What is a Printed Circuit Board?
PCB’s are required to house and connect the components within a device. They communicate using conductive tracks that run along the board. This allows electricity to pass through the components without interruption. PCB’s are permanently attached to the board, which integrates them to the entire circuit. They are manufactured in layers of conductive and non-conductive sheeting. Multi-layer boards offer users a variety of benefits but are much more difficult to service and repair.
Do all devices use them?
PCBs are used in almost every electronic device, from mobile phones and computers to vaporisers and kitchen equipment. Devices that require an electrical connection probably have a circuit board enclosed. Due to consumer demand for extra battery life, more memory and slimmer lightweight devices. In turn, the board has become smaller, more complex and much thinner. Gone are the days of those chunky bright green ones we used to pull from the good old Nokia 3210. This unfortunately makes the new circuit board repair process difficult due to a vast difference in their sizes and designs.
What causes Printed Circuit Boards to stop working?
Deterioration over time and regular use can be a main cause of malfunction. For example, trace damage impacts the conductivity that can result in the capacitors dying.
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Impact/ Damage
As you can probably imagine, the most common cause of PCB failure come from physical damage to a device or its internals. This can come from anywhere, car door? Slip from the hand? Dropped weight? As long as the said device is still functional, restoration success chances are significantly increased. Most people with no repair experience could possibly attempt a simple screen replacement, but with main board damage, a repair performed by a novice would be extremely risky. Circuit board work and microchip replacement should only be done by a trained and experienced professional as it calls for remodelling of the board, de-soldering of components and the mending of conductive traces. In the same scenario, an unexperienced technician would likely cause additional damage resulting in an irreparable device.
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Component Failure
Faulty components are the other most common cause of failure. When there is no visible damage and the device does not power on, the next step would be to take a look inside. Capacitors, diodes and microprocessors are all potential culprits. If replacing these components fail, the trace circuit may have deteriorated and is no longer conductive. It’s also possible that components have fallen entirely from the board and need to be re-seated. Voltage tools and various devices can be used to test the conductivity of a board’s circuit and they can also be used to confirm if there’s electricity flowing through a particular section, or if an element of the board has failed altogether. In some instances the damaged or faulty components may show visible signs such as burn marks, breaks or the component entirely missing. These components are repaired or replaced using a heat gun, solder and continuous testing.
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Trace Damage
Circuit board traces are conductive strips made of silver or copper. If a trace gets damaged it can result in problems with conductivity and cause power shorts, contamination and overheating. The corrupt traces can be repaired allowing the electricity to flow back around the device.
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Defective Design, Materials and Production
It’s not uncommon in electronic manufacturing for mistakes to happen. Often the rush to bring a new product to market in order to satisfy consumer demand is met with corners being cut and defective products. In some cases, these products get recalled and taken off the market by the manufacturer completely. Unfortunately the best solution for a faulty circuit board is to replace it completely with a new one. If there are no signs of damage, this should be covered under consumer two-year manufacture warranty law.
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Power Failure
Power failure is similar to component failure and issues can occur for a number of reasons. The only way to diagnose a problem outside of visible damage is to use a power or voltage meter.
What Does PCB Repair Services & Remanufacturing Consist of?
With traces and conductive tracks, coating, removing or replacing the damaged matter is required using a soldering iron. For physical damage, baseboard repairs are needed. This is done by melting the materials for reshaping or performing a total disassembly. Soldering, de-soldering and ball grid array (BGA) rework are measures essential to the conductor and component repairs process.
PCB Repair Service Materials
Copper and silver are used to repair traces. The underlying layers are made from an epoxy resin and copper which can also be comprised of phenolic resin. Gold is also used when re-plating a variety of units.
