Whether you’re a professional design engineer, an electrical engineering student, or an electronics enthusiast/hobbyist/maker, it pays to never stop learning. Fortunately, this is the information age and there’s no shortage of resources available to learn about electronics design. At Bay Area Circuits, we strive to act as a conduit of information to our customers and our PCB manufacturing topics are frequently a result of our day-to-day customer interactions. But there are many other great electronics design resources available and we thought we’d share a few of our favorites.
An Introduction
Printed Electronics – With the emergence of IoT and wearable devices, printed electronics refers to much more than the standard green, rigid PCB. This Wikipedia post provides an informational overview of the materials, printing technologies & applications for printed electronics.
Printed Circuit Boards – Of course, printed circuit boards are considered a type of printed electronics and can be rigid or flexible. This Wikipedia post provides a description of the PCB design and manufacturing process.
Electrical School – Extensive glossary of terms with definitions, articles and videos related to a variety of industry terminology.
Digging Deeper…
Printed Circuit Board Manufacturing – The ‘How Products Are Made’ site provides both a history of PCBs and an overview of the manufacturing process.
The Engineer’s Guide to High-Quality PCB Design – For a look at PCB design from an engineer’s perspective, this article provides tips to ensure you’ll meet your next design objective.
And Deeper…
Understanding RF Technology – Radio-Electronics.com provides excellent resources and analysis for electronics engineers. They’ve got a whole section dedicated to basic information on topics such as RF, modulation methods, noise and signal interference, radio technology & more.
Electronics Manufacturing – Also from Radio-Electronics.com is a section on electronics manufacturing topics focused on component assembly – including a section on soldering!
Design & Layout Process – An overview, tutorial and information about the PCB design & layout process including guidelines for using PCB design and circuit layout software systems.
A Comprehensive Guide to Soldering: Techniques, Tools, and Tips – A look at the supplies needed for soldering.
A Guide to Soldering Metal, Gold, and Circuits—This is a guide to everything soldering. It also shows how it can be used outside of the world of PCBs.
Back to School
Looking for a more formal education? Investigate this (FREE!) 3-part online course offered by MIT through edX:
Circuits and Electronics 1: Basic Circuit Analysis
Circuits and Electronics 2: Amplification, Speed, and Delay
Circuits and Electronics 3: Applications
Or, check out this free, online electrical engineering textbook hosted by All About Circuits.
Show Me
Videos are an ever-more popular way to learn and communicate and EEV blog is probably one of the best. It’s a YouTube engineering channel complete with a video library and several community forums including one for PCBs.
Got a Question?
Check out these online forums for questions and answers (from beginner/basic to more technical/industrial) to all things electronic.
EE World Online Forum – Including their Hardware and PCB Design section and their Digital Design and Embedded Programming sections.
Did we miss something worth sharing? Let us know in the comments below!
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