Homemade circuit boards are prone to short circuits due to the exposure of their copper traces, but a maker called Mikey Sklar has come up with a way to resolve the issue, using a fibre laser to add a solder mask and silkscreen to his DIY creations.
The process is started after the board has been etched, and involves rolling on the soldermask, sandwiching the board between layers of transparency film and clear acrylic, and letting it cure under a UV light.
After the solder mask has been applied in two coats, the board is ready for the fibre laser.
The screen and mask layers are loaded into the software and the machine is set to a low power, with the mask layer running four times to ensure the copper is fully exposed.
The end result is circuit boards that look as good as professionally manufactured ones.
