Pad – The portion of the conductive pattern on printed circuits designated for the mounting or attachment of components. Also called land.
Pallet (Printed Board) – The printed board image or images plus the additional contiguous deliverable material from the panel. This may include tabs, fiducials, tooling holes, etc.
Panel Plating – The plating of an entire surface of a panel including holes
Pattern Plating – The selective plating of a conductive pattern and associated holes
Peel strength – The force per unit width that is required to peel a conductor foil from a laminate perpendicular to the surface of the substrate.
Prepreg – A sheet of material that has been impregnated with a resin cured to an intermediate stage, i.e., B-staged resin.
Pattern – The configuration of conductive and nonconductive materials on a panel or printed board. Also, the circuit configuration on related tools, drawings and masters.
Pattern Plating – The selective plating of a conductive pattern.
PCB – Printed Circuit Board. Also called Printed Wiring Board (PWB).
PCMCIA – Personal Computer Memory Card International Association.
PEC – Printed Electronic Component.
Photo Plotter – Device used to generate photographically by plotting objects onto film for use in manufacturing printed wiring.
Photo Print – The process of forming a circuit pattern image by hardening a photosensitive polymeric material by passing light through a photographic film.
Photo Resist – A material that is sensitive to portions of the light spectrum and that, when properly exposed can mask portions of a base metal with a high degree of integrity.
Photographic Image – An image in a photo mask or in an emulsion that is on a film or plate.
Photoplotting – A photographic process whereby an image is generated by a controlled light beam that directly exposes a light-sensitive material.
Phototool – A phototool is a physical film, Mylar (or similar), which contains the pattern that is used to produce a circuitry image on a photo-sensitive material by way of exposure to light-energy such as UV light.
Pick-and-Place – A manufacturing operation of assembly process in which components are selected and placed onto specific locations according to the assembly file of the circuit.
Pin – A terminal on a component, whether SMT or through-hole. Also called a lead.
Pitch – The center-to-center spacing between conductors, such as pads and pins, on a PCB.
Plastic QUAD Flat Pack (PQFP) – A surface mount family of integrated circuit packages, bounded on all four sides by bumpers, with leads exiting from all four sides of the package and formed into a “gullwing” lead format.
Plating – The chemical or electrochemical deposited metal on a surface.
Plating Resist – Material deposited as a covering film on an area to prevent plating on this area.
Plating Void – The area of absence of specific metal from a specific cross-sectional area.
Plotting – The mechanical converting of X-Y positional information into a visual pattern such as artwork.
Positive – A developed image of photo-plotted file, where the areas selectively exposed by the photo plotter appear black and unexposed areas are clear. For outer-layers, color will indicate copper.
Positive inner-layers will have clear areas to indicate copper.
Prepreg – A sheet of material that has been impregnated with a resin cured to an intermediate stage, i.e., B-staged resin.
Pressfit Contact – An electrical contact that can be pressed into a hole in an insulator or printed board with or without plated- through holes.
Printed Board (PB) – The general term for completely processed printed circuit and printed wiring configurations. (This includes single-sided, double-sided and multilayer boards with rigid, flexible, and rigid-flex base materials.)
Printed Circuit – A conductive pattern that comprises printed components, printed wiring, or a combination thereof, all formed in a predetermined design and intended to be attached to a common base. (In addition, this is a generic term used to describe a printed board produced by any of a number of techniques).
Printed Circuit Board (PCB) – A flat plate or base of insulating material containing a pattern of conducting material. It becomes an electrical circuit when components are attached and soldered to it. The conducting material is commonly copper which has been coated with solder or plated with tin-lead alloy. The usual insulating material is epoxy laminate but there are many other kinds of materials used in more exotic technologies. Single sided boards have all conductors on one side of the board. With two-sided boards, the conductors, or copper traces, can travel from one side of the board to the other through plated-thru holes called vias, or feed throughs. In multilayer boards, the vias can connect to internal layers as well as either side.
Printed Wiring Board – Another description for a printed circuit board
Probe Point – The predetermined location on a printed board where electrical contact can be made to exposed circuitry for electrical diagnostic purposes.
Probe Test – A spring-loaded metal device used to make electrical contact between test equipment and the unit under test.
Propagation Delay – The time from output to input required for a signal to travel along a transmission line, or the time required for a logic device to receive an input stimulus, perform its function, and present a signal at its output.
PTH (plated-through Hole) – A plated hole used as a conducting interconnection between different layers or sides of a PCB either used as connection for through-hole component or as a via.
Pulse Plating- A method of plating that uses pulses instead of a direct current.