Electronic – Cut 3D chunk out of PCB

cncpcb-fabrication

I would like to cut a small square out of the middle of a large square PCB.

The tricky thing is, I don't want to cut all the way through the board, just about half way. This would create a 1mm-deep square pocket in a 2mm pcb board.

I could do this with my CNC machine easily, but I want to know if something like this could be achieved during circuit board manufacturing. I would hate to have to load hundreds of panels of boards onto a CNC machine; this would raise the cost of manufacturing significantly.

One idea I had was to use fancy programming of the drill that drills holes in the pcb to act like a CNC drill. It would, of course, require changing the drill bit to a special one for milling.

Can anyone who is familiar with these machines (already setup in most Chinese PCB fabrication facilities) foresee a (cheap) way to use them to cut pockets out of a PCB?

Best Answer

Yes, it can be done. It's (often) called Z-axis milling. For my usual Chinese supplier it is a standard option and adds USD $100-$150 to a small order of 2mm thick PCBs.

You could also ask for a top layer to be routed through on a multilayer board which might give you better control over the surface finish and maybe thickness.