PCB Design

I'm designing my first PCB board and had a question about expenses. It's a very basic board and I can potentially do it all by only using the top surface. But I can clean it up a lot better if I use the bottom surface as well. I was wondering if transferring signals to the bottom surface costs more or if it will be about the same price. And if it costs more, how much more?

hi Ganz,

Are all your components going to be surface mounted or through hole.??

Usually the Top surface applies to the component side when using thru hole components.

So on a single sided PCB with thru hole components the bottom side would have the copper tracks.

We need more information about the PCB and a image of of your circuit diagram

Eric

Thanks Eric,
they are surface mount components.
here is the picture. As you can see, I'd like to clean it up and put all my mounting pads next to each other instead of a random spots.

Ganz said:

Thanks Eric,
they are surface mount components.
here is the picture. As you can see, I'd like to clean it up and put all my mounting pads next to each other instead of a random spots.

Click to expand...

hi,
The downside of placing your SMT components, in say a 'row' is that tracks to the IC's will have to made longer, which can cause other problems.

You could have tracks that pass between the IC pads, but that would make them very narrow in width.

On your PCB if rotate the top IC 90deg CW and the lower IC 90deg CCW would bring most of you SMT component pads in line

E

Ganz said:

or if it will be about the same price. And if it costs more, how much more?

Click to expand...

There are not many single sided boards made. I think the cost difference is very little. It is likely that the board house does so little single sided boards they will use a double sided process and remove all the copper from one side. Go on line and get a quote! Some board houses will quote on line (your computer to theirs) with out email. You can try several different ways and see the price.
sunstone.com
If you are not in a hurry the price is much better!
No solder mask helps. I won't do that again, but on a simple board it will be OK.
No silkscreen helps price.

project-pcb.com is another one. A member here at ETO works there, and I've had several boards made by them. They do great work, and their instant quote feature is extremely helpful.

P.S. Sorry if this sounds like a commercial

As this is your first pcb design may I suggest (nothing to do with your original question):
- Re-route the traces so that there are no 90 deg. corners, use 135 deg. This is to reduce under-edging of the trace at the corner.
- Move part numbers from under the parts to the outside of the part so they are visible after assembly. E

canadaelk said:

As this is your first pcb design may I suggest (nothing to do with your original question):
- Re-route the traces so that there are no 90 deg. corners, use 135 deg. This is to reduce under-edging of the trace at the corner.
- Move part numbers from under the parts to the outside of the part so they are visible after assembly. E

Click to expand...

Good suggestions, I agree 100%.

PCB Fabrication Sources is a summary of PCB fab houses I've either used or whose work I am familiar with. If you have your board commercially made, there is almost no savings for single side vs 2 layer.

The Chinese vendors are charging about $10 for 10 copies of a board up to 50mm x 50mm or about $25 for 10 copies of a board up to 100mm x 100mm, for 2-layer boards including soldermask and silkscreen on top and bottom. For small boards, OSH Park (formerly known as PDX Dorkbot) offers three 2-layer boards with top and bottom soldermask silk screen for $5 per square inch. Their boards are made in the US and their service is somewhat faster than the Chineses vendors.

iTead Studios and Elecrow are currently my favorite Chinese sources. Prices are the same (as stated above), with Elecrow offering soldermask colors other than green without an up charge.