Core concepts

PCB

Printed Circuit Board

The green/black/red rigid board with copper traces. The physical substrate every electronic device is built on.

How it looks

Real image: CORE3588, rendered by KiCad from our board file

CORE3588 as the fab delivers it: a bare board, 86.5 x 101 mm, four layers of copper inside, nothing soldered on yet. (KiCad render with all part models removed.)

1Copper tracks, seen as raised lines under the green coating.
2Rows of bare copper pads: the 100-pin socket for the computer module will be soldered here.
3A plain drilled hole, for a mounting screw.
4Holes with copper rings, for a 3-pin pin header.

Real image: CORE3588, rendered by KiCad from our board file

Side view of CORE3588 with its parts on, looking at the front edge.

1The board seen edge-on: one rigid sheet 1.6 mm thick. Everything above it is parts; the board is the dark band.

How it works

Where it fits

Solder parts onto a PCB and it becomes a PCBA. The drawing of where everything goes on it is the layout; the fab builds it from Gerber files.

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