What Is Silkscreen in PCBs?

In electronics manufacturing, PCB silkscreen does not participate in the transmission of electrical signals. However, it is very important for the design, assembly and later maintenance of PCBs, although many people do not pay attention to it. Silkscreen itself does not affect whether the circuit is conducting or not, but without it, engineers would have almost no idea where to start when assembling components, debugging circuits or repairing PCBs, which would be prone to errors and greatly reduce efficiency.

So, what exactly is silkscreen? Why can it be seen on almost every circuit board? In this article, we will explain PCB silkscreen from the following aspects: what it is, what materials are used, how it is printed, the common PCB screen printing methods, the PCB silkscreen guidelines to be noted during design, and what specific role it plays in PCB assembly and production.