On White PCB, I have a question for you, what’s the color you most see on a PCB? If your answer is green, you would be correct, but that answer leads to another question which is “is that the only PCB color?”
Well, a PCB can come in numerous colors (you can choose any RGB 24bits color you like), you can have your classic green, brown, blue, red, etc. these colors are not just painted for their appearance, but they all have Advantages and disadvantages.
We will talk about the white PCB in this article; I want to show you why the white PCB is not so popular as other colors, white PCB z170, which is often used as the motherboard in computers. Also, you will know some extra knowledge about the connectors.
White PCB
How do you make a white PCB? A white PCB is gotten from the solder mask.
A solder mask can be called the protective coating to the printed circuit board; another way to look at solder mask is as the coating layer on the circuit board that protects them from unfavorable conditions (Environmental Factors) and also avoids bridging of solder, which may occur accidentally in the assembly procedure.
The white PCB solder mask is made with formulations with white pigment content, enabling the white PCB to retain its white color without yellowing. The cleaning is such a challenging task as only when you can get every dust and debris does the white PCB look nice, the traces on the circuit board look out of place.
The large quantity of white pigment content on the solder mask doesn’t handle small details as the familiar green does. The white PCB is unfavorable because the contrast is the lowest of all colors, and most times, you have to tilt it to light to see the silkscreen.
You should know that you shouldn’t use a white silkscreen, better to use black, yellow, red, and other colors to help you see the characters.
Also, note that the less frequent the board, the more likely it is to be more expensive, which has so many disadvantages; it’s hard to think of instances where and why the white-PCB is used.
The white-PCB is most used for LED systems because it emits brighter light than other PCB colors.
PCB Black And White
The black and white PCB is generally not the best PCB color. The reason for this is that it is not easy to see the traces, as previously mentioned, which are necessary when troubleshooting. However, other colors such as blue-red and green are also available.
So you know why the white PCB isn’t favorable, but the black is also not ideal in some cases as the contrast between traces, planes, and space is non-existent.
The reason most factories manufacture the black is that you get a passing yield of around 95% – 98%, the not so good ones can be sent back for repairs, during the renovation; the PCB boards have to be heated to about 260 °C again, while the white during repairs changes color to light yellow.
The board inspection can only be done with the light at the right angle and excellent magnification.
The silkscreen contrasts well.
The silkscreen and pad are the only things you can see on the board without the light and all.
One major factor we should always look at with black is the “physics factor,” which says “a black body will almost absorb 100% radiation”. The black PCB absorbs heat during reflow, which in turn; increases the circuit board temperature.
The best way to combat the heat is to install a temperature sensor directly on the board.
The silkscreen is known to turn light brown during reflow because the board itself takes much heat. The cleaning isn’t an easy job as well as the strains are harder to remove. The black PCB has some positives, and it’s best used on LCD; no one is going to be distracted when your backing color is black.
z170
You already know that the white PCB is used in all electronic devices, which is also suitable for laptops.
The motherboard, also known as the mainboard, is the printed circuit board (PCB) found in microcomputers and other systems. The motherboard allows communication between many of the essential components of a system, like the central processing unit (CPU) and memory.
The motherboard refers to a PCB with expansion capability.
The term “mother” comes from the fact that it is attached to all other components like the peripherals, interface cards, and daughter cards: sound cards, network cards, hard drives, video cards along with another persistent storage form like TV tuner cards, extra USB or FireWire slots and different variety of custom components.
What criterion is used in selecting a good motherboard?
To answer this question, the quality of a motherboard depends on its superior properties such as speed, stability, price, and reputation, among others.
The latest of the motherboard being made is the white PCB z170. An excellent PCB for laptops, especially if you want a gaming laptop or a person to build your computer. Why is the white PCB z170 mainly used for notebooks?
- The z170 is a consumer grade motherboard, made with gamers in mind
- It supports only consumer grade chips
- The z170 works with consumer grade processors with the usual four cores but the i7 works with eight cores
- The maximum ram the white z170 can take is four sticks with a dual channel for the highest boards; they can support up to 256GBs RAM.
With all these advantages, the consumers are spoilt for choice for the full range of Z170 motherboards recently released to the market. Some of these motherboards include:
• ASRock Fatal 1 ty Z170 Gaming – ITX/ ac. Some of its features include it is fast, flexible, and reasonably priced.
• Gigabyte GA-Z170X- Gaming 6. It is generally a low-priced motherboard with dual 32 GB per second M.2 slots.
• MSI Z170A XPower Gaming Titanium. This motherboard comes with a robust CPU silicon support packaged in a silver casing, has dual M2 slots but lacks a Wi-Fi port.
• ROG Maximus Extreme is a high-end motherboard that has good overclocking support, outstanding bundled hardware, and a single M.2 slot
White Wire To PCB Connector
What is a PCB connector? A PCB connector is used to connect electronic components containing a conductive pattern printed on the surface on the solder mask with each terminal connected to the PCB; this connector includes housing and a certain number of airports.
Wire to board connectors are used to join subsections of circuits together; most times, a connector is used when disconnecting paragraphs is ideal for a future time, e.g., Power Inputs, boards, and peripheral connections.
The white wire to printed circuit board connectors is far much better than other connectors.
They are known for producing better and brighter pictures. A familiar name identifies them, but their number of pins varies.
The connectors seem to be members of the Molex Picoblade family. Molex is the name of the company which designed the connector back in the 1950s.
Most computer hard drives and other internal peripherals get power supplied by the “MOLEX” connector. The connectors are designed to carry a current level up to 11A per pin.
For projects where you need a lot of power, like a 3D printer, you can use a desktop power supply to power the project and connect the various system circuits using Molex connectors.
The Molex connector has a bit odd male/female terminology, the end of a cable is where you usually find the female connector, and it slips inside a plastic shell. At the same time, it surrounds the male pins on the male connectors.
Often, the connectors are very tight and press fits only. They are usually made to connect and disconnected only a few times, making them the worst choice for systems where connections will frequently be changed.
Their price is relatively low compared to other connectors available in the market. At the retail outlet, the vendor identifies the board as a 600TVL Sony Super CCD camera.
Small quantities of the white connectors are sold at a retail price of 0.07US dollars even though they require cramping tools whose retail price is approximately 200 US dollars. These connectors have two pins with a distance of 1.25mm from the centerline of one pin to the centerline of the other pin.
Male Molex Connector
Conclusion
Different PCB colors are suitable for various applications. When selecting PCB, you must go for a color that will work best for you.
White PCB has its features, and you have seen pros and cons; you know its suitable application area like the white z170 motherboard, and you also know where best to manufacture it.
We at PCB-HERO are a Chinese PCB manufacturing company known for our High-Quality Cheaper than most PCB. You can count on us for a range of PCB colors and personal customization, and yes, that includes the white PCB.
You can visit www.pcb-hero.com and submit your Gerber file.