×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

3D PCB

3D PCB

(OP)
Is there a service that could make a Printed Circuit board in 3 dimensions? Testing a concept. Can get flexible PCB and put on a fiberglass structure, but would prefer the PCB itself shaped.

thx,

RE: 3D PCB

I can't say I fully understand what you mean by a PCB in 3 dimensions.  Are you trying to see the internal structures of the PCB?  You could ask you PCB manufacturer to make one and not laminate it so that you can have the it as layers of fiberglass with copper.
 

RE: 3D PCB

Find a shop to make your 3d fiberglass structure, then take it to a plating house, and have them plate desired copper layer thickness.  You might want to talk to the plating shop first, to show them what your proposed shape looks like - plating thickness will vary if you have blind cavities or sharp corners, etc.  Masking will be the next big problem, probably solvable with a little ingenuity; photo masking techniques will probably work provided you can live with a little variation in trace widths.  Etching will be fairly straightforward, with similar cautions taken as with plating, ie. regarding cavitites and sharp corners.  

Populating such a thing?  Note that surface mount components (i.e. the majority of what is available in silicon these days) won't like being made to bend...

And if all of the above is useless to you, maybe next time you could provide just a _bit_ more information.

RE: 3D PCB

I think it was commercialized >30 years ago.
ISTR copper electroplated on injection molded polycarbonate or polysulfone.
At that time, all components were through-hole, so soldering had to be done by hand, or connections had to be mechanical.
ISTR that I found such a circuit in a cheap Polaroid camera, but I'm not really sure.
Folded flex circuits seem more common now, I'm guessing because soldering in the flat is easier, and the tooling to plate a circuit onto a 3D object is expensive, and flex circuit connectors are mature and reliable.


 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: 3D PCB

Depending on how 3D bend you need, Hot PCBs [like directly out of flow solder] are almost as limp as a wet noodle and can easily be bent into a curve that will hold when the board cools.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources