17 Advantages and Disadvantages of PCB over Conventional Wiring | PCB vs PCBA

In this post, we are going to study,

• What are the advantages of printed circuit boards over conventional wiring, breadboard, and component mounting techniques?
• What are the major disadvantages of the printed circuit board (PCB)?

Let’s dive into the explanation,

Advantages (or Pros) of PCB

1. The printed circuit board finds in a compact size. So, this is very easy for transportation.
2. There are very few chances of connected components getting disconnected in the PCB, than in conventional wiring.
3. PCB designing and PCB fabrication takes less time than making wire connection.
4. The electronic components are fixed in PCB through soldering. So, it is easy to simplify components over the PCBA.
5. Less wiring is required for PCB designing.
6. The PCB gives good flexibility to place required components and fix them at specific positions.
7. This board is very economical than the PCBA due to fewer requirements of PCB wiring and components.
8. It creates less electronic noise.
9. The troubleshooting, inspection, and replacement of faulty components or connections on PCB are very easy over regular wiring.
10. Under the short circuit or fault condition, the failure components on PCB can be easily checked through the multimeter. So, it requires less maintenance.
11. You can get a PCB board very easily in the market at an affordable cost.

All these are benefits and reasons for using PCB instead of the conventional wiring, breadboard, and components mounting techniques (such as printed circuit board assembly i.e. PCBA).

Further, read the PCB vs PCBA. You will find a few more advantages.

Disadvantages (or Cons) of PCB

Here are some of the disadvantages of PCB as compared to PCBA and regular wiring.

12. Once you print the circuit on the PCB board, you can not modify it.
13. The soldering is required (must) to connect or fix the electronic components on PCB.
14. Again for soldering, thermal shock is required.
15. PCBs contain more amount of lead.
16. The etching process is very harmful which is required for the manufacturing of PCB.
17. This circuit can be used only for the specific function and features of devices or systems.

These are the limitations and disadvantages of the PCB as compared to conventional wiring.

If you want to add any point related to the advantages and disadvantages of PCB, you can share it by writing in the comment.

Thanks for Reading!

Read some other Pros & Cons:

• Pros & Cons of Solar Energy
• Pros & Cons of Thermal Power Plant
• Advantages and Disadvantages of Diesel Power Plant
• Pros & Cons of Nuclear Power Plants
• Pros & Cons of Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)

Dipali Chaudhari

I have completed master in Electrical Power System. I work and write technical tutorials on the PLC, MATLAB programming, and Electrical on DipsLab.com portal.

Sharing my knowledge on this blog makes me happy.  And sometimes I delve in Python programming.