Turn Out 0.1-mm Pitch PCBs In 30 Minutes
If you happen to have access to a 20-Watt fiber laser, know how to use it and are willing to spare some time for the initial set up you can crank out very clean looking PCBs quickly. There are some limitations, as you can only make one sided PCBs and any pass through holes you might make would be a problem, as they won’t work and suggest your laser spent a bit too much time in a single place. That may change in the future, or if you are able to creatively connect through to a second PCB. On the other hand, that still leaves you a lot of creative leeway and means you can skip the etching process altogether.
The setup will take a while, it involves designing your layout with FlatCAM, which you would then import into EZCAD which would control the laser. Once you have cut the traces, you would coat the board in UV-curable solder resist and then use the laser to expose the pads you choose. The laser is also able to cut out the PCB once your project is complete, leaving you with a very good looking custom PCB for your projects.
Take a peek over at Hackaday if that is something you might want to try.
Once the traces are cut, UV-curable solder resist is applied to the whole board. After curing, the board goes back to the laser for another pass to expose the pads. A final few passes with the laser turned up to 11 cuts the finished board free.
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