PLC, PC-Control
Chris
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http://www.taylor.com/press/_news.htm... Ford Motor Company knows the way
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Chris
Bart Scott
I don't know what this technology is called, but it is really nice and
I would like to know more about it.
Most of you have probably seen it. It's a way of constructing a
printed circuit on something like photographic film. It's very
pliable, lightweight, and extremely thin.
Anybody got any information on where to get supplies and directions for
making these types of printed circuits? I can see they would come in
very handy for robotics.
Bart
gilad Barak
Basically thgis is called "flex" technology. The substrate is polyamide,
the conductors are copper. The manufacturing process is similar to
regular PCB with handling procedures being the main difference. There
are shops that specialize in this technology, but many PCB manufactures
can do both.
Except for bare chip bonding, I don't recall seeing it used for holding
the components. They are used mostly where flexible conductors are
needed, either because they are attached to a moving circuit (example -
print heads) or where the geometry for the PCB should be 3 dimensional
(example - electronics inside the tight limits of a camera), for the
latter example where the PCB has to be bent into shape only once there
is also a technology called "rigid flex" . flexes typically go into a
rigid PCB where the components reside, either via connector or "hard"
connection during the manufacturing process.
I guess, if you can get the raw material you will be able to make a PCB
out of it the same way as a regular PCB, but I dont think it will be
very useful because you will not be able to mount components on it
(maybe SMT will work). For conductors that are attached to a moving
circuit you'd be better off with a cable inside a plastic link chain.
Gilad
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Gilad Barak - Orbotech Ltd. Yavne - Israel
gil...@Orbotech.Co.Il
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Bart Scott
In <34E193...@orbotech.co.il> gilad Barak <gil...@orbotech.co.il>
writes:
>Bart Scott wrote:
>>
>> I don't know what this technology is called,
>Basically thgis is called "flex" technology.
Thanks.
>where the geometry for the PCB should be 3 dimensional
>(example - electronics inside the tight limits of a camera), for the
>latter example where the PCB has to be bent into shape only once there
>is also a technology called "rigid flex"
That too. If the PCB has to fit into an oddball shape - that's what
I'm talking about.
>I dont think it will be
>very useful because you will not be able to mount components on it
>(maybe SMT will work).
Any web sites you recommend for homebrew SMT work? Where would one
find such a teeny tiny little soldering iron? ;-)
Bart
gilad Barak
Bart Scott wrote:
>
><snip>
> Any web sites you recommend for homebrew SMT work? Where would one
> find such a teeny tiny little soldering iron? ;-)
>
> Bart
Try asking on alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt. This issue has been discussed
there several times.
As far as I remember, odd as it may sound, for home use it is better to
do this with a wide tip. You spray flux on the tabs, tin your soldering
tip, place the chip and pass the head over it's legs. The small amount
of solder on the tip is drawn by the flux to the legs and tabs.
Onat Ahmet
In Bart Scott's opinion;
: In <34E193...@orbotech.co.il> gilad Barak <gil...@orbotech.co.il>
: writes:
: >Basically thgis is called "flex" technology.
......
: >I dont think it will be
: >very useful because you will not be able to mount components on it
: >(maybe SMT will work).
:
: Any web sites you recommend for homebrew SMT work? Where would one
: find such a teeny tiny little soldering iron? ;-)
:
: Bart
:
Hi;
I have seen two types of flexible PCBs, one is the conductor-deposited-
on-plastic (which you can forget about solering, since it is not made
for that), and the other is the "orange" copper-over-film type. This
can be etched, drilled, and components soldered much like normal PCBs,
except being cautious about over heating it. Many hard disk drives etc
used this with DIP ICs too.
BTW, to solder SOP SMD packages, you can build a thin solderin iron tip
out of 1-2mm copper wire. It works nicely. Keep the length about 1-2cm
from the iron. I have used 30W irons with no problem.
| Ahmet ONAT Kyoto Univ. Japan |
| E-mail : on...@kuee.kyoto-u.ac.jp |
| WWW page : http://turbine.kuee.kyoto-u.ac.jp/staff/onat.html |
| My 6 leg walker, RC airplanes & more in home page |
Land mines kill civilians in peacetime! Support total ban.
Randy Gardner
Onat Ahmet wrote:
> I have seen two types of flexible PCBs, one is the conductor-deposited-
> on-plastic (which you can forget about solering, since it is not made
> for that), and the other is the "orange" copper-over-film type. This
> can be etched, drilled, and components soldered much like normal PCBs,
> except being cautious about over heating it. Many hard disk drives etc
> used this with DIP ICs too.
About two months ago I choped up a really old hd, in it they had those
flexable cables, the type used for print heads, going to the pickup
heads. To minimize length, they actually had 10 or so chips soldered
directly on the side of the cable, in a place where it didn't bend.
Looking at it now, it has 4 (Actually, to be more precise, the peices
I found totalled 4, I can't find most of it) surface mount ICs
(MB4133 8405 E29, manufactor's logo: F with a line above and below,
if anybody wants to know what they were) and 3 resistors. (or caps,
kinda hard to tell)
Three of them are surface mounted directly on top of the cable, the
other one is mounted by haveing a hole in the cable, and soldering
the leads to the bottom, with the chip pokeing through. The resistors/
caps are soldered the same as on a normal board. (Holes with pads
on the back, the parts pushed through and soldered)
I guess they did this because they had over 1.5 feet of flex stuff
before the board and the heads, and they wanted to have some buffers
before the long cable. These chips are right after the actuall
pickup heads.
If you want to know more about the drive, I belive it was made by
MEkTRON, size arround 10mb, height 3ft, weight 80 pounds, PS size:
750w........ (No typos)
--
--ran...@slip.net (Randy Gardner)
--http://www.slip.net/~randyg/index.htm - *New* Download a maze
program that lets you actually walk *inside* the maze!!
Mark A. Pals
bart...@ix.netcom.com(Bart Scott) wrote:
>In <34E193...@orbotech.co.il> gilad Barak <gil...@orbotech.co.il>
>writes:
>>
>>Bart Scott wrote:
>>>
>>> I don't know what this technology is called,
>>Basically thgis is called "flex" technology.
>Thanks.
>>where the geometry for the PCB should be 3 dimensional
>>(example - electronics inside the tight limits of a camera), for the
>>latter example where the PCB has to be bent into shape only once there
>>is also a technology called "rigid flex"
>That too. If the PCB has to fit into an oddball shape - that's what
>I'm talking about.
>>I dont think it will be
>>very useful because you will not be able to mount components on it
>>(maybe SMT will work).
>Any web sites you recommend for homebrew SMT work? Where would one
>find such a teeny tiny little soldering iron? ;-)
>Bart
Those can be found at the stores of Conrad Electronics in Germany.....
Greetz
Mark