A L k Into
Motherboards
By Amy Madden

How It Is Made
The progression that a motherboard goes through is composed of three main different processes
 Design Process
 Fabrication Process
 Assembly Process

Schematic drawn by design engineers
Schematic contains logic symbols representing components and their connections
Schematic goes to net list

 Net list contains all parts’ and symbols’ electrical info
 Net list ran into Computer Aided Design
(CAD)

 CAD contains libraries representing the physical part of the logic symbols
 CAD designer places components by hand, on the computer, and then connects components

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Connected through the interconnects
Interconnects use vias to transition between multiple layers
Once all errors are corrected and specific circuits are routed, art work files are generated for the fabrication
(fab) house

 Art work from design process is put on fiberglass covered with copper clad on each side
 Image put on board contains components’ interconnects
 Copper clad is chemically etched away based off art work image

 Resin woven cloth are put between layers
 Pressure and heat fuse layers together
 Drill stage establishes all holes and vias

 Board goes on conveyer belt
 All components are inserted by machine
 Component location provided through
CAD rectangular coordinates (x-y axis)
 Soldering glues all components causing good electrical connections on board
 Bare board now considered a motherboard

 The electronic card which connects all components of a computer together
 In other words, it is just a big printed circuit board with various peripherals and components plugged into it

 What is a peripheral?
Any piece of hardware that is not a resident on the motherboard
 What is a component?
A computer chip that is used to run a certain function

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There are many components on a motherboard
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Each component has its own function

 An electronic switch made of semiconductors turning currents on and off
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N-type Semiconductors: produces electrons
P-type Semiconductors: produces spaces for electrons

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Current flow management:
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Controlling signal goes to the central section
Controls the flow of current through two outer sections
If signal is positive, transistor is turned on, represented by a 1.
If a negative charge is fed into the base, the transistor is turned off, representing a 0.

 A capacitor is an electrical component that stores an electric charge
 When the capacitor is holding a charge, it is represented with a 1
 When it is holding no charge, it is represented by a 0

 Automatically maintains a specific voltage traveling in an explicit region
 Can raise voltage or lower voltage depending on circumstance

 “The Brain of the Computer”
 Component which translates information and sends it off to the proper area
 Also referred to as the Central
Processing Unit (CPU)

• Referred to as BIOS
• Built-in software that determines what a computer can do without accessing programs from a disk
• Contains all the code required to control the keyboard, display screen, mouse, and other functions

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The motherboard contains data lines called buses
These buses transmit data between the processor and the components

 The front side bus between your processor and chipset determines the speed of the processor
 Processor interprets binary code

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Use of binary system
A bit is a b inary dig it
8 bits = 1 byte

 System that uses 0’s and 1’s
 If system signal is on, represented by a 1
 Signal off, represented with a 0
 Signal is determined on or off by the electronic charge is has or lacks