Currently, the international standards for printed circuit boards are those established by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Most of China’s printed circuit board standards are based on IEC standards. The electronic and electrotechnical standards of European Union (EU) member states are essentially equivalent to IEC standards and will not be discussed further in this article. The U.S.-based IPC is a trade association for the printed circuit board and assembly industries, and IPC standards have a wide-reaching influence in the international industry. Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) for printed circuit boards have rarely been updated in recent years, and standards set by the Japan Printed Circuit Association (JPCA) have gradually gained a dominant position.
China’s standards for printed circuit boards include national standards (GB) and national military standards (GJB), as well as industry standards such as those for the electronics industry (SJ), the aviation industry (HB), and the aerospace industry (QJ). In addition, there are standards issued by the China Printed Circuit Association (CPCA).
Due to a lack of relevant information, this article does not cover printed circuit board standards in China’s Hong Kong and Taiwan regions.
This paper compares the scope and update status of China’s printed circuit board standards with those of the IEC, the U.S. IPC, and Japan’s JIS and JPCA standards in areas such as terminology standards, printed circuit board design, substrate materials, finished product standards, and test method standards.
1. The IEC has established the terminology standard IEC 60194, “Printed Circuit Boards—Design, Manufacturing, and Assembly—Terminology and Definitions.” It has been revised three times over the past 20 years, with the latest edition being the 6th edition, published in 2015.
The IPC has the IPC-T-50 standard, “Terminology and Definitions for Electronic Circuit Interconnections and Packaging,” which has been revised six times over the past 20 years; the most recent version is the M Edition from 2015.
JIS published JIS-C-5603:1993, “Terminology and Definitions for Printed Circuits,” which has not been updated since. The JPCA published JPCA-TD01, “Terminology for Electronic Circuits,” in 2000, and updated it to the second edition in 2008.
China’s GB/T 2036—1994, “Terminology for Printed Circuits,” was developed in accordance with IEC 194:1988 and is now more than twenty years old. Compared to the standards mentioned above, the gap is evident.
2. Printed Circuit Boards
This section provides an overview of the development of standards for the design, substrates, and products of printed circuit boards (PCBs) in the following categories: rigid, flexible, high-density interconnect (HDI), high-frequency and high-speed, embedded components, optoelectronic, LED, and printed electronics.
2.1 Rigid (Conventional) Printed Circuit Boards
The previous IEC standard for printed circuit board design was IEC 60326-3:1991, “Design and Use of Printed Circuit Boards,” which was withdrawn in 2004. The new standard series is IEC 61188, “Design and Use of Printed Circuit Boards and Printed Circuit Board Assemblies,” but no standard specifically for printed circuit board design has been published yet.
The current IEC standard for copper-clad laminates is IEC 61249-2 "Materials for Printed Circuit Boards and Other Interconnection Structures—Part 2: Foil-Clad and Unclad Reinforced Substrates," which replaces the various sub-specifications of the now-withdrawn IEC 60249-2 "Substrates for Printed Circuit Boards—Part 2: Specifications." As of May 2015, 32 specifications had been published, including 10 for lead-free applications, 11 for halogen-free applications, and 4 for high-frequency applications (with some overlap). The new IEC standard for prepregs (semi-cured sheets) is IEC 61249-4, “Materials for Printed Circuit Boards and Other Interconnect Structures—Part 4: Unlaminated Prepregs (for the Manufacture of Multilayer Boards),” which replaces the sub-standards of IEC 60249-3. Eleven standards have been published, including 6 for lead-free applications and 4 for halogen-free applications (with some overlap).
The IEC previously had eight standards for printed circuit boards, ranging from IEC 60326-4 to IEC 60326-12, which were successively withdrawn in 1996 and 2004. The new standards include IEC 62326-1, “Printed Circuit Boards—Part 1: General Specifications,” 2nd edition (2001), as well as the 1996 IEC 62326-4 sub-standard for rigid multilayer boards and the IEC 62326-4-1 detailed capability specification for rigid multilayer boards. As for the development of sub-standards for rigid single-sided and double-sided boards, it is currently on hold.
Overall, the IEC standards for printed circuit board design are quite inadequate; while the standards for substrate materials are relatively comprehensive, the standards for finished products, though existing, are still lacking.
IPC's printed circuit board design standards are the 2220 series:
IPC-2221, “General Standards for Printed Circuit Board Design,” most recently published as Edition B in 2012, applies to all types of printed circuit boards;
The latest version of IPC-2222, "Design Specifications for Rigid-Flex Printed Circuit Boards," is Edition A from 2010;
The IPC standard for rigid printed circuit board materials is IPC-4101, “Specifications for Substrates for Rigid and Multilayer Printed Circuit Boards.” The current version is Edition D (2014). IPC-4101 uses specification sheets to describe the properties of various materials; Edition D now includes 66 specification sheets, of which 15 are for lead-free materials and 15 are for halogen-free materials (with some overlap).
The IPC standard for printed circuit boards is IPC-6012, “Specifications for the Qualification and Performance of Rigid Printed Circuit Boards,” currently in the 2010 Edition C;
IPC offers a comprehensive set of standards for rigid printed circuit boards, which are updated promptly.
