LPKF sell a funky machine which will deposit 3D traces onto a printed part. We have one of these in a lab at our uni, along with a lot of other expensive LPKF kit, but it's so specialised that I doubt anyone ever uses it. They have lots of interesting demo parts made with it, the obvious use case is antennas that are embedded in the enclosure.
I was thinking more on the line of cheap one-off PCBs that you send from your computer and take from the machine in an hour or two, like what hobbyists are doing.
This one is so much cooler but more expensive too. I hope they find some large market to grow into.
Yeah LPKF's stuff is very high end. I'm 99% sure the only reason we have any of their machines is that someone had a massive budget to blow with a tight deadline. Or they had no idea what they were buying and got sweet talked by a rep. Or they absolutely knew what they were buying and someone high up just signed off on it. We also have stuff like Metal 3D printers which are six-figures, so why not? The problem with using is that it's so expensive, so nobody is allowed to use it without training. Everyone else just submits jobs to the mech workshop and they'll etch it for you.
But.. when you think that a one-day turnaround on a small run of PCBs can cost easily $500+ if you need weird requirements, these sorts of machine can start to save money. They can do tolerances below most of the cheap fab houses (like BGA fanout, RF parts, etc). PCBTrain will charge you £400 for a 2-day turnaround on a 50x50mm 2 layer board!
At home I don't know why you'd want to 3D print a circuit versus milling or laser exposing it. You can get cheap mills with decent tolerances these days [1]. Of course LPKF also sell these sorts of machines with absurd tolerances and high prices!
In theory you can use conductive filament and a multi-material printer. One use case for that is actually making custom RF shields. Otherwise the only 3D printed circuits I've seen are kind of cheating - either using the printer to make the etch mask, or by printing channels which you can fill with conductive paint or epoxy (those are nice though).
> At home I don't know why you'd want to 3D print a circuit versus milling or laser exposing it.
I have absolutely no requirement on an additive process. I also don't think "home" will net enough of a market, it's more for "design house". What I think is missing is some box you can buy where you just add the material, send the design from a computer and an hour later you have a usable PCB.
CNC mills do kinda solve the problem, on its most basic form. But it is very common that one would need at least two layers, and it would be a huge add-on if it could apply masks and silk. The mills are also not that well packaged for the job - it would make a lot of difference if it would just be enclosed.
But anyway, that's in no way a rant about the market or anything like that. It's just that it's unsettling to see somebody jump all the way into ICs when solving the same problem on an easier level is already a useful product.
LPKF sell a funky machine which will deposit 3D traces onto a printed part. We have one of these in a lab at our uni, along with a lot of other expensive LPKF kit, but it's so specialised that I doubt anyone ever uses it. They have lots of interesting demo parts made with it, the obvious use case is antennas that are embedded in the enclosure.