The ZOG Method: True Printed Circuit Boards

Printed circuit board (PCB) fabrication is a timeconsuming process that uses dangerous and tedious subtractive methods such as milling, chemical etching, or laser etching. The Zhou-Oyama-Garmire (ZOG) method is introduced as an alternative to the traditional PCB fabrication. This nontoxic, inexpensive method results in packaged, sealed circuitry and allows a wide range of users to iterate prototypes quickly. Traces are 3-D printed, and liquid metal is deposited onto the traces with a brush and sacrificial layer. Electrical components are placed on the traces, and pin headers are inserted to interface with the circuit. The circuit board is sealed with a thin layer of the thermoplastic polymer. To illustrate, an instrumentation amplifier circuit was fabricated using this method and yielded a gain of 106 with a 3.64% error. The ZOG method provides advantages over the traditional PCB fabrication in terms of cost, safety, recyclability, ease of fabrication, and robustness.