For the enterprising hobbyist and prototyping hardware developer, generating custom PCBs remains rather of a struggle. Though there are a quantity of methods to go about this, they generally involve printing or drawing a mask that is used to expose the photoresist layer on the to-be-etched PCB. Right here [Andrew Dickinson]’s Photonic Etcher task provides an intriguing shortcut, by making use of the UV resource of an MSLA 3D printer specifically after changing the project’s Gerber documents into a structure the MSLA printer can work with.
The principle is as basic as can be: considering that MSLA printers primarily functionality by building a dynamically up to date UV mask (both by using an Liquid crystal display panel or DLP procedure), this suggests that an MSLA printer can be utilized to expose the PCB’s UV-sensitive photoresistive coating, efficiently earning the mask there insoluble during the etching action. This can be completed with destructive as effectively as good photoresistive coatings, dependent on the use situation.
The noticeable edge of this method is that you never need an added UV supply or any variety of separate mask, only an MSLA printer with a big more than enough work spot to fit the PCB you want to expose. A person limitation of [Andrew]’s challenge at this level is that it can only convert Gerbers to PWMS (Photon Mono) documents, but this can presumably be reasonably quickly extended to assistance additional MSLA printers.
