’s group were displayed on the screen, grated, coated with green solder resistance, and then soldered to the accessible copper pads on the panel. The solder resistor shielded the copper traces on the PCB from machine tinning temperature. Peter explained that green would be the only color accessible and that it gave the necessary thermal stability.
There appears to be no one justification why PCBs are green; however, like other items, they are frequently the most cost-effective colors for mass manufacture.
The Epoxy of Glass is in Green PCB:
Among the most apparent solutions is that glass epoxy, initially used to produce PCB solder overlays, is green. The Green is the bright magenta and the cheapest to manufacture; hence it remains the standard color for circuit boards created in the modern era.
Green PCB Used in the Western World:
Green was the Circuit board regulatory color specified by the US military to withstand the unfavorable circumstances best administered. Consequently, manufacturers supplied the government with a green soldering mask fully stocked, making it the lowest alternative for potential non-military clientele.
Although it is not sure if this is the actual reason why green is the usual PCB color, however, the usage of cross-panels for anti-aircraft weaponry during the Second World War has since been trademarked with the US Army classified. After the war, Stanislaus F Danko and Moe Abramson of the US Army National Guard developed soldering procedures, and afterward, the army was trademarked.
Considering that the US military ordered large amounts of PCBs in the post-War period, it is logical to assume that they’re the experts in this field and other people desired to imitate the technique and the colors they utilized.
Final Thoughts
This is why all typical Circuit boards are green. In reality, apart from a Led lights board, the color decision of solder mask paint of other colors is based on the developer or manufacturer’s desire and white solder mask ink with a greater reflecting efficiency. It has no significant influence on the board’s role directly. That’s why the green PCB is better than other colors PCBs.
