USB DSO: The Etched PCB
Posted Tue, 27th Mar '12 at 4:25am by Blackthorne TA
Now that the PCB has been designed, how do you get that design onto a solid PCB with the traces made of copper?
Well there are several ways, including paying a specialty house to do it for you, but if you have a standard black and white laser printer handy, PCB Fab in a Box has a nifty package to let you do it in the ease and comfort of your own home. The most important part of the package is the special paper that has a water-soluble coating.
So to use this system you do the following:
The result of the above with my PCB design is the following:
As you can see all the holes have been drilled as well. This was done using a regular drill press and the appropriately sized drill bits (and a magnifier lamp
).
Well there are several ways, including paying a specialty house to do it for you, but if you have a standard black and white laser printer handy, PCB Fab in a Box has a nifty package to let you do it in the ease and comfort of your own home. The most important part of the package is the special paper that has a water-soluble coating.
So to use this system you do the following:
- Print the PCB design to the special paper using a black and white laser printer
- Use the laminator that comes with the kit to adhere the plastic toner of the printout to the copper of the PCB
- Quickly plunge the PCB into a bowl of water. The paper coating dissolves, leaving the toner adhered to the PCB.
- Run the PCB through the laminator again with a green film included in the kit. This provides a less porous surface for the traces than the toner alone.
- Etch the exposed copper away using e.g. Ferric Chloride.
- Remove the toner and green film with acetone.
The result of the above with my PCB design is the following:
As you can see all the holes have been drilled as well. This was done using a regular drill press and the appropriately sized drill bits (and a magnifier lamp
).Total Comments 0
