Electronics > PCB/EDA/CAD
History and "Design" aspect of PCB
nomis:
Hi all.
I am currently working on a talk about the "Design" aspect of PCBs and how the tools used to design a PCB affect their appearance - with a slight focus on Fonts. It will be presented at the Libre Graphics Meeting, the annual conference on free software graphics tools (Gimp, Inkscape, Blender etc.) being held in Leipzig, Germany this year.
Unfortunately I did not yet find any photos that show how PCBs were designed/made before the appearance of CAD as well as in the early days of CAD design.
I would like to pick your minds and photo archives - can you make photos available to me that e.g. show an early Gerber plotter? Early PCB manufacturing? PCB that really show influences made by the tool used to design them?
Also I'd like to showcase that the "design" aspect is important. So if you have any examples for a PCB that impress you on a artistic level, where the designer has gone the extra mile to make it beautiful I'd appreciate photos or references.
If you can provide the photos under a creative commons lice that'd be great, but it is not strictly necessary.
Thanks for your input.
Bye,
Simon (simon@gimp.org)
sync:
An old movie from Tektronix about PCB design and production.
http://www.vintagetek.org/tektronix-printed-circuit-boards-1969/
Bloch:
That a great link.
I have read and heard about how it was done i the good old days.
But a video is much better to understand how much easier it is today.
EEVblog:
Bishop Graphics tapes on clear cellofilm over a light box was generally the way it was done post that video which is rather old school. This was used in the 70's and into the early 80's.
Usually different colour tape and pads for each layer were used, and often done at double or more the real size. For common things like IC pads and TO-92 transistors you'd have templates you just peeled off and stuck down. Everyone had their own method about how they'd mock up the circuit beforehand etc. Personally I just went "straight to tape" and laid out the board directly from the schematic.
The film was then photo-reduced onto a negative film. That negative film was then used to expose a negative photo resist coated copper clad PCB and etched as per usual.
nomis:
--- Quote from: sync on March 22, 2014, 02:21:22 pm ---An old movie from Tektronix about PCB design and production.
--- End quote ---
That movie is great, thanks for that.
--- Quote from: EEVblog on March 23, 2014, 08:38:08 am ---The film was then photo-reduced onto a negative film. That negative film was then used to expose a negative photo resist coated copper clad PCB and etched as per usual.
--- End quote ---
The production of the PCBs conceptually hasn't changed much over time since their invention, right? It today still is a process based on photographic film used to expose certain photo sensitive materials.
What has changed a lot of course is how the design actually happens, today dominated by CAD tools. What I found striking is the visual difference between issue 1 and issue 3 of the ZX81:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.a.kitching/temp/Cimg3394s.jpg
http://www.nightfallcrew.com/wp-content/gallery/sinclair-zx81-16k-ram/img_1811.jpg
Between these two issues obviously CAD happened... This is what I am referring to when talking about how the tool shapes the design...
Bye,
Simon
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version