I took a few weeks off for vacation and to get my son ready to go to Europe for two years to complete his master’s program. I have a few things left to clean up before I can start back into my projects full time.
But I did get my son to teach me how to use Eagle while he was home. I was able to lay out the PCB for the rotating sensor head. This has the PIN diode, and the first stage transconductive amplifier. The output of this amp will transfer over the slip rings to the second gain/offset amp and the digitizing micro.
After printing the board full scale, I was shocked at just how small the dang thing is. The old fashioned Sharpie pen and/or rub-and-peel decals is not going to cut it. Most traces are 16 mils wide and the parts are all SMT.
I am going to attempt to make the board using press-and-peel blue film. If that does not work, I will try the photo sensitive boards that you expose using UV light. If both these methods fail, I guess I will have to send it out for fab, but I would rather be able to make one of a kind boards at home even if I need to invest in some equipment.
Hope to try the press-and-peel this weekend.