Week 06 — Electronics Production.

Assignments

• Group: characterize in-house PCB design rules; submit a PCB to a board house.
• Individual: make and test an embedded microcontroller board that I designed.

Group assignment (1–3)

We ran a design-rules check for our in-house mill: measured trace/space and clearance using a calibration ruler, then confirmed what reliably cuts on our copper stock with 1/64" and 1/32" tools. In parallel, we exported a reference PCB (Gerbers/NC drill) and submitted it to a board house to compare finish, mask, and solderability.

Individual assignment (4–20)

I tried to mill my own microcontroller board. I failed multiple times—poor Z-zeroing, worn bits, traces peeling during cleaning, and a couple of shorts from copper dust. After re-leveling the sacrificial layer, replacing the 1/64" tool, slowing feed, and increasing clearance in CAM, the board finally milled cleanly. I deburred, checked continuity, then soldered the components and verified power, reset, and USB/UART communication.

Notes

Stable recipe on our mill: 1/64" for traces at shallow DOC, new bit; 1/32" for outline; vacuum+brush mid-cut to reduce shorts; IPA wipe after milling; quick continuity check before soldering.