Last article we looked into the ramifications of using conductive ink PCB traces from a static, DC perspective. Today I’m going to consider the implications from a dynamic point of view. Most of the signal interfaces we use in microcontroller designs today drive very high impedance loads. The impact of increasing the trace resistance connecting to the input gate is an increase in the rise time. Let’s take a look at that in more detail.
During this series, I plan to learn about printed ink conductors primarily on my own, through analysis and experiments. Therefore I have intentionally avoided digging too deep into the details of how they are commonly used in the industry (an approach I wouldn’t recommend for someone doing this for a professional product). But I do know people are indeed using printed inks for a variety of circuits, so I don’t expect to find any big showstoppers in the analyses and experiments that follow.
While repairing an old Ham radio transmitter back in high school, I found a bad capacitor. It was a large metal-can electrolytic type, bolted to the steel chassis of the radio. Because it was part of the negative 250 Vdc bias supply, the can was isolated from the chassis with an insulating fiber washer. Unfortunately, the replacement capacitor didn’t come with such a washer, and I couldn’t use the old one because it didn’t fit. Not to be deterred, I decided to make my own custom insulator using a piece of rubber cut from an old bicycle inner tube. To this day, I still remember the small explosion that resulted when I flipped on the power switch, not to mention the odor that was released – I dubbed it “Essence of Midnight in Pittsburgh”. I learned the hard way that inner tubes are not just rubber, but contain a substantial amount of carbon black and therefore don’t make very good insulators.
- By Harry Chou
- Posted In Metalon, Printing Process
- No Comments
At NovaCentrix, we love working on projects that present real technical challenges with collaborators who think creatively and work smart. We have worked on many rewarding projects with both small research groups and individual researchers up to large multi-national technology companies. Working in printed electronics means exposure to many innovations – as the prints end up in an ever-growing number of devices (and it’s important to keep on top of process technology know-how). It can feel overwhelming to consider all the necessary details for creating a valuable and innovative new device, so I’m hoping that this post can help put us onto the path of success.
Rudy Ghosh, our Technical Program Lead, was invited to wrap up the 2020 season of Tech Talk Thursdays for Global SMT International. It is super informative – and we hope you enjoy learning more about our high-intensity, pulsed-light solutions – and even a bit on NovaCentrix’s history that you might not already know.
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