Physics of Electronics for PCB Designers: Without the Formulas

This book is written for PCB Designers. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with important PCB design issues including such things as controlled impedance traces, differential impedance, cross talk, and EMI. It is also assumed that the reader has had some exposure to important electronics concepts such as Ohm's Law, resistance, reactance and impedance, and transmission line terminations.

What is unfamiliar to a great many designers is that signal propagation also creates electromagnetic energy that can have a significant effect on the design and the board's ultimate performance. This is part of where the physics (as opposed to the electronics) of the system comes into play.

Designers may have had some courses (or even a degree) in electronics. But they have probably had little exposure to physics. Physical properties impact electronics (and in particular PCB design) in at least three important ways:

1. Electromagnetic energy and its effects
2. Material properties and designs
3. Thermal conduction, convection, and radiation.

This is NOT a book on physics. This is NOT a book on how to quantify the effects of the impact of physics. In fact, there are very few equations at all in this book, and those that do appear are generally pretty simple. This book provides a qualitative discussion of some of the physics that impact PCB design with the purpose of providing the designer with the What, How, and Why of these issues. If you want to know How Much these issues impact designs, you need to read texts that go much deeper into the topics