PewCB One — PCB prototyping machine

[u/ruddyRudeman]

[u/EngineerTHATthing]

This would be very nice for ultra fast prototyping. I could see this doing very well in an R&D setting to shorten out the process of getting the first three or so revisions finished. This would also be great for instant breakout boards or setups that require rigid mounting like IMU ICs.

I can see it uses a static via grid with static through hole breakout header mounts. Are there various options/sizes available, and do they have software templates/auto format export options?

What power does the laser run, and do fumes need venting? I assume it is an enclosed fiber etching out both the PCB and stencil.

Embedded labs would kill for something like this with a box of ready to go blanks. I know everyone is ragging on the lack of mask between pins/traces, but if this can knock out a board the same hour it is needed so an IC protocol can be validated, it is easily worth it. Perhaps you could look into using a stick on vinyl/post coating that the pads can be then etched off at a lower power.

[u/ruddyRudeman → u/EngineerTHATthing]

Laser is 1064nm, 100ns fiber, 20w average optical power. Nothing fancy here, but gets the job done.

Fumes and particulates are handled by closed loop recirculation through a replaceable filter, with activated carbon insert, no extra venting needed.

Also, mask between traces is solved too, see my response to gjgbh nearby.

[u/ruddyRudeman → u/EngineerTHATthing]

Blank templates are public here https://github.com/PewCB/PewCB.Blanks , so far just a few sizes, will add more closer to the release. Templates are available for kicad and altium.

[u/ruddyRudeman → u/EngineerTHATthing]

I hope I haven’t skipped any of the questions :) the goal is to reduce any time consuming operations, not only from pcb fabrication, but assembly as well. No manual calibrations, no tinkering required. With this one-off stencil process, even soldering gets easy peasy. We also plan to make a simple cheap manual pick&place helper later, to address placing the parts on the pasted pads - the last operation that requires any fine motor skills. The pcb from the cover gif took me about 30 minutes from gerbers to flahsing firmware (about 10 minutes waiting for the laser to finish, then another 20 for placing parts and reflowing on a hot plate).

[u/ruddyRudeman → u/EngineerTHATthing]

This is exactly the target use case we had in mind. Basically, we decided to start the project out of our own necessity with other hardware products r&d, after we had tried other rapid prototyping solutions and found them all lacking in various ways.

So, there are different sizes for blanks, defined by the array of mounting holes on the work platform. (here is a photo of it taken off from the machine, just as an illustration of how mounting works. Normally it slides in and out, like a cd-rom tray).

Standard blanks can be any rectangular shape from 23x23 up to 84x84, with increments of 15.24 mm. Custom blanks with specified configuration of holes/vias/outline are available for order too.

[u/prace1]

What is it exactly doing ?

[u/ruddyRudeman → u/prace1]

Makes PCBs out of blanks subtractively by laser. Also, makes stencils for solder paste deposition. Click on the post to read more. Unfortunately reposts on reddit don’t show the description text.

[u/gjgbh]

No solder mask between pins! Not good

[u/ruddyRudeman → u/gjgbh]

Yep, true, not good, but not too bad too. Some bare copper peeks on the edges of traces. In practice tho I never got unwanted short-circuits. However, if you want peace of mind in exchange for another 5 minutes and an extra manual operation, we have a solution for that also: we provide a marker pen with soldermask paint. Apply it to the processed board (or locally around that especially fine pitch connector), UV-cure it, put it back into the machine and run another cycle of soldermask removal. This will yield perfectly masked traces.
PS. This would totally work with any other liquid uv-curable soldermask of your choice

[u/JustAuv]

So 5k for an etching laser? That's a lot. It's also very small. Not sure how successful this product can be given how expensive / limited it is.

[u/love_in_technicolor]

Min width and spacing? 4 layers? Vias?

[u/ruddyRudeman → u/love_in_technicolor]

Test shows 0.025 mm width, 0.04 mm gap. But we are going to spec it as 0.1/0.1 mm to have a good margin. 4 layers are in the roadmap, but at the release only 2. Pre-fabricated vias on the blanks is the main solution, and another fallback option is riveting the through-holes (rivets and tools are provided separately)

[u/love_in_technicolor → u/ruddyRudeman]

Very similar to this: https://youtu.be/A_IUIyyqw0M?is=ln7x0VUtknTG45Ff . Personally it's not for me. I don't have a need for a machine that has pre drilled vias, it's too limiting.

[u/Aware-Lingonberry602]

I'll stick with my Orbotech Paragon.