Question: What (in detail) is a circuit board

Parnika Gupta answered on 5 Nov 2020:

Thanks for your question. That is a very scientific question. It actually is just as the two words mention- a board that has a circuit on it. But it is so much more than that!
So smarty kiddo, let’s think what we have in a circuit first. We want some components to transmit signals, some components to manipulate that signal ( either change it’s shape, perform some operations, calculations with that signal) and then finally a receiver to receive these signals. Basically, your circuit is a combination of components through which signals are transmitted and received. It’s not that simple, as these components can be anywhere between 1000- 1 million in numbers depending on the complexity of what you are trying to do.
Side Note- Even something as simple as an alarm bell requires a timer, so many resistors, capacitors, inductors, transistors (etc)[Don’t worry, you will study these in detail in later classes]
So, when you want to put all these things by hand on a simple copper board or metal board, it becomes very difficult to connect them manually and it is so tiring and boring. So we go for industrial circuit boards which can be designed by engineers where those micro-components can be connected together through the copper wires printed onto the board. Also, there is low loss of signal this way and your circuit is protected.
One additional benefit is, since everyone uses these circuit boards, it is easier to connect them together, if you want to make a bigger circuit for some other application. There are different types of circuit boards depending on your application and also their materials and components and wiring depends accordingly which can be designed by engineers.
Whoa! That was a long answer. write back to me if something is not understandable. Take care!