If you’ve ever wondered how PCBs are made (and why it’s probably not a fun business to be in), you might find these photos interesting showing the different steps of PCB manufacturing from drilling to curing the solder mask. Read more.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Adafruit is on Mastodon, join in! adafruit.com/mastodon
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!
Join over 36,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord
CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org
Maker Business — Philips, an electronics giant, has faded from its former glory
Wearables — You’re a gem
Electronics — Copper keepout!
Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: 100 CircuitPython Community Libraries, a New Arduino UNO and much more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
Adafruit IoT Monthly — Boxing Glove Tracker, Disconnecting Smart Appliances, and more!
Microsoft MakeCode — MakeCode Thank You!
EYE on NPI — Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — New Products 3/31/2023 Featuring Adafruit Feather RP2040 RFM69 Packet Radio – 868 or 915MHz – RadioFruit and STEMMA QT! (Video)
Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !
4 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
For me, the least fun step was the one not shown. We used to etch boards with liquid ferrick chloride, which would stain any and everything it got onto. Once that was done we’d wash and scrub the boards in preparation for tin stripping.
And ferric shouldn’t have a k, but I can’t find an edit/delete.
There are a couple of interesting summaries of PCB fabrication out there. This one at thinktink covers a semi-pro process; the sort of thing a general electronics manufacturer might do to have an in-house PCB capability without being a full-scale PCB manufacturer: http://www.thinktink.com/faqs/pcbshop/pcbproguid.htm
And this one at pcbexpress seems to be more typical of the bulk PCB shop: http://pcbexpress.com/technical/tutorial.php
One of the main differences is that the PCB shops apparently use a rather nasty ammonia-based etching process where the tin plating of the traces serves as the resist against the etching.
BTW, it seems that nearly any of the common etchants will do nasty things to any nearby metal, especially if you’re using some sort of bubbler for agitation (and consequently throwing little drops of chemicals into the air.) Stainless steel sinks become less than stainless, chrome plating peels off of sink fixtures, etc… 🙁