Artistic Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) represent a fusion of technology and artistry, turning traditionally functional and utilitarian circuit boards into visually captivating pieces of electronic artwork. Seeed Studio just contacted me to make a giveaway PCB for their upcoming maker fair. I said yes, and I was extremely thrilled to do this project for them lets see how I made this

Step 1: Understanding PCB Layers

Silkscreen layer

The silkscreen is mainly for the purpose of us humans to help us better understand the board and the functionality of different pins or LEDs, by adding letters, numbers, and symbols to the board.

Soldermask layer

A solder mask layer is a protective layer of liquid lacquer applied to the top and bottom of a printed circuit board (PCB).

Copper Layer

copper layers that are connected to an onboard voltage point.

Substrate

the material that holds the traces and components that make up the foundation of a printed circuit board

Step 2: Creating the Graphics

First of all, we can't design a graphic in our PCB design software. We need graphics design software like Inkscape or Illustrator. We will design or graphic in vector files. After designing our files we need to export each and every layer in .svg

Step 3: Board Out Line

Before designing the pcb we need to have a board outline. This will be the final shape of your PCB. We're using easyeda to design. for my design, I exported the bottom layer of the design to the.DXF file from Inkscape and imported it to easyeda as board outline

Step 4: Adding Design Elements

now we have a base for our PCB. we exported each and every layer of the design in separate .svg files.

import .svg files into Easyeda and place them in Specific layers. we can use import image with file > import > image and import the .svg file

i also added a small hole one the PCB

These instructables helped so much to make this design come true

After importing the .svg file scale it to the correct size. if you need an exposed solder pad place the design on the top layer and duplicate that layer and again place that duplicated layer to the solder mask layer

Step 5: Export to Gerber

now we are done with our design we can check our design in 3D view. this looks good so we will export the Gerber file for manufacturing

Step 6: Ordering the PCB

I am using Seeed Studio Fusion PCB service for manufacturing this PCB. we start by uploading this Gerber file to the website

we can choose the color of the PCB, I chose black

Surface Finish is the most important thing in art PCB. mainly has two options HASL and EING. HASL will give a silver look and EING will give a gold surface finish. also, HASL is cheap, and ENIG is a little expensive but it is worth it so I went with EING. black and gold will look super cool

so placed the order it took 5 days of projection time and 4 days for shipping from China to India through FedEx