PCB Glossary : N to R

Nomenclature:
Identification symbols applied to the board by means of screen printing, inkjetting, or laser processes. See Legend.

Outer-layer:
The top and bottom sides of any type of circuit board.

Pad:
See Land.

Pattern:
The configuration of conductive and nonconductive materials on a panel or printed board. Also, the circuit configuration on related tools, drawing, and masters.

Pattern Plating:
The selective plating of a conductive pattern.

Photographic Image:
An image in a photo mask or in an emulsion that is on a film or plate.

Photoplotting:
A photographic process whereby an image is generated by a controlled light beam that directly exposes a light-sensitive material.

Photo Print:
The process of forming a circuit pattern image by hardening a photosensitive polymeric material by passing light through a photographic film.

Phototool:
A transparent film that contains the circuit pattern, which is represented by a series of lines of dots at a high resolution.

Plated Through-Hole:
A hole with plating on its walls that makes an electrical connection between conductive layers, external layers, or both of a printed board.

Platen:
A flat plate of metal within the lamination press in between which stacks are placed during pressing.

Plating Void:
The area of absence of a specific metal from a specific cross-sectional area.

Plotting:
The mechanical converting of X-Y positional information into a visual pattern such as artwork.

Prepreg:
Sheet material (e.g. glass fabric) impregnated with a resin cured to an intermediate stage (B-stage resin).

Pressing:
The process by which a combination of heat and pressure are applied to a book, thereby producing fully cured laminated sheets.

Printed Board:
The general term for completely processed printed circuit or printed wiring configurations. It includes single, double-sided, and multi-layer boards, both rigid and flexible.

Printed Circuit:
A conductive pattern that comprises printed components, printed wiring, or a combination thereof, all formed in a predetermined design and intended to be attached to a common base. (In addition, this is a generic term used to describe a printed board produced by any of a number of techniques.)

Printed Wiring Board:
A part manufactured from rigid base material upon which completely processed printed wiring has been formed.

Registration:
The degree of conformity to the position of a pattern, or a portion thereof, a hole or other feature to its intended position on a product.

Resin (Epoxy) Smear:
Resin transferred from the base material onto the surface of the conductive pattern in the wall of a drilled hole.

Resist:
Coating material used to mask or to protect selected areas of a pattern from the action of an etchant, solder, or plating. Also called soldermask or mask.

Rigid-flex:
A PCB construction combining flexible circuits and rigid multi-layers usually to provide a built-in connection or to make a three-dimension form that includes components.

Router:
A machine that cuts away portions of the laminate to form the desired shape and size of the printed board.