Name: Single sided PCB
Brand: PCB Printed Circuit Board and PCBA manufacturing
Rating: 5 (1 reviews)

Description
Data Sheet

A single-sided PCB is the most basic circuit board structure. All electronic components are arranged on one side, while conductive wires are routed solely on the opposite side. Since circuitry is confined to one single layer, it is defined as a single-sided circuit board. Restricted by single-layer routing rules, traces cannot cross and must detour separately, resulting in major design limitations. For this reason, single-sided PCBs were primarily adopted in early simple electronic circuits.

Manufacturing Process of Single-Sided PCB

The mainstream patterning method for single-sided PCBs is screen printing. Anti-etching resist ink is printed on the copper foil surface. After etching, solder mask and silkscreen markings are printed, and finished boards are shaped with guide holes punched out. For low-volume, multi-variety customized products, photoresist photographic imaging technology is applied for circuit formation.

Advantages & Disadvantages

Advantages

Single-sided PCB features the simplest structure among all circuit board types, with prominent cost advantages. It requires fewer raw materials, shorter production cycles, and lower design and technical thresholds. With mature manufacturing processes and sufficient material supply, mass production is highly stable, ensuring fast lead time and outstanding cost performance.

Disadvantages

Its biggest limitation lies in insufficient routing space. Single-sided boards are only suitable for low-complexity circuits and cannot support high-density designs with numerous components. To solve routing conflicts, the overall PCB size has to be enlarged, increasing the final product’s volume and weight, and restricting operating speed and overall equipment efficiency.

Material Classification of Single-Sided PCB

Economical Common Grade: 94HB paper-based substrate, 94V0 flame-retardant paper substrate, 22F semi-fiberglass board, CEM-1 semi-fiberglass board. These low-cost materials are the most widely used for conventional consumer electronics.
Mid-to-High Performance Grade: FR1 single-sided board, CEM-3 semi-fiberglass board, FR4 full fiberglass single-sided board. With better heat resistance and electrical properties, they come at a higher price.
Special Functional Substrates: Single-sided aluminum substrate, single-sided copper substrate, single-sided flexible PCB.

Special Single-Sided PCB Types

Single-Sided Aluminum Substrate PCB
A typical metal-based copper clad laminate with excellent thermal conductivity, electrical insulation and mechanical processing performance. It is widely used in LED lighting requiring rapid heat dissipation. It effectively reduces operating temperature, improves power density and service life, and can replace ceramic substrates for stronger mechanical durability.
Single-Sided Copper Substrate PCB
One of the highest-grade metal substrates. Its thermal conductivity is far superior to aluminum and iron substrates, ideal for high-frequency circuits, extreme temperature fluctuation scenarios, precision communication equipment and building heat dissipation systems.
The circuit layer adopts thick copper foil (35μm~280μm) for high current carrying capacity. The thermally conductive insulating layer is the core structure with ultra-low thermal resistance, anti-thermal aging performance and strong mechanical stress resistance.
Single-Sided Flexible PCB
Made of PI single-sided copper clad material, covered with protective film after circuit etching to form a lightweight bendable single-conductor flexible board. It is widely applied in compact portable electronic products.
Standard structure: substrate + adhesive + copper foil, covered with protective film after circuit processing. Pads are exposed and plated with tin or gold for oxidation resistance. Low-cost versions without protective film have weaker mechanical strength and are only used for low-demand products.

Single-Sided PCB Design Guidelines

Clarify structural dimensions, fixing hole specifications and mounting requirements;
Confirm interface layout, board height and assembly limitations;
Reserve installation space for special components such as heat sinks.

Routing Specifications

Maintain uniform trace width to avoid sudden impedance changes;
Avoid sharp angles and right-angle turns; adopt 45° arc routing;
Minimize signal line length to reduce transmission interference;
Prevent signal loops and parallel crosstalk between input and output lines;
Optimize grounding design: multi-point series grounding for high-frequency circuits and closed-loop grounding for digital circuits;
Design high-frequency traces based on characteristic impedance to realize impedance matching;
Keep overall routing and drilling density uniform for balanced board stress.

Standard Process Flow

Single-sided copper clad laminate → Blanking → Brushing & drying → Drilling / punching → Screen printing anti-etch pattern or dry film processing → Curing & inspection → Copper etching → Resist stripping & drying → Surface cleaning → Solder mask printing & UV curing → Silkscreen printing & UV curing → Preheating & punching forming → Open/short circuit electrical testing → Cleaning & drying → Surface anti-oxidation or HASL treatment → Final inspection & packaging → Delivery

Maxipcb provides cost-effective customized single-sided PCB with complete material options and stable mass production capacity. For single-sided board procurement and customization, please contact our team.

Model: Single-sided PCB

Material: CEM-1/CEM-3/FR-4/Al/PI

Layer: 1Layer

Color: White/Black/Blue/Green

Finished Thickness: 0.6mm-1.6mm

Copper Thickness: 0.5OZ-2OZ

Surface Treatment: OSP

Min Trace: 12mil

Min Space: 12mil

Single sided PCB

Description

Data Sheet