I’ve decided to investigate an improved process for making PCBs.

Drilling boards by hand is time consuming and inaccurate, even with my optical drill guide.  The automated solution is a CNC Mill.  This has the added advantage that the board can be drilled before tracks are etched which will facilitate through-hole plating.  A mill can also be used for board routing, and even a small hobby mill should be capable of 3D milling soft materials such as plastic and aluminium (some bonus functionality).  I’ve recently moved thee CNC mill page to a higher site level because it is really a project in its own right.

I want to incorporate through hole plating in the refined process.  While this requires additional chemical processes it does away with the need for layer links (currently made with snap pins or micro copper rivets) which require placement and soldering, and consume board space.

If I’m going to be getting a CNC mill then I may as well investigate direct laser exposure of the board photosensitive resists.  This will allow me to use either pre-sensitized boards or dry film resists which are a lot more cost effective than pre-sensitized boards and allow re-use of laminates in the event of exposure failures.  Direct laser exposure should do away with the producing and aligning film artwork, which is always a challenge with laser prints on film due to toner density and film distortion.

Applying dry film resists requires a robust heated laminator, so best I add this to my shopping list.

The new process is going to take some time to sort out and test, but I am making steady progress.  Click on the links at the left to see how stuff is progressing...