How much does a PCB cost?

Answer 1

First, I am assuming that by PCB you mean Printed Circuit Board. Next, this depends upon many, many factors, none of which are "givens" here. There is quantity. You can order anything from a prototype run of say 6 to a major production run of say 6 million. The more you order, the more highly tooled production will be, the lower the unit cost. The second factor is size of the PCB. If all else is the same, cost will be roughly proportional to size (meaning to area), so all else equal, a 12 inch by 12 inch PCB will be 4 times as costly as a 6 inch by 6 inch. Next is material. Very inexpensive materials such as Phenolic cotton paper, can be used in simple toys (although safety will be an issue). Top-of-the-line electronics is more likely to use materials like Teflon, glass, epoxy, and polyester. Structure is a major factor. The simplest, and cheapest PCB is an insulator like Phenolic-cotton-paper with a copper layer on one side. At the other end, we have many layer PCB's (for-instance 24 layer) with thru-holes interconnecting the layers. There can be contact fingers which are part of a PCB. One set for a plug-in PCB, many sets for a system board which goes to many other devices. Finally, there are finishing elements such as solder masks and silk screens.

All that said, a small very simple high volume PCB might be as low as $0.10 USD. An elegant, low volume multilayer PCB with full bells and whistles might cost $1000.00 USD.