At 09:36 AM 6/15/01 +1000, Jason Stummer wrote:
>Can anyone shed any light on whether Protel can handle buried/blind
>and microvia technologies?
I've managed to avoid the use of either, so far, though I've been tempted
to use blind vias. Usually my clients have not wanted the additional cost.
But Protel does support blind vias. Edit a via and you will see two
attributes: Start Layer and End Layer. These are obviously for blind and
buried vias. But be sure that your fabrication process will support the
layer pairs you choose. You can't just arbitrarily put vias from any layer
to any other layer; where they can go depends on the structure. Ask your
fabricator.
The gerber setups also provide for multiple drill drawings to support the
necessary layer pairs.
As to microvias, if that only meant "small vias," there would obviously be
no special support needed. But I think that some extra film may need to be
generated for laser drilled vias-in-pad: no-copper areas where the hole is
to be burned through. Once again, I'd ask the fabricator what was needed.
Protel will not directly generate no-copper zones within pads, but it would
be easy enough to generate a film with flashes of the appropriate size
where the holes were to be, and then the photoplotters could be instructed
to subtract that film from the normal film for the layer.
The other day, I was trying to remember why I wanted Protel to support
anti-copper; I kept thinking that keepouts accomplish this for polygons.
Here is the reason: anti-copper pads placed in a regular pad would create a
no-copper hole in the pad.
(If all one wants is a small hole in the center of the pad, the donut
capabilities of gerber could be used. Use manual apertures (not RS274-x)
and specify the hole size. If one wants holes in other locations, one could
build up pads with the *real* pad has a hole and the other pads or fills
extended the pad, but anti-copper would be a lot easier to use.)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Abdulrahman Lomax
P.O. Box 690
El Verano, CA 95433
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