Japan's JIS does not have a separate standard for printed circuit board design; it only includes some design guidelines in its standards for finished products.
There are 10 JIS standards for copper-clad laminates used in printed circuit boards; of these, one each was published in 2005 and 2008, while the rest were published between 1994 and 1999.
There are three JIS standards for printed circuit boards, which have not been updated for about 20 years:
The Japan Printed Circuit Association (JPCA) has published the documents titled “Structure, Terminology, Testing, Specifications, Inspection, and Design" and "Design Guidelines and Data Formats for Electronic Circuit Boards with Embedded Components (Embedded Component Boards)," both designated JPCA-UB01-2014 (Comprehensive). These documents cover topics such as the design of rigid printed circuit boards and specifications for finished products.
In addition, the JPCA has four standards for rigid printed circuit board substrates, which were published between 2005 and 2009.
China's design standards for printed circuit boards include:
GB/T 4588.3—2002 "Design and Use of Printed Circuit Boards," which is an equivalent adoption of IEC 60326-3:1991;
GJB4057–2000 “Design Requirements for Printed Circuit Boards of Military Electronic Equipment”;
QJ3103A–2011 "Design Requirements for Printed Circuit Boards."
There are eight national standards governing the base materials for printed circuit boards, including GB/T 4721—1992, “General Rules for Copper-Clad Laminates for Printed Circuits,” which were issued between 1990 and 1996. These standards do not include provisions regarding lead-free or halogen-free materials.
Other standards include: GJB/Z50.1—1993, “Military Printed Circuit Boards and Substrate Series: Foil-Clad Substrates for Printed Circuits”;
The standards for finished printed circuit boards include: GB/T 16261–1996, “General Specifications for Printed Circuit Boards,” and three subsidiary specifications issued in the same year. All of these standards adopt, on an equivalent basis, the IEC’s provisional quality assessment specifications IEC/PQC 88–91 for use in printed circuit board capability certification.
GJB362B—2009 "General Specifications for Rigid Printed Circuit Boards";
QJ831B—2011 “General Specifications for Multilayer Printed Circuit Boards for Aerospace Applications”;
The CPCA has developed CPCA 4105—2010, “Metal-Cored Copper-Clad Laminates for Printed Circuits”;
The CPCA and IPC have jointly published: IPC/CPCA 6012B—2005, “Specification for the Qualification and Performance of Rigid Printed Circuit Boards.”
The CPCA and JPCA have jointly published: CPCA/JPCA-PB01—2006 “Printed Circuit Boards.”
2.2 Flexible Printed Circuit Boards
New IEC Standard for Flexible Materials Included in IEC 61249-3 In *Materials for Printed Circuit Boards and Other Interconnection Structures—Part 3: Specifications for Foil-Clad and Unclad, Unreinforced Substrates (Intended for Flexible Printed Circuit Boards)*, these sub-specifications replace the original IEC 60249-2 specifications. Only one PAS specification was published in 2007:
In 2007, IEC/PAS 62326-7-1, “Guidelines for the Performance of Single- and Double-Sided Flexible Printed Circuit Boards,” was published, and an IEC/TS standard based on it is currently under development. Beyond that, there is no information available on other standards for flexible printed circuit boards.
The U.S. IPC-2223 "Specification for the Design of Flexible Printed Circuits" is currently in the 2011 Edition C.
IPC has three standards for flexible printed circuit board materials, published in 2010, 2013, and 2011, respectively: The finished product standard is IPC-6013, “Specifications for the Qualification and Performance of Flexible Printed Circuits,” Edition C (2013).
The Japanese JIS standards include:
JIS-C-6472-1995 "Flexible Copper-Clad Laminates—Polyester and Polyimide";
JIS-C-5017-1994 "Single- and Double-Sided Flexible Printed Circuit Boards."
JPCA includes:
——JPCA-DG04-2012 “Flexible Printed Circuit Boards and Materials for Flexible Printed Circuit Boards—Part 1: Specification Sheets,” which includes 5 specification sheets for flexible printed circuit boards and 15 specification sheets for materials used in flexible printed circuit boards;
—JPCA-DG04-2012 “Flexible Printed Circuit Boards and Materials for Flexible Printed Circuit Boards—Part 2: General Specifications,” which specifies the general requirements, characteristics, and test methods for flexible printed circuit boards, as well as the general requirements, characteristics, and test methods for various materials used in flexible printed circuit boards.
China's Standards for Flexible Printed Circuit Boards:
GJB 2830-1997 Design Requirements for Flexible and Rigid Printed Circuit Boards (equivalent to MIL-STD-2118) and four national standards for flexible substrates, which were issued in 1992 and 1993, China’s four national standards for flexible printed circuit boards, issued in 1993 and 2001, all adopted sub-specifications of IEC 60326, but the latter have since been withdrawn.
The CPCA has issued the following standards: CPCA/IPC-6301-2011, “Specifications for the Qualification and Performance of Flexible Printed Circuit Boards,” and CPCA/JPCA-DG02—2007, “Specifications for Single- and Double-Sided Flexible Printed Circuit Boards.”
