Role of PCBs in Everyday Life – 2024 Guide

If you don’t have an engineering background, it might be possible that you aren’t even sure what PCB is. It’s a unit made of a thin sheet of material – usually fiberglass, with electric wires ‘printed’ on the fiberglass and they connect the central processor to chips and other components on the board.

Once the main concept of PCBs has been explained, the next thing that you might wonder about would be – what’s its purpose? The main goal of this device is to mount the components of the device and ensure that an electrical current between each component is supplied through the use of copper pathways.

You might hear that PCBs are called some other names apart from printed circuit boards. The main one in any system is called ‘motherboard’ or ‘system board’, while certain smaller versions are called ‘cards’ or ‘adapters’. They can contain flexible or rigid parts or both of the parts.

What matters on this occasion is that PCBs are used daily, that is, in everyday life. You keep using its perks on a daily basis, although you might not be aware of it. Are you wondering how? Well, the answer is: in many different items within the sphere of electricity – PCs, laptops, monitors, radios, portable music players, and video game consoles.  Its mini-size makes it rather handy in smaller devices.  They can also be found in some mobile phones, tablets, and parts of cars. Therefore, most of the technology we use all the time needs to have some kind of PCB in order to be able to function properly.

PCBs are an inevitable part of our lives and a variety of different industries – from automotive, medical to consumer electronics and telecommunications – couldn’t exist without them.

Having this in mind, we should take a look at some of their most common uses.

1. Medical devices

With recent developments in technology, the medical industry has drastically changed its procedures by introducing more advanced and sophisticated medical devices that can’t perform their basic functions without printed circuit boards. These include numerous units such as:

• CT scan systems
• Ultrasonic devices
• Digital cell counting devices
• MRI scanning system
• Temperature monitors
• Heart monitors
• Body temperature devices
• Electrocardiographs
• Blood pressure monitors
• Infusion fluid controls

You’ll notice that you have probably heard of most of these medical tools, which implies that many diseases probably couldn’t be monitored or treated without these tiny details. Strange, but true!

2. Automotive industry

There are many applications in modern vehicles that can’t work properly without electronic control. Printed circuit boards are the part that keeps all the components together in this case  The automotive ones are made to be durable and highly reliable regardless of the conditions.  They should endure all types of environmental conditions and vibrations and pass numerous tests before being taken into consideration.

Some of the vehicle components that require these types of boards are the following:

• Audio systems
• Transmission sensors
• Radars
• Engine control system
• Digital displays
• ABS
• Air conditioner systems
• Steering
• LED lighting
• Dashboards
• The navigation units
• Engine timing systems
• DC/AC power converters

3. Consumer electronics

We live in the gadget era and we could say all generations take advantage of these modern devices. As it was already mentioned, there’s no electronic device that we all use and that can operate without PCB. All of the gadgets that we can find in our homes require them, so here are some examples that can be found basically anywhere:

• Coffee makers
• Blenders
• Smartphones
• Computers
• TVs

We bet you can’t even imagine your life without some of these, can you?

4. Safety and security equipment

Safety and security equipment also needs PCBs to operate. They can be found in

• Indoor and outdoor security cameras
• Surveillance equipment
• Smoke and carbon detectors
• Motion sensors
• Modern electronic door locks.

5. Telecommunications

Okay, so what about telecommunications? Did you know that most of the communication tools you can find in your office, study, or require these tiny items to be able to work? That’s right – and it also applies to pieces of equipment such as:

• Cell towers
• Modems
• Routers
• Phone systems

6. Military equipment

All things related to the military are immensely important, which is why the use of PCBs needs to be impeccable in this sphere, as well. Just like the automotive ones, military PCBs need to be highly reliable and durable in extreme conditions. There’s a huge variety of military applications and equipment manufacturers require access to a range of board types, as well.

Before PCBs are ready to use, they need to pass through the strict testing process to ensure that the design meets high-performance requirements. When they’re checked, they can be implemented into the patterns for:

• Cross targeting systems
• Control tower systems
• Power supplies
• Power converters
• Audio interface applications
• Automation networks
• Temperature sensors

7. Aerospace components

Aerospace components are similar to electronics used in the automotive and military industry, but they are exposed to harsher conditions during testing processes. This is why these components require boards that can handle high amounts of turbulence and extreme temperatures and also be oxidation and light-resistant. Here are some uses of PCBs in the aerospace industry:

• Lighting
• Communication equipment
• Monitoring equipment
• Power supplier (used to power satellites, control towers, and other systems)

As we have already learned, PCBs are a crucial part of electronics. If there’s the slightest flaw or malfunction, or if it fails to be implemented properly, the overall performance and usability of the device will definitely be more than affected. In case you are an engineer, manufacturer, or just an electronic enthusiast looking for the specific part for some of your designs, you should ensure that you work with professionals in the field of PCB manufacturing, such as www.uetpcb.com.

We can agree that modern society pretty much depends on electronic gadgets which are in high demand nowadays. As technology gets more advanced, every year we get more sophisticated in every type of industry, which means that PCB manufacturing is a growing business that’ll continue to be one of the most significant parts of electronic device manufacturing.