Homebrew PCBs

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Neil Baylis" <neil.baylis@...>
To: <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2006 11:11 PM
Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] Any info about this technique?


>I don't know what this is called, but I assume there are folks making PCBs
> this way:
>
> 1: Coat the copper board with a thin film of lacquer
> 2: Use a laser to selectively burn away the lacquer leaving bare copper
> 3: Etch
>
> Can anyone point me to info about this technique, especially what kind of
> lacquer to use, and an idea of how much laser power would be needed. I've
> noticed that I can get dark materials to smoke with about 100mW of laser
> power. I guess that with the right lacquer, this technique could be done
> with about 1 Watt laser power, which is easy to obtain.
>
> Obviously, the laser would have to be mounted on some kind of x/y plotter
> device.

I tried something like that many years ago for an RF circuit by coating a 
board with paint and scratching away the areas to be etched, something like 
isolation milling. It worked OK. A similar technique was to apply adhesive 
film to a board, cut through the film and remove it where required.

Leon
--
Leon Heller, G1HSM
Suzuki SV1000S motorcycle
leon.heller@...
http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller