What Are PCB Traces?
If you’ve ever held a printed circuit board in your hand, you probably noticed a tiny network of lines running across the motherboard, like lots of little roads. What are these roads and what do they do? Those lines are called “traces,” and they perform an extremely important task for the PCB.
PCB Traces
The job of a printed circuit board is to move signals and data from one point to another. In order to do this, those signals need to travel on a road. Traces are that road. Traces connect all the different components of a circuit board together, including the IC, capacitors, and resistors. Without traces, a printed circuit board couldn’t work at all.
What Are Traces Made Of?
The signals that a trace conducts are made of electricity, so any material that makes a trace has to be both highly conductive and relatively stable. The most popular material that is used as a trace in a PCB is copper, but it is not the only option. Traces can be made of aluminum and even gold!
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