The fabrication study

Start with a 1 mm copper-clad alumina blank. This test combines a large circular opening, mounting holes, and straight separation lines around the perimeter.

The laser cuts the opening and mounting holes through the ceramic. The outer separation lines are scribed without cutting through the full thickness, so the blank can be snapped apart by hand.

Cut through, or score and separate

Before: openings cut through; separation lines scribed.
After: the board separated along the score lines.

V-scoring leaves the blank in a convenient shape for paste application, placement, and reflow. Full-depth cutting is useful for enclosed openings and geometry that cannot be separated along straight score lines.

What it demonstrates

Board outlines, openings, and separation lines can be made on the same desktop machine as the copper features. The board does not need to move to a separate mill, drill, or router for this test.

Watch the board snap apart on YouTube

Project record

The geometry and timings come from the PewCB team’s custom PCB shapes experiment. The before-and-after photographs show the same board.