| Type | Description |
| Material | The PCB material is the non conductive Carrier of the copper traces. Most commonly use material is FR-4 which is fiber glass based |
| Finish/Plating | Top and bottom layers are plated based on the assembly process of the components. Plating vary in materials used, their applications and shelf life. Most commonly used finishes are ENIG,HASL,OSP and LF-HASL |
| Gold fingers | Gold fingers are traces that are plated with thick layer of hard gold over Nickel. The hard gold is used in location where repeated friction is made to maintain electric connection. |
| Via hole | A plated Hole in the PCB that is used to connect between traces/planes in one layer to another. |
| MCPCB | MCPCB stands for Metal Core Printed Circuit Board. Non conductive material is bonded to a metal back such as Aluminum or Copper. Used in application where power management is a priority |
| Flex Circuit | Flex Circuit A Flexible circuit board made from a Polyamide material. The flexibility attributes will vary based on actual implementation and is adversely affected by copper weight. |
| HDI | HDI stands for High Density Interconnect. Will cover the boards that were manufactured using technologies and practices such as Burried vias and blind vias |
| Blind Vias | A via that starts at the top or bottom layer and is drilled only to an internal layer. Not a through hole. |
| Copper Weight | Copper weight [Oz] is the unit of measure per sqr ft that decribe the copper thcikness of the traces. |
| Panelization | Boards are manufactured on a panel. Panelization of a PCB allows optimizing the material usage during manufacturing and later on during the SMT process. |
| Staggered Vias | mostly used in HDI Structure were blind vias will be place directly on top of buried vias. This practice allows maintaining low features with deeper interconnect keeping aspect ratio low. |
| Stackup | The Z axis structure of a multilayer board. Stackup plays a factor in impedance values of impedance control lines and board thickness. |
| Solder mask | Soldermask is a non conductive layer used to prevent solder shorts between pads and traces on a circuit board. |
Glossary of terms
