Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Homebrew PCBs

Jeff,

You can get a translation of the portion of the page that is in German by going to translate.google.com.  Set it to detect the language, and copy and paste the original text into the left hand box.  The translate to language should be default to English.  The translation, complete with funny grammar, will magically appear in the right hand box.  There are also links to schematics, layouts, and software.  You can also get translation of the single words that are sprinkled into the first section by pasting those words in a similar manner

Harvey

 

The www.das-labor.org/wiki/LaserExposer project is very neat.  The good stuff is in the second half.  I wish the page was all English so I could read it.

    

 

From: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2014 7:05 AM
To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: DLP for imaging photoresist

 

 

Hello all,
DLP imageing systems are a reality in the PCB manufacturing industry. Several companies do offer such systems: usually they have one or several heads mounted on a CNC machine, and they synchronize motion control & DLP control to achieve the right insolation of the photoresist. It allows a much higher throughput than LDI systems, even those who use several heads, and is more and more a good option for midvolume production. It also allows an arbitrarily high resolution compared to a static DLP projector, which has a very limited number of pixels, so you have to choose how to use those pixels, and thus between resolution & dimension of your PCB.

I've seen such machines at www.productronica.com in Munich ; I could try to find the references if some of you are interested.

Needless to say, those systems are very expensive, and not so easy to design ;)

I'd rather check the conference http://ehsm.eu/ and the talk about http://pcbwriter.github.io/ to see how well this thing works. There are other OSHW projects intended at PCB fabrication, but I'm quite curious to see if one will end up being really useful and powerful.
C.

 

On Thu, Jun 19, 2014 at 2:16 AM, stan_katz@... [Homebrew_PCBs] <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

This technology was reported for student use at Pomona College back in 2005:

 

https://www.physics.rutgers.edu/ugrad/387/388s06/film_deposition/Musgraves05.pdf

 

The cost of the setup was in excess of $5000 due to the use of a consumer grade DLP projector (which are still pricey) and a lab grade trinocular microscope.  The article claims even an ordinary stereo microscope can be used for less demanding applications. I haven't taken a look, but I'll bet the name(s) of one or more of the principals presenting the above paper are on one or more patents that are held by Maskless Lithography Corporation.

 

I hope there are talented folks in this group who might start thinking about putting together a DLP system on a hobbyist's budget. Up until now, the only hobby systems, presented in this group, not requiring some sort of mask, e.g led/laser flat or cylinder photoplotters have been built by individuals with machine shops at home.