Conductive ink & Soldering for Prototype PCBs
PCBs form the basic building block of the Electronics. Today, we address two important elements of Prototype PCB making which are laying the track and soldering. 3D PCB Printers have given adequate convenience to the makers of Prototypes PCBs in terms of efficiency, time to market and protecting their intellectual property.
Everything is getting smaller, faster, and more complex. Consequently, the job of incorporating these attributes on a functional PCB is put on the shoulders of the Prototype guys and the Product development firms.
Conductive ink for PCB design is basically a type of ink that contains an infusion of conductive materials like copper, silver or gold. Conductive ink printing allows PCBs to be created in an additive manner, with the dielectrics created before the layer of conductive ink is added on. This is very different from the conventional method of PCB manufacturing in which copper layers are etched away in a subtractive process.
It requires a 3-dimensional data of your PCB design before the prototype can be printed out. 3D PCB Printer manufacturers would normally be responsible for providing the software for converting 2D files into 3D formats. As for 2D files, they normally take the form of Gerber format.
Reference : Altium, https://resources.altium.com/pcb-design-blog/what-pcb-designers-need-to-know-about-conductive-ink-printing-with-3d-printers
Tracks created by laying conductive ink are used to interconnect components. Track width is expressed in thousandth of an inch (mils) or in millimeters (mm). Tracks can be of varying thickness, and often a PCB will have different widths for different tracks. The fatter the track, the more current it can carry. The thinner the track, the easier it is to fit more tracks in a given space, therefore, the easier it is to route the PCB.
The Voltera V-One gets you from prototype to production faster than ever before. V-One uses an additive approach to create circuit boards. Ink is dispensed precisely where it is needed without any waste.
Our ink is over 90% silver and has excellent electrical properties, perfect for digital and low power applications. Even high frequency applications up to 5 GHz are possible. The second generation flexible conductive ink allows for higher conductivity, better printing resolution, improved bending performance, and more robust soldering — all the ingredients required to print your own flexible circuits.
Tracks with varying thickness can be printed with V - one. Upload your gerber file of the track in Voltera software and see it print right in front of your eyes.
Soldering and Re-flowing of the components is the most challenging part of PCB making.
Solder paste is a mixture of minute solder spheres held within a specialized form of solder flux. As the name indicates it has the texture of a paste.
The fact that it is a paste means that it can be easily applied to the board during PCB assembly.
The solder particles are a mixture of solder. Traditionally this used to be tin and lead, but with the legislation has been introduced around the world, to only use lead free solders. These may be made from a variety of mixtures. One is 99.7% tin and 0.3% copper, whereas there are other mixtures that include other metals including tin.
There are various grades of solder paste and the required type can be selected to fit in with the PCB assembly process used. The solder paste is graded according to the size of the small solder balls. As they cannot be exactly graded, the different types have a band of solder ball sizes between which 80% of the minute solder balls fall.
A lot of issues arise while making a Prototype PCB. Some of the general issues that arise during this process have been listed :
- Poor manufacturing is a common problem with PCBs. You’ll notice this problem as a result of loose components, connection troubles, and residual flux or a bad solder.
- Poor soldering can cause many issues in a PCB. Cold soldering happens when the technician doesn’t properly heat the solder. Moisture can also contaminate the solder, resulting in connection issues and the potential of components burning.
- Some environmental factors like the temperature changes, elements may expand or contract, which could warp and damage the board and soldering joints.
This issues have been minimized by V -one PCB Printer where the dispenser releases the solder paste at the desired temperature with required size of solder pads.. Heating and dispensing the solder paste on the surface with precision can be tedious but also a process that can’t be compromised with.
A single cartridge of V- one can print 85 simple circuits. That means 85 unique designs with no lead time. On the other hand, You don’t have to use conductive adhesives or glue to secure your components. Our ink is fully hand solderable with our provided solder wire alloy. Once the ink is printed and cured, you can place your components on and start building! Soldering BGA components by hand is out of the question. Take the guesswork out of the equation and use the V-One. The amount of paste dispensed can be adjusted on the fly with a touch of a button. Pads can be as small as 0402 and IC’s can have a pitch of 0.5 mm
Printing conductive ink and soldering components on your prototype PCBs has been simplified by Voltera V-one PCB Printer.
Addressing all the prototyping guys and product development firms, we understand you. And we want to make your job easier. We know the time and effort and patience that it takes to make this tiny electronic toy which is functional, cost effective, competent and viable. Voltera has built V-one PCB Printer exclusively to serve this need of yours.
Stay tuned for more on Prototype PCB Printers.
Check Voltera V — one out on our website evnzee.in.
