Why Are Printed Circuit Boards Usually Green In Color?

Commonly PCBs are made of glass fiber reinforced epoxy resin or fiberglass board which naturally has a greenish color. And the outer layer of the PCB is a solder mask that is what we see in green color. Solder mask is a layer of polymer coating given for the copper traces of the printed circuit boards. It is applied as permanent protection covering to prevent oxidation, short circuits, etc…

Solder masks are available in different variety of colors such as Blue, Red, Black, White, Yellow, Purple, etc… But green is the most popularly used solder mask.

The reason for still using green boards are simply we are following the tradition or standard. Nowadays PCBs boards are coming with a wide variety of colors and tend to be less traditional to the practice of green.

Even though, we could say green solder mask has a few advantages over other solder masks.

• The green solder mask can provide better solder mask dam; solder mask dam act as an isolation wall between pads.
• It is low cost and economically more feasible.
• Also, it is considering as a reason that the green color boards are more comfortable to work; it has less glare.