In the process of learning electronics, we often realize printed circuit board (PCB) and integrated circuit (IC), a lot of people are “silly confused” about these two concepts. In fact, they are not that complicated, today we will clarify the difference between PCB and integrated circuit.

What is PCB?

Printed Circuit Board, also known as Printed Circuit Board in Chinese, is an important electronic part, the support body of electronic components and the carrier for electrical connection of electronic components. Because it is made by electronic printing, it is called “printed” circuit board.

Current circuit board, is mainly composed of line and Surface (Pattern), Dielectric layer (Dielectric), the hole (Through hole/via), prevent welding ink (Solder resistant/Solder Mask), screen printing (Legend/Marking/Silk screen), Surface treatment, Surface Finish), etc.

Advantages of PCB: high density, high reliability, designability, producibility, testability, assemblability, maintainability.

What is an integrated circuit?

An integrated circuit is a miniature electronic device or part. Using a certain process, the components and wiring interconnection such as transistors, resistors, capacitors and inductors required in a circuit are made on a small piece or several small pieces of the semiconductor chip or dielectric substrate and then encapsulated in a shell to become a microstructure with required circuit functions. All of the components have been structurally integrated, making the electronic components a big step towards miniaturization, low power consumption, intelligence, and high reliability. It is represented by the letter “IC” in the circuit.

According to the function and structure of the integrated circuit, it can be divided into analog integrated circuits, digital integrated circuit and digital/analog mixed integrated circuit.

Integrated circuit has the advantages of small size, lightweight, less lead wire, and welding point, long life, high reliability, good performance, etc.

The relationship between PCB and integrated circuit.

The integrated circuit is generally referred to as the chip integration, like the motherboard on the northbridge chip, CPU internal, are called integrated circuit, the original name is also called integrated block. And PCB is the circuit board we usually know it and printed on the circuit board welding chips.

An integrated circuit (IC) is welded to a PCB board. PCB board is the carrier of an integrated circuit (IC).

In simple terms, an integrated circuit is a general circuit integrated into a chip, which is a whole. Once it is damaged internally, the chip will be damaged. PCB can weld components by itself, and components can be replaced if broken.