Over the years, i have etched and build many PCBs, some at home, some i ordered in different parts of the world.
The whole process with FR4 is not new to me, but i have never ordered MPCBs, but i have done some reading.
Besides staying within the design rules of the PCB manufacturer, are there things to consider that are different from normal PCBs?
The board is very, very simple.
Those are two different versions, one just has a bunch of holes along the perimeter for some crazy reasons, i just removed all the silkscreen on the bottom ones so you can see the copper better. http://i.imgur.com/yxpmdIF.png
Not much on there besides a 0805 NTC, four pads and the footprint for three LEDs.
At the moment i am a bit unsure if which version i want to order but that is all on me.
The PCB will only be populated with one or two LEDs, never all three.
The other footprints will be just shorted out with some wire in that case.
I’m guessing these are for your recent 3D printed host? Unless there’s a reason not to I would maximize the trace widths since thermal transfer to the core depends mostly on the surface contact area of the +/- traces since there’s no heat pads.
Which leds are you going to use?
You need to maximize central pad connected area. If led central pad is neutral, you can combine it together with one of the electric pads.
Also your led soldering mask shape is not ideal. Look at noctigon pcbs, all they have extra place in side of electric pads to keep extra solder there, also central pad is extended length and rounded, this makes led soldering much easy because surface tension help to center led.
Pretty much just went with the recommendation from the datasheet, but you got a point.
I will think about that a bit.
Though, i did not have much problems soldering them on the boards i already got, with the same footprint.
Still, might not be a bad idea to add a bit more space.
