Making printed circuit board (PCB) with Peachys UV Laser

[sk1303]

Hello @ all

Just an idea.

Maybe you know that PCBs are made with UV Lighting and ACID for destroing the copper particular.
I think that this is one more usecase for the Peachy with uv laser.

Like in this Video - proof of conzept with laser ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9WxdGmGvyY

or the traditional way for understanding how to...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31ufQV9rh84

And the best ... afterwards you can print the housing for your PCB too ;-)

What do you think ?
Is peachys Laser able to do this in right scale and intensity?

BB Max

[mike_biddell]

The Peachy laser is not powerful enough to do that. A more interesting prospect (with less risk to eyesight) is to smear the PCB with the UV resin and print the pattern. The resin would hopefully adhere to the board and form the resist. Not sure whether the resin would form a suitable resist in terms of not allowing the etchant to undercut and not sure how you would get it off. But if it does work, this would be a brilliant way of making PCBs.

[Mjolinor]

The Peachy laser is not powerful enough to do that. A more interesting prospect (with less risk to eyesight) is to smear the PCB with the UV resin and print the pattern. The resin would hopefully adhere to the board and form the resist. Not sure whether the resin would form a suitable resist in terms of not allowing the etchant to undercut and not sure how you would get it off. But if it does work, this would be a brilliant way of making PCBs.

That is what the video is doing. It is not cutting the copper, you can't cut copper with lasers. It is "cutting" the photo resist.

[mike_biddell]

That is what the video is doing. It is not cutting the copper, you can't cut copper with lasers. It is "cutting" the photo resist.

I'm not suggesting cutting anything..... my idea is to solidify the resin as the resist pattern

[Mjolinor]

I'm not suggesting cutting anything..... my idea is to solidify the resin as the resist pattern

So what is the peachy laser not powerful enough to do?

[sk1303]

Hi again,

I also dont think that the peachys laser power is the neckbottle.
Also if its not so strong the longer we let the beam at one point the energy and uv emitting is kumulating the effect.
I think we can say the longer it is the stronger it is.
Its just to destroy the uv sensitive filmlayer, it dont has to burn it down or mill it away.

But maybe that you are right with eycare issue, maybe the copper is reflecting the beam and hits someones eyes.

I think the whole point is about calibration for exact measure and scale.

Also a point could be layout conversion from pcb design software and slicing software model ....

[mike_biddell]

If you just want to expose UV coated board, (not cutting the resist off), the Peachy should be able to do that relatively easily. I will certainly try that when I get my Peachy..... it's an interesting prospect.

[Pete]

The PP29 was able to expose photo board ready for developing and etching, http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...-With-A-Peachy. The biggest problem was hysteresis in the mirrors but that should now be solved with in the V1.

[sk1303]

Oh Cool,
THX 4 the Link, so it can be done :-)

[rylangrayston]

Thanks for finding that Pete, cant wait to see how the V1 + imporved calibration software will make this work even better.

@mike_biddell
curing resin as a resist is a great idea, that way you dont have to pay extra for the UV sensitive boards.
I hope someone trys it and if you do I would recommend trying a supper low shrinkage resin.