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I am kind of confused about, the difference between copper traces and copper cladding in PCBs.

Are they the same thing?

Is it necessary for a PCB to have them?

Noran Hany
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2 Answers2

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Cladding is the copper layer applied to the surface of a board substrate: it's the starting material. This layer is selectively etched away to form traces in the finished PCB.

hacktastical
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Same thing. Copper clad means the fiberglass PCB substrate is clad in copper foil which is etched away to make traces.

I guess it's not necessary for a PCB to have copper cladding. Instead of a PCB with copper traces on a fiberglass substrate, you would a bare fiberglass substrate with components mounted on it with the electrical connections being made by something like wire wrap or point-to-point wires.

DKNguyen
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  • aka "tagboard" or "tag strip", pre-dating PCBs, from the vacuum tube era. https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/475056/why-did-axial-capacitors-fall-out-of-use-in-the-industry/475059#475059 –  May 20 '20 at 07:03