PCB Design 3-WEEK

The PCB Design Course is designed to help learners understand the fundamental to advanced concepts of Printed Circuit Board (PCB) designing. This course provides a complete roadmap for creating efficient, reliable, and industry-standard PCBs using modern design tools. Whether you are a beginner or someone looking to improve your electronics design skills, this course will help you build the confidence to design real-world PCB projects.

✨ What You Will Learn

Basics of PCB: Understanding components, circuits, layers, and board types.
Schematic Design: How to draw clean, professional schematics for any circuit.
PCB Layout Techniques: Component placement, routing, vias, and ground planes.
Design Tools: Hands-on training with popular tools like Eagle, KiCAD, or Altium Designer.
Signal Integrity: High-speed routing, EMI/EMC basics, and noise reduction.
3D Visualization: How to preview and verify your PCB in 3D before printing.
Fabrication Process: Understanding Gerber files, PCB layers, and manufacturing guidelines.
Real-World Projects: Designing PCBs for Arduino modules, sensor boards, power circuits, and more.

🎯 Course Outcomes

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

Design professional, multi-layer PCBs with confidence
Create schematics and convert them into manufacturable designs
Optimize PCB layout for performance and durability
Prepare files and communicate with PCB manufacturers
Build and test your own electronic products

👨‍🏫 Who Should Take This Course?

Electronics & Electrical Engineering students
IoT and Embedded systems enthusiasts
Hobbyists who love designing circuits
Start-up founders building hardware products
Anyone interested in PCB design from scratch

Course Content

Chapter 1
Chapter 1 lays the foundation for understanding the world of Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). This chapter introduces you to the basic concepts, structure, and purpose of PCBs, explaining how they serve as the backbone of all modern electronic devices. You will learn why PCBs are used, how they replaced traditional wiring methods, and what makes them essential for creating compact, reliable, and efficient circuits. This chapter also explains the different types of PCBs, their layers, materials, and common components you will encounter throughout the course. You will explore the anatomy of a PCB — including copper traces, pads, vias, solder masks, and silkscreen — gaining the visual understanding needed for future design work. By the end of Chapter 1, learners will have a solid grasp of PCB basics, circuit flow, and the terminologies used in PCB engineering, setting a strong foundation for schematic creation and layout design in the upcoming chapters.

Chapter 1

05:23
PCB Design Quiz on Chapter 1

Chapter 2
📘 Chapter 2: Understanding Electronic Components & Schematic Design Chapter 2 takes you deeper into the core of PCB development by introducing electronic components and the process of creating professional schematic diagrams. This chapter explains how different components—such as resistors, capacitors, diodes, ICs, LEDs, transistors, sensors, and connectors—are represented symbolically in a schematic and how they behave in a circuit. You will learn the importance of component selection, reading datasheets, understanding pin configurations, and mapping components correctly. The chapter also focuses on building clean, error-free schematics, teaching you best practices for labeling, net connections, hierarchy, and avoiding common design mistakes. Through practical examples, learners will understand how to convert a circuit idea into an accurate schematic that can later be transformed into a PCB layout. This chapter sets the stage for mastering the essential workflow of PCB design, ensuring that your future layouts are precise, organized, and ready for manufacturing.

Chapter 3
📘 Chapter 3: PCB Layout Design – Component Placement & Routing Chapter 3 is one of the most important stages in PCB Design, where your schematic is transformed into a physical board layout. In this chapter, you will learn how to strategically place components on the PCB to ensure optimal performance, easy routing, and professional quality. You’ll understand placement rules, spacing requirements, and how to organize components based on function, signal flow, and design constraints. The chapter also introduces you to routing techniques, including single-layer, double-layer, and multilayer routing strategies. You will learn how to create clean copper traces, use vias effectively, and avoid common problems like signal noise, crosstalk, and incorrect routing angles. Special focus is given to power routing, ground planes, trace width selection, and best practices for creating stable and reliable connections. By the end of Chapter 3, you will have the skills to convert a schematic into an optimized PCB layout ready for 3D viewing and pre-manufacturing checks. This chapter builds the confidence to design real-world PCBs that are efficient, safe, and professionally structured.

Chapter 4
📘 Chapter 4: Design Rules, Validation & Preparing for Manufacturing Chapter 4 focuses on the crucial step of ensuring your PCB design meets industry standards and is fully ready for fabrication. You will learn about Design Rule Checks (DRC) and Electrical Rule Checks (ERC), which help you identify and correct mistakes such as spacing errors, unconnected nets, incorrect trace widths, and component clearance issues. This chapter explains how PCB design software uses these rules to validate your layout and ensure your board functions safely and reliably. You’ll also explore essential manufacturing considerations—such as copper thickness, minimum drill sizes, solder mask clearances, and silkscreen guidelines—to make sure your PCB can be produced without errors. The chapter teaches you how to generate Gerber files, drill files, and assembly files, which are the standard formats required by PCB fabrication companies. By the end of Chapter 4, you will be fully capable of validating your design, fixing critical errors, and exporting all necessary files for professional PCB manufacturing. This chapter ensures your design transitions smoothly from digital layout to real, production-ready hardware.

Chapter 5
📘 Chapter 5: PCB Fabrication, Assembly & Final Testing Chapter 5 takes you through the final and most exciting stage of the PCB design journey — turning your digital layout into a real, functioning circuit board. This chapter explains the entire PCB fabrication process, from layer creation and copper etching to drilling, plating, solder masking, and finishing. You’ll understand how manufacturers convert your Gerber files into physical boards and the quality checks involved at each stage. Next, the chapter covers PCB assembly, where components are placed and soldered onto the board. You will learn about SMT (Surface Mount Technology), THT (Through-Hole Technology), reflow soldering, wave soldering, and how assembly houses ensure precision and reliability. Finally, the chapter concludes with testing and troubleshooting. You will explore continuity testing, visual inspection, automated optical inspection (AOI), functional testing, and ways to detect common issues like shorts, cold solder joints, and component misplacements. By the end of Chapter 5, you will have a complete understanding of how PCBs are manufactured, assembled, tested, and prepared for real-world applications—making you fully confident to design and build your own hardware products from start to finish.

A course by

Shankar kumar

AI Engineer