4 ms·

Apple PCBs are all black nowadays. They probably went all they to make the black pigmened oil as good as green.

by msoad 8y ago

userbinator 8y ago
I suspect it's a deliberate choice both as a fashion statement and to discourage repair. It's interesting to see a similar phenomenon with desktop PC motherboards: "gamer" or otherwise "enthusiast" boards are often a non-green colour and come with superfluous design elements (like plastic covers over the actual components, which sort of remind me of the engine covers on newer cars...), while both the ultra-cheap prebuilt and ultra-expensive server boards remain green and free of fluff.
- zrobotics 8y ago
  I blame case windows for this. The last desktop I built, it was a chore finding a case that didn't look stupid, and I eventually gave up on a normal motherboard, as anything with a z170 chip set looked like it belonged in a transformers toy. And while people definitely geek out over servers, it's nearly all about specs. After all, why make something that gets hidden away in a rack in a DC look pretty? I suspect that is one reason Apple isn't using green mask, since the connotation for many people is 'cheap'
  - userbinator 8y ago
    Ironically enough, case windows were created so people could show off the components inside, but now they're only showing off the covers on them.
- stephen_g 8y ago
  I doubt it has anything to do with repair. When you’ve got a 18 or so layer PCB, probably with microvias (invisible if they’re in pads), and very closely spaced QFN and BGA-packaged parts everywhere, soldermask colour is the least of your problems. So much of the design is on internal layers inside the board and so much interconnection to internal layers in pads (if using microvias) and under BGAs that being able to easily see the top and bottom layer traces easily would give you very little to go on. You’d really need design files to do anything more than just reflowing the odd part... It probably is a lot to do with fashion though. It’s literally one of the only reasons that I always specify blue or black soldermask at work - just looks a lot cooler. Green boards just have that late-90’s electronics look.
setquk 8y ago
I think that’s because they want the bits you can’t see to look as good as the bits you can. I rather like poking around inside apple kit. Always have a smile on when I have to.
s1mon 8y ago
Some flex circuits are black because they use a conductive coating to create ground planes without increasing the stiffness as much as another set of copper/adhesive/coverlay layers.
- ultrasounder 8y ago
  The black stuff on flex circuits is actually dual purpose. Stiffener and also EMI shield.Flex circuits in Consumer Electronics is typically used in Two places. Camera module interface and Display interface both of which push serial data to upwards of 1GB/s LVDS(MIPI) CSI and DSI. And due to tlack of dedicated ground planes( cheaper) they add a adhesive that serves to contain emissions from the 8b/10b(Manchester) encoded data stream.

Apple PCBs are all black nowadays. They probably went all they to make the black pigmened oil as good as green.

by msoad 8y ago

Apple PCBs are all black nowadays. They probably went all they to make the black pigmened oil as good as green.

I suspect it's a deliberate choice both as a fashion statement and to discourage repair. It's interesting to see a similar phenomenon with desktop PC motherboards: "gamer" or otherwise "enthusiast" boards are often a non-green colour and come with superfluous design elements (like plastic covers over the actual components, which sort of remind me of the engine covers on newer cars...), while both the ultra-cheap prebuilt and ultra-expensive server boards remain green and free of fluff.

zrobotics 8y ago
I blame case windows for this. The last desktop I built, it was a chore finding a case that didn't look stupid, and I eventually gave up on a normal motherboard, as anything with a z170 chip set looked like it belonged in a transformers toy. And while people definitely geek out over servers, it's nearly all about specs. After all, why make something that gets hidden away in a rack in a DC look pretty? I suspect that is one reason Apple isn't using green mask, since the connotation for many people is 'cheap'
- userbinator 8y ago
  Ironically enough, case windows were created so people could show off the components inside, but now they're only showing off the covers on them.
stephen_g 8y ago
I doubt it has anything to do with repair. When you’ve got a 18 or so layer PCB, probably with microvias (invisible if they’re in pads), and very closely spaced QFN and BGA-packaged parts everywhere, soldermask colour is the least of your problems. So much of the design is on internal layers inside the board and so much interconnection to internal layers in pads (if using microvias) and under BGAs that being able to easily see the top and bottom layer traces easily would give you very little to go on. You’d really need design files to do anything more than just reflowing the odd part... It probably is a lot to do with fashion though. It’s literally one of the only reasons that I always specify blue or black soldermask at work - just looks a lot cooler. Green boards just have that late-90’s electronics look.

setquk 8y ago

I think that’s because they want the bits you can’t see to look as good as the bits you can. I rather like poking around inside apple kit. Always have a smile on when I have to.

s1mon 8y ago

Some flex circuits are black because they use a conductive coating to create ground planes without increasing the stiffness as much as another set of copper/adhesive/coverlay layers.

ultrasounder 8y ago
The black stuff on flex circuits is actually dual purpose. Stiffener and also EMI shield.Flex circuits in Consumer Electronics is typically used in Two places. Camera module interface and Display interface both of which push serial data to upwards of 1GB/s LVDS(MIPI) CSI and DSI. And due to tlack of dedicated ground planes( cheaper) they add a adhesive that serves to contain emissions from the 8b/10b(Manchester) encoded data stream.