Laser Etching PCB Artwork - I
Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 1:58 pm
Recently there was an interesting Hack-A-Day blog post with someone building a specialised X-Y motorised PCB plotter platform: http://hackaday.com/2016/08/31/the-evolution-of-a-diy-circuit-board-plotter/ It's a great series on the iterative project build.
Initially I wondered if I could add a pen onto my laser cutter, but Stephen suggested I try laser etching PCB's directly. My first go was laser etching my version of Stephens KiCAD Battery charger board:
Above, some of the tracks connecting the central IC are down to 9.8mil (0.25mm). They didn't come out too well, so i thought it would be time to do a track size calibration test PCB. This is the simple circuit I used:
I then laser etched the above circuit 6 times using different speeds and laser power. Here is the over all board (first 5 and some other tests) before it was cleaned:
and the same board once it's been cleaned with Methylated Spirits:
They kind of all look the same, so lets zoom in to view just a few of the 15mil (0.38mm) tracks.
Here is a 50mm/sec at 40% power ~ 9mA:
100mm/sec at 20% power - 4.5mA:
just as a reference, here is the same speed and power, but of a horizontal etch:
just to see how it went I upped the speed to 200mm/sec at 40% power. You can see the individual laser cuts as it swung back and forth:
The best seemed to be 100mm/Sec at 20% power. This took 2min. 45 Sec. to etch the paint off a 33mm x 59mm area:
I noticed that one trial of 50mm/sec at 40% power the laser would actually burn up the laser dust, giving a sparkler effect as it progressed:
Initially I wondered if I could add a pen onto my laser cutter, but Stephen suggested I try laser etching PCB's directly. My first go was laser etching my version of Stephens KiCAD Battery charger board:
Above, some of the tracks connecting the central IC are down to 9.8mil (0.25mm). They didn't come out too well, so i thought it would be time to do a track size calibration test PCB. This is the simple circuit I used:
I then laser etched the above circuit 6 times using different speeds and laser power. Here is the over all board (first 5 and some other tests) before it was cleaned:
and the same board once it's been cleaned with Methylated Spirits:
They kind of all look the same, so lets zoom in to view just a few of the 15mil (0.38mm) tracks.
Here is a 50mm/sec at 40% power ~ 9mA:
100mm/sec at 20% power - 4.5mA:
just as a reference, here is the same speed and power, but of a horizontal etch:
just to see how it went I upped the speed to 200mm/sec at 40% power. You can see the individual laser cuts as it swung back and forth:
The best seemed to be 100mm/Sec at 20% power. This took 2min. 45 Sec. to etch the paint off a 33mm x 59mm area:
I noticed that one trial of 50mm/sec at 40% power the laser would actually burn up the laser dust, giving a sparkler effect as it progressed: