Hi all,
maybe a simpler/DIY MID-proces ( [
www.lasermicronics.com] ) is a good way for home-making PCB's and some other sophisticated parts by laser-activating and galvanic metallizing the surface?
For this you extrude a plastic (possible with ceramic too) doped with some non-conducting metall-organic particles.
By heating with an IR-laser (maybe from salvaged DVD-drives with 200 millWatts, or for higher power: i found a 8Watt-laserdiode with attaches glass-fiber for 300Euros) you crack the embedded particles, so they went conductive.
Then you put the part in a galvanic bath and pure metall grows on the activated/drawed areas, so you receive real metallic trays as needed for PCB's.
Another point is the 3D-possibility of the process - you can activate a complex 3dimensional surface as easy as a plain sheet, so it's no problem to place conducting tracks or wider areas on curved or uneven surfaces.
With repeating this process with fabbing, activating and galvano-enhancing you can make traces, through-vias or multilayer-PCB's with a reprap and attached laserdiode-head ...
Viktor
