How to quickly make PCBs, what are the methods?

1.Introduction to rapid plate making

In fact, there are many methods for rapid plate making, such as the following:

(1)Mechanical engraving

This method uses physical engraving to separate the leads and pads on the PCB board from the unwanted copper. Of course, if there is no such expensive professional equipment, you can also use a utility knife to engrave it yourself, which is still possible for some very simple circuits.

In special cases, high-power lasers can also be used to engrave the PCB copper layer, which is suitable for some special substrate circuit boards, such as ceramic substrate PCBs, aluminum substrate PCBs, etc.

(2)Chemical corrosion

The principle adopted by this large category of methods is similar to the traditional PCB production process. On the copper surface of the PCB, the pads and leads that need to be retained are covered by exposure, thermal transfer, inkjet printing, oil pen hand-painting, etc., and then the remaining copper is removed by chemical corrosion to form a usable PCB.

Among them:

Exposure method: PCB boards that require special pre-coating of photosensitive glue are exposed using ultraviolet lamps. After that, it needs to go through two steps of development and corrosion to get the circuit board;

Thermal transfer method: just use a laser printer to print the PCB circuit diagram on the thermal transfer paper, and then use a specific thermal transfer machine to fix the toner on the PCB copper layer, and after corrosion, you can get the required circuit board;

Inkjet printing: It is an inkjet printer that needs special modification to print the circuit directly on the PCB;

Oil pen drawing: The simplest, just use an ordinary oil-based marker pen, plus a clever drawing, and you can do it.

In addition, to draw the circuit diagram, you can also use a stepper motor to drive the oil pen to complete the circuit drawing on the circuit board.

(3)Paste the circuit

For some circuits with simple leads and large currents, you can paste them with copper foil tape.

▲Test circuit formed by pasting copper foil

Here are some experimental demonstration circuits made by the simple method of pasting copper foil from Love Mechanical Electronics in Xigua Video:

(4)Conductive ink

This is to add some nano silver particles to the ink so that the ink can dry quickly and conduct electricity to form a conductive metal film. On this basis, the required circuit can be formed.

The advantage of the circuit formed in this way is that the required circuit can be formed on the surface of any object, but the width of the line is relatively large, and the resistance of the line is relatively large, which is suitable for some simple control signal circuit production.

(5)Castle in the air

The highest level of realizing a circuit is a circuit without a circuit board. In fact, in the early circuit production, because the electronic components were relatively large, the circuit used leads to directly weld between the pins of the components. Now the components are relatively small. In special cases, removing the circuit board can greatly reduce the size of the circuit.

The figure below shows the use of plasticine to fix and weld eight surface-mount components to form a dual-motor drive circuit.

▲ Direct surface-mount device welding to form a tiny dual-motor drive circuit

The circuit below looks like there is no circuit, but it is actually a glass substrate circuit with a circuit board.

2.My favorite fast board making

(1)Why do you like thermal transfer?

In my work, the fast board making method I like is still the thermal transfer method. It is not only very fast to make, the circuit board can basically be made within one minute, and the required materials are very cheap.

Laser printer;

Thermal transfer paper;

Thermal transfer machine;

Corrosive liquid: hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide;

Single-sided copper clad board;

Among them, the price of the thermal transfer machine is also very cheap, only a few hundred yuan. As for other consumables, they can be easily obtained.

It is the speed of this method that meets the needs of impatient engineers.

(2)Little secrets in rapid plate making

In order to save time and obtain high-precision circuit boards, there is a little secret, which is probably often overlooked by most people who make PCBs, that is, using PCBs with thin copper clad layers for circuit board production.

In the circuit board weight loss-the effect of using PCBs with reduced copper in thermal transfer plate making is compared with the effect of PCBs with different copper clad thicknesses in making circuit boards. It can be seen that the thin PCB after copper reduction can realize the production of circuits with a line width of 4mil. This has reached the standard of ordinary PCB production process.

Of course, in order to achieve the effect of double-sided boards, the flexible use of 0Ω resistors is a way to combine experience and inspiration.

Conclusion

If you are an impatient electronics fanatic, then rapid PCB production is a technology that can make hardware development as easy as software development. Mastering it can achieve twice the result with half the effort and soothe your restless and wild mind.