• The Printed Circuit Board (PCB) is a mechanical piece of equipment used to hold electronic components to connect them electrically.
• The technical textile used in the manufacture of printed circuit board is the woven glass fibre fabric which is used as reinforcement along with the epoxy resin.
• The glass fibre impregnated resin called prepregs is used to bind the copper foils to give copper laminated boards, called laminates.
• These laminates are further cut into various sizes based on the requirement.

Product characteristics

• The glass fabric used affects the performance of final electronic circuitry built on the PCB.
• The standard construction of this style of fabric involves 60 yarns per inch in the warp or machine direction and 47 yearns per inch in the weft or cross-machine direction.
• The thickness of the fabric is typically, 2.1mil (0.053mm).
• The desired properties of the glass fabric required for PCB applications are as follows:
  1. Dimensional stability
  2. Surface smoothness
  3. Ability to withstand laser and mechanical drilling
  4. Superior conductive anodic filament (CAF) resistance
  5. Uniform dielectric constant (generally in range of 6.6-6.9)
  6. Lower dissipation factor (0.006)
  7. Reduced signal skew and improved signal integrity

Raw materials and machinery

• The raw material used for glass fibre fabric is monofilament glass fibres.
• The filaments are further processed to produce yarn which is used for weaving the reinforcement fabric.
• The key machinery used for weaving glass fibre fabric is air-jet weaving machine.