Reflow to soften solder or tin plate to relieve floor stress lowers whisker incidence. Another coating issue is tin pest, the transformation of tin to a powdery allotrope at low temperature. Moisture absorption occurs when the material is exposed to high humidity or water. Both the resin and the reinforcement may take up water; water additionally could also be soaked by capillary forces through voids in the materials and alongside the reinforcement.

Epoxies of the FR-4 supplies are not too susceptible, with absorption of only 0.15%. Polyimides and cyanate esters, on the other facet, suffer from excessive water absorption. Absorbed water can result in significant degradation of key parameters; it impairs monitoring resistance, breakdown voltage, and dielectric parameters. Relative dielectric constant of water is about 73, in comparison with about 4 for widespread circuit board supplies. Absorbed moisture can also vaporize on heating, as throughout soldering, and trigger cracking and delamination, the same effect responsible for 'popcorning' harm on wet packaging of digital components.

With the development of board lamination and etching methods, this idea evolved into the usual printed circuit board fabrication course of in use today. Soldering might be done mechanically by passing the board over a ripple, or wave, of molten solder in a wave-soldering machine. However, the wires and holes are inefficient since drilling holes is dear and consumes drill bits and the protruding wires are cut off and discarded.

In meeting the bare board is populated (or 'stuffed') with electronic parts to kind a practical printed circuit assembly , sometimes referred to as a 'printed circuit board assembly' . In through-hole know-how, the component leads are inserted in holes surrounded by conductive pads; the holes maintain the parts in place. In each through gap and surface mount, the components are then soldered; once cooled and solidified, the solder holds the elements in place completely and electrically connects them to the board. Electrochemical migration is the growth of conductive metal filaments on or in a printed circuit board beneath the influence of a DC voltage bias. Silver, zinc, and aluminum are known to develop whiskers under the influence of an electric field.

Originally, each electronic component had wire leads, and a PCB had holes drilled for every wire of each element. The element leads had been then inserted by way of the holes and soldered to the copper PCB traces.

Silver additionally grows conducting surface paths in the presence of halide and other ions, making it a poor selection for electronics use. Tin-lead or solder plating also grows whiskers, solely reduced by reducing the proportion of tin.

Careful baking of the substrates may be required to dry them previous to soldering. A basic PCB consists of a flat sheet of insulating material and a layer of copper foil, laminated to the substrate. The tracks operate as wires fastened in place, and are insulated from one another by air and the board substrate materials.