Sometimes all that’s required to build something interesting is to put the same old pieces together differently. [Sayantan Pal] did this for the humble RGB LED matrix, creating an extra-thin version by recessing WS2812b NeoPixel LEDs inside a PCB.

The popular WS2812B is 1.6 mm in height, which happens to be the most commonly used PCB thickness. Using EasyEDA, [Sayantan] designed an 8×8 matrix with modified WS2812B footprints. A slightly undersized cutout was added to create a friction fit for the LEDs, the pads were moved to the back side of the panel just outside the cutout, and their assignment was flipped. The PCB is assembled face down, and all the pads are soldered by hand. Unfortunately, this creates rather large solder bridges which slightly increases the overall thickness of the panel, and is probably also unsuitable for production with conventional pick-and-place assembly.

We’ve seen some similar methods with PCB assemblies that use layered PCBs. Manufacturers are starting to even embed components inside multilayer PCBs.