Page 4 Ben Duncan Candidate Number: 2075 Centre Number:

58823

Product Manufacture

This close up of my first PCB shows how that all of
the close tracks were very distorted and sometimes
touched. This is because the etch tank used had not
been filed with new acid, meaning that the quality of
manufacture was poor. Also the tracks were too
close and too thin to be useful.
This close up shows how the small text and thin pads
and tracks were heavily distorted by the poor
manufacture quality. Most of the pads’ holes were not
even visible to the naked eye.
Also, because of the printing method used to make
the PCB, the tracks had a pixelated pattern, making
then unclear and even more likely to touch other
tracks and pads.
As you can see, the text was too thin and small to be
visible or clear. I had to redesign the board with
thicker tracks and text. Also, I moved close tracks
apart, although this caused the PCB to become
larger than the previous design.