Charming Disclosures

Printed circuit boards play a very important role in modern society, and are used in a huge variety of products and components. The circuit board industry developed in the 1960s, where photo chemical milling or etching was used to fabricate the many boards that came into use. Photo chemical milling is also known as photo chemical machining , and has since been used in the fabrication of a number of other parts and components. Printed circuit boards are typically made using the process of etching, with a copper bonding first placed over a substrate. Once an entire copper layer has been added, the unwanted copper is taken away, leaving only the desired copper traces that are used to create connections between different components and parts of the board.

While photo chemical etching is still used in hobbyist and prototype circuit board manufacture, most commercial boards are made using a form of silk screen printing. Silk screen printing uses etch resistant ink that is used to protect the copper foil, with additional etching also used to remove unwanted copper layers from the final design. One other method of silk screen printing used in the modern circuit board industry involves printing conductive ink onto a blank board, a technique that is often used in the production of hybrid circuits. However, while silk screen printing may be the main method used in the commercial circuit board industry, the traditional method of photo etching is still used when fine linewidths are required.

Photo chemical etching is also known as photochemical machining or simply PCM, and is the process of fabricating sheet metal components using photoresist and etchants. In this process, these materials are used to corrosively machine away all of the selected areas. PCM is a highly efficient way to fabricate parts, and has a number of advantages over other methods of machining such as stamping, punching, laser cutting, and electrical discharge machining. While the process of photo chemical milling is not used that much in the fabrication of commercial circuit boards, it still plays a big role in the industry due to its ability to produce complex and intricate circuit board designs. Photo chemical machining is a process that grew out of the circuit board industry, and it will always be associated with the design and production of electrical circuits.