Production of printed circuit boards using a diode laser instead of an iron. All do it yourself from beginning to end

3D printers have unlimited possibilities for home or rapid prototyping. Now you can easily create virtually any model in a 3D program and print it on a 3D printer. But until now, few people thought that using a 3D printer you can still make electronics for a particular solution (model).

Until today, if it was necessary to make a printed circuit board for a prototype, it was necessary to hang on it with a soldering iron, or to order a small batch in production. True, many of us can still do this with a conventional iron and a laser printer.



Although this process is not very aesthetic and technological. In this article I would like to talk about one more way. For this, not only a 3D printer is suitable, but also any DIY engraver:
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Or a constructor like makeblock plotter xy.



By the way, you can put a diode laser on almost any 3D printer by installing it as an add-on or in place of an extruder. Diode lasers are small and compact. Their relatively low power compared to CO2 lasers in this process is not a hindrance.



So, what does the process of manufacturing a PCB in the office or at home? For this we need copper-clad glass fiber laminate, any dark vinyl film (any laser burned through), iron chloride (sold openly at any chemical reagent store) and, of course, a diode laser mounted on a 3D printer. The power here is not so important, but we recommend using a laser with an output power of more than 2 W (2000 mW).

Installing a laser on any 3D printer is quite easy: an example of installation on Ultimaker and WanHao DuPlicator .

So, let's begin:

1. Create a board model in any program of the type inkscape (inversion picture. We will explain later why inversion).
2. Translate it to gcode.
3. Glue vinyl tape onto the plate of copper-coated glass textolite.
4. Place the foil coated glass fiber laminate on the 3D printer and turn on the 3D printer in laser cutting / engraving mode.
5. The laser will burn on the film an inverse picture of what should be the result.
6. Dissolve iron chloride powder in water (do not worry, there will be no chemical reaction)
7. Stelkotekstolit place for 45-60 minutes in an aqueous solution of ferric chloride.

In an aqueous solution of ferric chloride, copper on the surface of a fiberglass plastic free from film after laser operation will react with ferric chloride (a chemical reaction of etching copper) and go into solution, leaving pure glass fiber laminate in the contours of the inversion pattern.
Then, using a small drill, make holes for the necessary connectors or leave them as they are and solder the connectors on the board from above.

So we briefly described how using a conventional 3D printer and laser you can create a small factory - a laboratory for the manufacture of printed circuit boards.

This technology is certainly not ideal and has a number of drawbacks, but it is quite efficient and can be used in home conditions and small laboratories.