1 mil or 25 um trace width

Can anyone in this world produce such small PCB/PWB trace widths? Lots of theory so far, but have not found anyone yet who can do it in practice.

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| Can anyone in this world produce such small PCB/PWB trace widths? Lots of theory so far, but have not found anyone yet who can do it in practice.

If anyone can it will be IBM. Call Voya Markovitch at 607-757-1335 (Endicott, NY). He is a technical guru in the circuit board area.

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| Can anyone in this world produce such small PCB/PWB trace widths? Lots of theory so far, but have not found anyone yet who can do it in practice. | Daniel: 2 mil lines with 3 mil spaces are pretty technical. Good luck. Dave F

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| Can anyone in this world produce such small PCB/PWB trace widths? Lots of theory so far, but have not found anyone yet who can do it in practice. |

Dan,

I have seen boards with 3 mil pitch (that is 1.5 mil trace and 1.5 mil spacing) in quantity production. I assume 1 mil trace is not going to be just theory for long.

Cunli

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| Can anyone in this world produce such small PCB/PWB trace widths? Lots of theory so far, but have not found anyone yet who can do it in practice.

Hi Daniel!

I attended this years IPC Printed Circuits Expo down in Long Beach, and witnessed a live demonstration along with many others of a LDI (Laser Direct Imaging) system that had imaged a copper laminate, developed it, and then etched it all within about 15-20 minutes with 1-mil lines and spaces.

Just to prove that this wasn't a set-up, they also asked someone in the audience to hand them their business card and then they proceeded to image and etch the name of the person on the business card into the laminate so that the characters were only 4-mils tall! Needless to say, I was very impressed! They say they can go down to a half a mil!! Now THAT'S TEENY TINY!!

The company is an Israeli company named Creo. The unique thing about their LDI system is that the beam pattern is square instead of round as most LDI lasers are, so there's no overlap when imaging a solid line as a round pattern requires...that's where you lose your resolution.

I've put the link below, go check it out, they've got some picture of their booth at the show, some other images of the equipment that they make, and some technical discussions about how they do what they do. It's not just talk with them! I seen it with my own two eyes!

-Steve Gregory-

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| Can anyone in this world produce such small PCB/PWB trace widths? Lots of theory so far, but have not found anyone yet who can do it in practice.

Hi Daniel!

I attended this years IPC Printed Circuits Expo down in Long Beach, and witnessed a live demonstration along with many others of a LDI (Laser Direct Imaging) system that had imaged a copper laminate, developed it, and then etched it all within about 15-20 minutes with 1-mil lines and spaces.

Just to prove that this wasn't a set-up, they also asked someone in the audience to hand them their business card and then they proceeded to image and etch the name of the person on the business card into the laminate so that the characters were only 4-mils tall! Needless to say, I was very impressed! They say they can go down to a half a mil!! Now THAT'S TEENY TINY!!

The company is an Israeli company named Creo. The unique thing about their LDI system is that the beam pattern is square instead of round as most LDI lasers are, so there's no overlap when imaging a solid line as a round pattern requires...that's where you lose your resolution.

I've put the link below, go check it out, they've got some picture of their booth at the show, some other images of the equipment that they make, and some technical discussions about how they do what they do. It's not just talk with them! I seen it with my own two eyes!

-Steve Gregory-

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