Gallium iodide lamp for PCB factory

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 06:14:05 +0800

Getting Your PCB Traces Right with Gallium Iodide Lamps

If you’ve spent any time in PCB fabrication, you know that photoresist exposure is where things either click or fall apart. It’s all about precision. That’s why we lean on Gallium Iodide (GaI) lamps. They hit a very specific sweet spot—right around 365nm. Most industrial photoresists love this wavelength. It means the light goes exactly where it’s supposed to, punching through the mask without bouncing around or scattering. The fight against “under-cutting” Here is the real problem with those old-school mercury lamps: they throw out a broad spectrum of light. That’s a recipe for disaster. You end up with “under-cutting,” where light bleeds under the edges of your mask and eats away at your circuit trace width. Not fun. We build our GaI lamps to keep the light steady across the entire panel. Because if your irradiance fluctuates, you’re going to see inconsistent curing. One end of the board looks great, the other is a mess. Keep it cool, or lose the lamp Now, these things put out a ton of UV energy, and that creates heat. A lot of it. We use high-purity quartz glass to house the Gallium Iodide fill so the tube doesn’t just snap under the stress of heating up and cooling down. But you have to do your part. Check your cooling fans. If the airflow is blocked or your housing is too small, the lamp runs too hot. When that happens, the light shifts and the bulb burns out way faster than it should. It’s a waste of money. Putting them to work The good news? You don’t need to rip out your whole production line. These are designed to be drop-in replacements. We kept the footprint simple so they fit right into your existing reflectors. But a word of warning: these lamps are a bit temperamental. The Gallium compound is fragile. Don’t shake them. Don’t let them vibrate during install. And for the love of everything,wear gloves. If you get skin oils on that quartz, it creates “hot spots.” The first time you warm the lamp up, those spots can cause the glass to crack. Keep them clean, keep the air moving, and your traces will stay sharp.

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Gallium iodide lamp for PCB factory

Getting Your PCB Traces Right with Gallium Iodide Lamps