Final Year Projects: HOW TO MANUFACTURING PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARDS IN HOME A STEP BY STEP GUIDE WITH SCREENSHOT

Hai Friends Here I have share my personal experience about Printed Circuit Board Manufacturing using Ferric Chloride in home. It was a step by step tutorial from design to etching .

Caution: Ferric chloride solution is toxic. It can cause skin burning or irritation. Use hand gloves during etching. Do not spill the ferric chloride on the skin. Use gloves when treating ferric chloride. If this happens accidently, wash with water. Do not keep ferric chloride in places accessible to children. don’t make any play with acid. Do not use any metals with ferric chloride.

The materials needed to manufacturing pcb

1.Copper clad board

2.Ferric chloride

3.PCB drill and bits

4.Photo paper

5 .Permanent Marker

6 .Tinner

7.Plastic Tray

8.Tooth brush

9.Scrubber

10.Household Iron

11.Acid pruf gloves

The Software needed

1.PCB Designing software

Many free software available to download .
I used EXPRESS PCB for pcb design

2.PDF995 Pdf driver or CUTE PDF WRITER

3.Foxit pdf editor

Procedure

Step1. Design the Circuit

Express pcb has two parts. Express Schematic and Express pcb. First draw the Circuit Using Express schematic .Next Open the Express Pcb and Import the schematic of your circuit. After design the pcb save your pcb.

EXPRESS SCHEMATIC SCREENSHOT

EXPRESS PCB SCREENSHOT

Step2.Printing the Pcb on Photo Paper

If your printer was connected to your pc then you can directly print the pcb from express pcb. You don’t need any printer driver .But carefull about printer scaling .Use 1:1 scaling for printing pcb.

If you don’t have your own printer ,then you can print the pcb as pdf file and take it into the printing shop by using pdf printer driver. I Use PDF995 as printer driver . It was freely available in the web.

HOW TO PRINT USING PDF995 PRINTING DRIVER?????

1.Install the pdf995

2.Make PDF995 as your default printer driver.

3.Then simply click the print option whichever you want to print.

4.It will open a pop up window asking you to buy the PDF995 or continue using the sponsored version.

5.click on the continue using the sponsored version.

6.Then it will show an add after that it asking you for the location to save the file.

7.After save the pdf file you can take it to anywhere for printing.

Remember you have to print the pcb as mirror image by changing the pdf995 printer driver setting.

And also you have to adjust the printer scaling to obtain correct size pcb.

Click here to download EXPRESS PCB :

Click here to download PDF995 :

Click here to download CUTE PDF WRITER :

After printing the pcb if you want to edit the pdf file you can use the FOXIT PDF EDITOR.

It was important to edit the pdf file because of the photo paper cost ,after editing you can make 2 or 3 pcb images per page .It makes your pcb cost minimum.

Click here to download FOXIT PDF EDITOR :

STEP3 : Transferring Pcb from Photo Paper To Copper Clad Board

COPPER CLAD BOARD :

This is available in different sizes. Select a suitable size to accommodate all the components. If the copper clad board is large in size, cut it to the required size using a Hacksaw blade. The copper clad board has a copper coated side which forms the soldering side. The other side is the component side on which the components are placed. You can also use fixed size copper boards which are normally 10x15 cm size boards.

On copper clad board fix the pcb printed photo paper by toner facing copper side using cello tape. After that iron the board by using household iron. Set the iron temperature maximum like cotton. Continuously iron the board about 15 to 30 minutes and iron the corners well.

Now take the board and remove the paper. Toner was transferred to the copper clad board. place the board in the water and Clean the board using tooth brush.

Now your design was transferred to copper clad board. In some places tonner Was not transferred well. In that places redraw the lines using permanent marker.

COPPER CLAD BOARD

STEP3: ETCHING USING FERRIC CLORIDE

FERRIC CLORIDE SOLUTION

This is the Etching solution of Ferric chloride. It removes the unwanted copper layers from the copper clad board. The Etching solution can be prepared by dissolving 50 gms Ferric chloride powder in 100 ml water.Take a Plastic or Porcelain tray and place the copper clad board with the track side facing upwards. Carefully pour the Ferric chloride solution over the copper clad till the copper clad immerse in the ferric chloride solution. Keep the tray in sunlight and shake occasionally. Etching will be completed in one to two hours..

After etching, thoroughly clean the copper clad using tap water. This will remove the dissolved copper from the copper laminate except the copper beneath the OHP pen markings.

Then clean the board with tinner to remove excess copper from board.

TONER TRANSFERRED COPPER BOARD

FINAL ETCHED BOARD

DRILLED PCB AFTER ETCHING

STEP4: DRILLING PCB

PCB drill is used to drill holes in the PCB. A hand drill with suitable bits is sufficient for the purpose. Use drill bits of the following size to make holes for different components.

HAND DRILLER

A. 1mm – for IC pins

B. 1.2mm – for Resistor, capacitor, transistor etc.

C. 1.5mm – for diode, LED pins, presets etc.

D. 5mm – for LED, nuts, screws etc.

E. 8mm – for switches, pots etc.