Fiber lasers and PCBs

We like lasers, and many of us also like electronics, sooo

@chris1 i bet you’ll think this is interesting.

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A guy I followed on YT did a video a few years back where he showed an additive process for producing circuit traces using a laser, even on irregular surfaces. It’s used in industry, and he was able to replicate it in his (substantial) home lab.

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Additive? Like it lasers some material and makes a conductive trace?

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I don’t recall exactly how it was done but it was along the lines of Cermark, I guess. He was applying it to plastic or similar parts.

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IMNSHO this is of limited interest because it only does single-sided circuit boards, using cardboard FR1. The line widths and pad pitches are impressive, but without a way to align and connect two sides with vias, one is left with a “toy”. I’m happy pay $25 and wait ~5 days for PCBWay or JLCPCB to send me perfect production quality PCBs in fiberglass FR4. :sunglasses:

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I think the main point here is “prototype” - if you don’t know yet the layout that will make it the perfect PCB, then waiting 5 days for each iteration would be mind numbing.

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@deirdrebeth: It depends on your working style. In my experience there’s plenty to do during the 3-5 day wait, such as ordering parts from DigiKey. Plus, I tend to pipeline my designs. Over many decades I’ve learned that “bread-boarding”, even moderately complex electronics, is not worth the time and effort. I tend to use simulation for analog designs and emulation or “dev kits” for digital designs. Besides, my stuff tends to work the first time, once I get all the correct parts soldered in the right places! :sunglasses:

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I can solve the alignment immediately. Alignment of two sided things is easy with a laser, I am surprised that he didn’t solve it already. He’s a PCB guy, I’m a laser guy, I guess.

As for the vias, someone will solve for this. There is too much utility in a simple onsite 2sided pcb making solution. Check this space in a few years, I’m pretty confident that it will continue to develop – lasers or not.

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I have used various techniques over the years and I find this interesting, even though I don’t have much use for it myself these days.

The most useful prototype method I used since the early 80’s was wire-wrap. Sometimes they were sturdy enough to be enough for the job. That was mind-blowing after a decade of using breadboard. :rofl:

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@evansd2: I agree that someone will solve this—eventually. Selective laser sintering (SLS) maybe? If/when that happens, I’m all in. That’s why the video disappointed me: The “important” part, namely conductive vias, was missing. :disappointed:

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That one keeps coming up on my feed, and I’ve been avoiding it because I don’t have a fiber laser :-). I’ll have to take a look.

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I use rivets for vias. That’s the easy part. I really want to be able to do this at home, as evidenced by using it as an excuse to buy three CNC mills, but what frustrated me to the point of losing all enthusiasm was 1: the software for isolation milling is the most unbearably unusable garbage I’ve ever seen, and 2: I couldn’t get the alignment good enough for things to line up, and owing to issue #1 it was too much hassle to keep trying.

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When I first started making my own PCB’s (etching them) back in the 80’s, I bought a bag of vias intended for that purpose. I still had plenty left when I gave up my storage unit with a lot of stuff still in it last year.

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