Re: PCBs on glass

On Sat, 6 Jan 2007 12:48:05 +1100, "Michael Brown"
<see@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Possibly slightly odd question here - I'd like to use glass (as in the stuff
you have in windows, not fibreglass) as a PCB substrate, approximately A5
(210x150 mm) sized. As far as I can see, there's three options. The first is
to stick some copper foil on, the second option would be to evaporate copper
onto the glass, and the final option would be to use electrolysis.
Afterwards I'd do the usual photoresist/etch steps to get a PCB. I can't
seem to find much information at all on any of these. The main things I'm
looking for are surface preparation tips, and things to avoid due to them
reacting badly with the photoresist.

One thing that makes it slightly more complicated is that the glass must
remain transparent (outside of the tracks). Roughing the surface will
probably be OK as I'm going to be using an optical epoxy to sandwich the PCB
side (with SMT components) to another piece of glass, but I don't want the
copper to bleed into the glass (which would presumably result in a green
tint).

Any tips/links appreciated, or if anyone knows where pre-coated glass can be
obtained from in Australia let me know.

Could you use transparent flex pc boards? That's a very common thing.
They even come with peel-off adhesive, so you could just slap it down
on the other piece of glass. Multilayers with vias are standard.

John



.

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