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November 20, 2024November 20, 2024 by Sponsored Post - No Comments

PCBWay: Your One-Stop Shop for Electronics Manufacturing from Design to Production (Sponsored)

PCBWay, founded in 2013, is a global electronics manufacturing services company driven by customer value. With 5 factories in Shenzhen China (2 offering PCB services, 2 offering PCBA services, and 1 offering CNC machining, sheet metal, and injection molding services), we are able to leverage advanced electronics technology, component resources, experienced technicians, and more. We also work with a number of manufacturers in Shenzhen and other cities to support products beyond our own capabilities. PCBWay has a long history of providing manufacturing support and design advice based on our customers’ products, and we continue to provide our customers with printed circuit boards, components, PCB assembly, molding services, electronic assemblies, contract manufacturing, etc. from design to mass production. Today, multiple technology trends are driving PCB adoption. The Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), combined with the development of 5G systems, have opened up a whole new level of connectivity […]

November 3, 2024November 3, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Murata unveils stretchable PCB technology for medical and bio-sensing applications

Many PCB vendors now provide flexible PCB manufacturing services, but Murata goes further with stretchable PCB technology that’s not only bendable but can be twisted and stretched to better fit on the body for bio-sensing and medical applications even on parts such as an elbow. Traditional bio-monitoring sensors have some limitations. For example, they can become unstuck when the body moves, damage the delicate skin of infants and the elderly, data may be distorted due to body movement, and Murata explains “there is a risk of a decline in insulation and the occurrence of ion migration when using a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer (TPU), known as a stretchable base material, in a high humidity environment”. The company’s stretchable printed circuits ((SPC) are supposed to solve or at least mitigate all those issues. The technology is under development, but Murata still shared some highlights of the technology: Stretchable electrode printing in compliance […]

October 26, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

FlexiPi is a bendable Raspberry Pi Pico clone made of flexible PCB (Crowdfunding)

FlexiPi is a bendable Raspberry Pi RP2040 board made of flexible PCB with the same layout as the original Raspberry Pi Pico, but featuring a USB-C port instead of a micro USB port on the official board. This follows the Flexduino flex PCB clone of the Arduino UNO made by “EDISON SCIENCE CORNER”, but the smaller design of “TOP Gadgets” FlexiPi may make it potentially more useful since it could be inserted into tight or round enclosures. FlexiPi specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 48 MHz (overclockable to 133 MHz) with 264KB SRAM Storage – 2MB QSPI flash USB – 1x USB Type-C 1.1 port used for power and programming Expansion 2x 20-pin 2.54mm pitch header and castellated holes with 26 GPIOs, 3x 12-bit ADC up to 500 Kbps, 2x UART, 2x I2C, 2x SPI, 16x PWM, 2x programmable high-speed I/O 3.3V I/O voltage Sensor – […]

October 22, 2024October 25, 2024 by Sponsored Post - No Comments

PCBWay’s 7th project design contest – Win prizes for your electronic, mechanical, or STM32 project (Sponsored)

PCBWay has launched its 7th project design contest in collaboration with Mouser with three categories, namely electronic project, mechanical project, and STM32 project. PCBWay’s design contests aim to encourage participants to engage in open-source innovation projects and inspire more people to join the electronics community. This year’s contest is no different and even adds the new STM32 project category to attract even more entrants. There are three phases in PCBWay’s 7th design contest: Project Release – September 2, 2024 – January 19, 2025 Project Review – January 20, 2024 – February 28, 2025 Result Announcement – March 10, 2025 The contest started last month, but you still have plenty of time to enter before January 19, 2025. As noted in the introduction three categories are available. Here are a few more details about these: Electronic project – Everything about electronic design, from simple circuits to advanced MCU and IoT projects, […]

August 26, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Flexduino is an Arduino UNO clone made of a flexible PCB

YouTuber “EDISON SCIENCE CORNER” has designed yet another Arduino UNO clone but with a twist as the board is made out of a flexible PCB. Companies like JLCPCB, PCBWay, and others have been offering flexible PCB manufacturing services for a while, mostly for flat cables or small boards that need to fit around a case, but the Flexduino is a complete Arduino UNO clone made of a flex PCB, and it looks rather cool. The flexible Arduino board does work as shown with the RGB LED and power LED in the photo above and YouTube video below, but its usefulness is rather limited, and some corners had to be cut as for instance there’s no ground plane. Nevertheless, it’s a nice demo of flexible PCB technology. The video on the EDISON SCIENCE CORNER channel provides a short demo, shows how the PCB was designed (EasyEDA), and go through the ordering […]

July 3, 2024July 16, 2024 by Sponsored Post - No Comments

PCBWay’s 10th anniversary event – Win coupon codes worth up to $249 and various prizes (Sponsored)

PCBWay, one of the most popular PCB manufacturers around the world, is now almost 10 years old, and the company has started a promotional event for the PCBWay’s 10th anniversary with discount coupon codes, free boards, modules, tools, or kits, charity sales, and more. To get started, go to the 10th anniversary page, and click Enter to log in with your existing credentials or sign up for a new account with your email address. If you are a new user, you’ll also receive a welcome email with a special $5 coupon offer for 10 pieces of an up to 2 layer board and a $29 special offer for 1-20 pcs assembly following a long-term price reduction to celebrate the company’s 10th anniversary. After a customized welcome message, you’ll get access to a range of coupon codes to get discounts from $5 up to $240 for your next PCB order or even […]

May 9, 2024May 9, 2024 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Recyclable PCB created by the University of Washington is made from Vitrimers

Ludwik Leibler a Polish-born French physicist and his team from the Laboratoire Matière Molle et Chimie at ESPCI ParisTech created a new class of plastics known as “vitrimers” and material researchers at the University of Washington (UW) have leveraged the new plastics to develop a recyclable PCB (printed circuit board) known as “Vitrimers PCB” (vPCB) that can be recycled many times over. The team tested their vPCB for strength and electrical properties and found that they are very similar to standard FR-4 PCB material. This means Vitrimers PCBs could offer a solution to reduce landfill waste and make it easier to recycle leftover copper, maximizing resource recovery. Key Features of Vitrimers-based Recyclable PCBs: Base material – Employs vitrimer epoxy, a type of polymer that can be repeatedly cured and uncured without damage. Environmentally sustainable – Designed to reduce e-waste and offer a more circular lifecycle for electronics. Performance – Electrical […]