Which term to use, PWB or PCB?

Mr. Crawford is Director of Certification and Assembly Technology for IPC. He is technical liaison to the IPC committees that maintain critical industry standards and has presented numerous papers internationally.

At EPTAC Corporation, Mr. Lambert oversees content of course offerings, IPC Certification programs and provides customers with expert consultation in electronics manufacturing, including RoHS/WEEE and lead free issues. Leo is also the IPC General Chairman for the Assembly/Joining Process Committee.

Ed Zamborsky is a Regional Sales & Technical Support Manager for Thermaltronics, located in New York. His position requires frequent customer visits throughout North America and the Caribbean and his position encompasses not only sales but the role of trainer and master applications engineer for all of Thermaltronics products. His expertise includes such specialties as hand soldering, convection and conduction reflow techniques, array rework, fluid dispensing equipment, and fume extraction. Ed has authored many articles and has presented many papers on topics such as; Low Volume SMT Assembly, Solder Fume Extraction, SMT Rework, BGA Rework, Lead-Free Hand Soldering, High Thermal Demand Hand Soldering, Lead Free Visual Inspection and Lead Free Array Rework.

Mr Goldberg has practical experience in production line layout, process flow and cycle rate analysis. He knows how to avoid bottle necks and most related PCB or pallet handling questions.

It is same, PCB is used more than PWB.

I started in the 70s calling them Printed Wire Boards and Printed Wire Assemblies as still prefer those terms. A Printed Circuit is just that, a circuit that is printed to the board with printed resistors, traces printed specifically to provide deliberate capacitive or inductive effects, or other "printed" components as in a Hybrid.

To say that "printed circuitry design will have an impact on function" negates the fact that even if all components are connected by discrete wires, those wires still impart LCR characteristics to the circuit function.

Personally I think we as an industry just got lazy and instead of continuously correcting the commonly misapplied term "Printed Circuit" we just gave up and accepted it.

Terminology is only useful if it has specific meaning and we now have ambiguous terms that don't specify exactly what we are talking about.

Great answer and history in the article and great responses, as well. As circuit board manufacturing consists of two very distinct stages-fabrication and assembly--it would seem that at least two terms are required. For the bare board, which is the fabrication result, the commonly used PCB seems most appropriate as the process involves printing and (etching) to realize the copper circuit layout.

PCBA, which is the end product of assembly, provides the needed distinction and accurately denotes that the final product is the assembled printed circuit board. This being said, most seasoned engineers are able to make the necessary determinations, regardless of what terms are used. However, for those new to the industry, having so many terms can be confusing.