A rigid plastic block containing a grid of internal metal spring clips, arranged in specific tie-point rows and power rails. Designers push component leads and solid-core wires into the holes to build temporary circuits. It allows rapid design changes and probing before committing to a printed circuit board.
Heard on the job
I threw the op-amp circuit on a protoboard to check the gain before we spin a PCB.
Insider tip
High frequencies and protoboards do not mix. Parasitic capacitance between the rows will ruin switching circuits above a few megahertz.
Also heard as
- breadboard
- solderless breadboard