Printed Circuit Board Presentation at the Cosmos Club

A slide showing what a schematic and what the resulting printed circuit board looks like.

The Cosmos Club is a science and reason club meeting in Boise, Idaho. On the 20th, I gave a presentation about printed circuit boards, or PCBs. The presentation acquainted members in attendance with the nature, function, and design of PCBs. Did you know that PCBs is a $6 billion business?

My take home points were the following.
1. PCBs are today's technology (electrical circuits were built a lot of different ways over time.
2. PCBs are fun and easy to make using software like FreePCB (www.freepcb.com).
3. PCBs are a great amateur science and engineering activity.

I believe that if we incorporate PCB design and manufacturing with microcontroller programming, schools will have a strong combined science and engineering class. A class such as this is one one way to meet the needs of a 21st century America and employment.