Printed Circuit Board Fabrication Laboratory
652 FPAT
Printed circuit boards (PCBs) can be etched or milled in the PCB Lab using the Kepro bath system or the MITS milling machine. Single and double sided boards can be patterned, through holes drilled and eventually, through hole plating will be available with the addition of a PBX plating bath.
Etched PCBs
Original artwork should be generated using layout software such as EAGLE resulting in a black and white printout of the copper areas at a 1:1 scale. The printout is photocopied onto a transparency (positive) and used to create a negative mask on the reversing film. The pre-sensitized photoresist coated PCB is exposed through the negative mask, developed and etched to produce the desired copper interconnect pattern. After stripping the photoresist, the copper is coated with immersion tin. Finally the through holes are drilled, components inserted and hand soldered. Surface mount components can be attached with solder paste in the Electronic Assembly Lab in CRMS 010.
Milled PCBs
Layout designs are converted to milling patterns in the MITS software. Line widths and spacing widths must be defined and corresponding end mill or pointed mill tools must be selected. Through holes are also drilled by the milling machine. The MITS system has just recently been setup and the plating bath has not arrived yet. More complete instructions will be available soon.