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The green is solder mask. It's just a coating that goes over most of the board, to prevent oxidation and accidental electrical shorts and to prevent solder fro
by elihu 2y ago
The green is solder mask. It's just a coating that goes over most of the board, to prevent oxidation and accidental electrical shorts and to prevent solder from sticking where it isn't supposed to at the assembly stage. (You can get solder mask in different colors as well. The board itself is usually actually a sort of yellowish white and made of FR4, a kind of fire-resistant fiberglass.)
Generally you can sort of see through the soldermask to see the copper traces underneath. In the example images in the article, the lighter areas are copper and the darker areas are the space in-between.
- buescher 2y ago> to prevent ... accidental electrical shorts It frequently does that, so you are not wrong, but it is not a reliable insulator. If you need insulation or spacing for engineering or compliance reasons, you cannot rely on solder mask to provide it.
- elihu 2y agoI mean the kind of shorts where you accidentally drop a screw on the PCB, drag a loose wire across it, or something like that. Not foolproof, but it probably reduces the risk of damage somewhat.
- buescher 2y agoRight, and I think your language was careful to imply that, but others reading this should understand solder mask does that but it's not what it's for, if that makes sense. The bit of mechanical and environmental protection it can provide after assembly is similarly incidental.