Methods to make a PCB at home

[Saman]

Introduction
The purpose of this guide is to show how to make PCBs quickly and easily for electronic projects. It covers a variety methods.

Safety
Following this guide will involve the use of chemicals. Both developer solution and etchant are harmful, corrosive chemicals which should be handled with great care and respect. Gloves and goggles are STRONGLY recommended.

What is a PCB?
A PCB, put simply, is a board of insulating material with a thin layer of copper on one side (some are ‘double sided’ but they will not be covered in this guide). Turning this into a circuit board requires transferring a design onto the board and then dissolving the copper not covered by that design ending up with something like this:

Buying a Board
For this guide we will be using cheap ‘Single Sided Copper Clad Board’. If you are using the UV method (see later in guide) then you will require ‘Single Sided Photosensitive Copper Clad Board’ sometimes called ‘Pre-Senstised’ or ‘Photoresist’.

Making a PCB
Step 1: Design
If you already have the ‘PCB artwork’ you can skip this step.
The first step in making your own PCB is to turn the circuit diagram for your project into a PCB design.

The easiest way to do this is to get a program to do it all for you, I prefer EasyPCB or PCB Wizard 3 however if you don’t want to spend anything Eagle can do the job for free!

If you want to make the PCB artwork manually you have a few options but I strongly recommend using the above programs to manually draw out your design if this is the case.

Step 2: Transfer
Now that we have a design for out PCB we need to transfer that design onto our copper clad board. There are several ways to do this, the most popular (in order of simplicity) are:

Etch Resist Pen: This involves drawing your design onto the copper clad board with an ‘etch-resist pen’ (I find the thicker Pilot DR Technical Pens from most stationary stores to be the best at this). When the board is placed in the Etchant (see later in this guide) all the copper apart from that under the pen’s ink will be removed from the board leaving a circuit design. This is a fast and simple method but is only much good for simple circuits.

Sticky Pad Method: This involves using ‘rub-down transfers’ of common PCB track elements (LED pads, IC pads, Tracks, Corners, etc) and sticking them to the copper clad board. When the board is placed in the Etchant (see later in this guide) all the copper apart from that under the ‘rub-down transfer pads’ will be removed from the board leaving a circuit design. This is a simple method that can be used for moderately complex circuits however it is time consuming.

Iron-On Transfer: This involves using a laser printer to print the design onto a special film, if you don’t have a laser printer photocopying the design works well. When you have the design printed on the film simply use an iron to gently transfer the design onto the copper board. After the design has transferred use and etch-resist pen to fill in any gaps in the design. When the board is placed in the Etchant (see later in this guide) all the copper apart from that under the transferred design will be removed from the board leaving a circuit design. This is a quick and easy method that is very accurate.
See Another method to make a PCB at home with iron for this method.

UV Exposure Method: This involves printing a design onto transparency film, placing the film in a UV box (or in some form of strong UV light) underneath a ‘Photosensitive Copper Clad Board’ (make sure you peel of the plastic protective film first) the time needed to expose the board varies but for most UV boxes it is around 5mins. This ‘exposes’ the board leaving your design on it. After the board has been exposed the image of the design on it needs to be ‘developed’ to do this simply immerse the exposed board in ‘Developer Solution’ for a 5 - 30seconds (you will see the design appear stronger on the board) and then rinse. When this board is placed in the Etchant (see later in this guide) all the copper apart from that under the exposed and developed design will be removed from the board leaving a circuit design. This is a great method for mass producing the same PCB and is very accurate however it is much more expensive (equipment, developer, photosensitive board) than the other methods in the short term.
See How to make a nice PCB at home for this method.

Step 3: Etching
The next step is to ‘Etch’ the board which basically means to get rid of all the copper we don’t want leaving our circuit design on the board. There are several types of ‘Etchants’ available at the moment, the cheapest and most common is called ‘Ferric Chloride Solution’ but alternatives are available. A plastic tray is used to hold the etchant and board (most plastic trays will do but specially designed ones are available).

The time you need to leave the board in the etchant varies and is dependant on a number of factors most notably etchant strength and heat. The stronger and hotter the etchant the faster the etching process. I find a good way to speed up the process is by shining a halogen light on the tray, gently heating the solution. Simply keep checking your board at regular intervals, most etchants give a rough time guide on the side of the container. You’ll know when your circuit board is ready when all of the copper around your design has disappeared, as soon as this happens take the board out of the etchant and rinse thoroughly under cold water and then dry.

Step 4: Finishing
Now all that’s left to do is to drill and clean the board. A hobby drill or dremel is perfect for drilling a PCB, a stand is good for more accurate holes but not a requirement. Use a 1mm drill bit for terminal pins and wire holes and a 0.8mm for other components such as IC’s, resistors, LEDs, etc.

After drilling rub the board down with an ‘abrasive block’ or some fine wet sandpaper until the tracks are clean. Your board is now ready for soldering.

Quick Guides
Etch Resist Pen:
1 - Draw design onto single-sided copper-clad board with etch resist pen

2 - Put board in ferric chloride solution until copper around the design has disappeared

3 - Rinse board in cold water

4 - Drill holes in board (1mm for wire, 0.8 for components)

5 - Rub board with abrasive block until copper is shiny


Sticky Pad Method:
1 - Place design onto single-sided copper-clad board with rub-down transfers

2 - Put board in ferric chloride solution until copper around the design has disappeared

3 - Rinse board in cold water

4 - Drill holes in board (1mm for wire, 0.8 for components)

5 - Rub board with abrasive block until pads are removed and copper is shiny


Iron-On Transfer:
1 - Laser-print/photocopy design onto single-sided copper-clad board with ’press-n-peel’ laser transfer film using a warm iron

2 - Put board in ferric chloride solution until copper around the design has disappeared

3 - Rinse board in cold water

4 - Drill holes in board (1mm for wire, 0.8 for components)

5 - Rub board with abrasive block until copper is shiny

See Another method to make a PCB at home with iron.


UV Exposure Method:
1 - Print/photocopy design onto transparency film

2 - Place photosensitive single-sided copper-clad board in UV box (after peeling off protective film) with design for around 5 minutes (depending on UV brightness)

3 - Quickly place board in developer solution for 5 to 30 seconds until design is strong

4 - Put board in ferric chloride solution until copper around the design has disappeared

5 - Rinse board in cold water

6 - Drill holes in board (1mm for wire, 0.8 for components)

7 - Rub board with abrasive block until copper is shiny

See How to make a nice PCB at home for this method.

[RAT16F88]

great great what else to say
Thank you saman I'll start making a PCB soon
please share some of your PCBs If you like

[Saman]

These days I'm not doing any experimental work other than working for my company. Since those designs are commercial, it is not ethical to submit them here. Don't think PCB etching is a big thing though. The most important thing is the design. If you can use the right software for that, PCB etching is just the simplest part.

[Kevin]

Find a good PCB design software at https://robot.lk/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=2100

[RAT16F88]

These days I'm not doing any experimental work other than working for my company. Since those designs are commercial, it is not ethical to submit them here. Don't think PCB etching is a big thing though. The most important thing is the design. If you can use the right software for that, PCB etching is just the simplest part.

WOW. cn I see any of Your works plaese

[RAT16F88]

Find a good PCB design software at https://robot.lk/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=2100

Thanks thats really helpful