PCB Manufacturing — Complete Beginner’s Guide

[mohammadfarhankhan]

Hi everyone! I’m new to PCB design and manufacturing. I just heard about PCBWay and want to understand the basics.

Questions:

1. What files do I need to upload (Gerber, BOM, etc.)?
2. What is the difference between single‑layer, double‑layer, and multi‑layer PCBs?
3. Which materials are best for high‑frequency designs?
4. Any tips for choosing the right PCB thickness?

 

[baldguyfromblackpool]

I've only ever done really simple, one sided, self designed boards for very basic hobby projects but I manage with an image editor (I use GIMP), a laser printer, and heat transfer paper. You draw your design, print it out, then iron it onto the blank board before soaking it in etchant solution. I believe hair peroxide from the chemist mixed with builders brick cleaning acid works well.

Used to do it years and years ago with sheets of rub-on transfers and ferric chloride but neither seem easy to obtain anymore. You could get allsorts of sheets of DIL IC pads, pads for transistors, individual tracks etc etc. The ferric was nasty stuff though.

Another etchant is sodium(?) persulphate.. I think that's the one I like best, much cleaner and less aggressive than ferric (and you can see the board easier during the process)

They used to be the simplest 100% do it yourself at home ways.. Never tried anything more modern like PCBWay myself..

 

[Minder]

1 A gerber file
2 What it says
Obtain the free program - Kicad. This produces every thing from schematic to Gerber. For PCBway

 

[davenn]

Which materials are best for high‑frequency designs?
any tips for choosing the right PCB thickness?

Minder answered the first 2 Q's
but to expand on the 2nd one .... single and double layers are obvious .. top and bottome layers
multi layer will have those 2 variations plus one of more layers embedded within the pcb material

what is your definition of high frequency ?
for 5GHz and up FR4 is usually the way to go

Right thickness will depend on what your board will be used for thicker for mechanical strength of much thinner for a degree of flexibility
thickness also affects the capacitance and inductance between tracks on multi layer (2 or more - top bottom and or internal) boards

 

[olivia_49]

To get boards made at PCBWay, you only need Gerber files. If you want them to assemble it, you also upload a BOM and pick-and-place file. Single-layer is the cheapest and simplest, double-layer is what most hobby projects use, and multilayer is for dense or high-speed designs. FR-4 is fine for most things, but for real high-frequency work, you’ll want low-loss materials like Rogers. For thickness, 1.6 mm is the safe default, it works for almost everything unless you have a special mechanical reason to go thinner or thicker.