| dc.description.abstract | There are multiple methods of manufacturing printed circuit boards (PCB). The
approach used by electronic enthusiasts is ironing the circuit from the glossy paper
onto the copper plate (the homemade method). Industrial PCB manufacturers use
laser cutting or computerized numerical control milling to cut the pathways, thus
etching the circuit on the board. The former is time-consuming and the latter carries
the risk of damaging the board during the manufacturing process, in addition to
several other drawbacks. The approach that is presented in this paper avoids these
disadvantages. In the proposed method, a polyvinyl chloride sticker is pasted on the
copper board and unwanted sections of the sticker are removed by using laser
cutting. Subsequently, the copper board with the sticker is immersed in a ferric
chloride solution, washed off and the remaining parts of the sticker are removed.
The advantages of this approach are the capability of accurately obtaining fine
tracks (of 30 mil in width) and being comparatively less time-consuming than other
methods used by electronics enthusiasts. In this paper, the procedure for making a
PCB with the proposed method is laid out. Then, the function and design of a lowpower laser cutter to accomplish the former is discussed. | en_US |
