Heavy Copper PCB
Heavy copper pcb is a type of PCB that uses thicker copper layers than standard FR4. These specialized boards can handle high currents and offer superior thermal distribution. They also have more mechanical strength and can withstand harsh environments.
Special etching and plating techniques are used to create these circuit boards. This requires a close working relationship between the design engineer and the manufacturer to ensure accurate fabrication.
High Temperature Resistance
Thick copper pcb has a high thermal resistance and can dissipate heat at a faster rate. It can also reduce the occurrence of failure due to thermal strain. Moreover, it can carry large currents without damaging the circuit board. These features make heavy copper a perfect choice for applications that require multiple functions and miniature volumes. For example, it can be used in power converters, heat indulgence, and planer transformers.
PCBONLINE manufactures a variety of heavy copper boards for all your needs. The company uses a dependable solder mask process to ensure the quality of its products. This process replaces traditional printing with electrostatic spraying. This allows the solder mask to be applied in a uniform way, ensuring that your circuit board has a bright appearance.
High-frequency circuits generate a lot of heat that is hard to disperse by the fan cooling system. This can damage the board’s fragile soldered joints and lead to poor performance. By using a heavy copper heavy copper pcb pcb, you can avoid this issue by increasing the current capacity and reducing the temperature rise.
The fabrication process of a thick-copper circuit board requires special plating and etching techniques. These processes add thickness to the via sidewalls and circuit traces. This will reduce the chances of a solder joint failure and strengthen plated holes that can weaken over time. Additionally, the high conductivity of heavy copper will help disperse the heat generated by high-frequency circuits more quickly than regular PCBs.
High Current Capacity
Using 3 oz copper in both the outer and inner layers of the circuit board increases current carrying capacity. This allows more complicated power and control circuits to be placed on the same board, which is essential for modern electronic devices. It also improves the board’s ability to dissipate heat and reduces the risk of thermal strain failure.
PCBs with high current capacities are used in a variety of applications, including power supplies, converters and inverters. They are also common in electric vehicles because of their superior current-carrying capabilities and thermal management. These features are essential to make the EV’s battery system work properly, so it can hold more energy.
Traditional high current circuits require the designer to add duplicate layers in parallel to share the load. However, this leads to DC losses and requires a wider trace width. The advantage of using heavy or extreme copper is that it prevents these DC losses and allows the PCB to be designed with a thinner trace.
Another important feature of a heavy copper pcb is its endurance to thermal stress. This is due to the increased copper thickness and the choice of base material with a high glass transition temperature (Tg). It makes it possible to use exotic materials without worrying about circuit failure from thermal shock. Moreover, it can accommodate large heat sinks without increasing the overall product size.
Low Resistance Transmission Lines
The PCB tracks that carry current between components on the board are called transmission lines. Transmission lines must allow high-speed signals to pass without impedance loss, so the signal’s waveform is transmitted smoothly. This is accomplished by a combination of the copper layer’s thickness, dielectric constant, and track width.
The thickness of the copper and the width of the track determine the current-carrying capacity of a transmission line. Increasing the track width increases the current carrying capacity, but this can result in excessive heat generation. The resulting excessive thermal mass can cause the PCB to fail. To avoid this, the track width should be kept to a minimum.
During the manufacturing process, bare-board PCBs are tested for shorts and opens using a flying probe test. This test is conducted by moving a probe over the copper lands on the PCB. It will detect shorts and opens in the circuit and report them to a computer program for analysis.
To ensure your circuit boards meet the required impedance target, you need to use the right PCB design software. The best routing tools will enforce transmission line width and length constraints automatically when you route signals across the board. They will also let you specify the correct prepreg sheet option, core thickness, and stack-up specification. In addition, they will help you select the appropriate copper thickness to match your impedance target.
High Durability
The PCBs of today’s electronics are designed to pass a high current, which generates heat that needs to be dissipated. Heavy copper PCBs are capable of regulating temperature properly from the heat sources to prevent overheating and short circuits. They also have great mechanical strength and can operate under harsh conditions.
They are able to support multiple power and control Heavy Copper PCB Supplier circuits on the same board. This helps to reduce the size of the finished product. They are also more durable than standard FR-4 PCBs. The copper conductor on these boards is thicker than on standard ones, which makes them better able to carry large currents and handle thermal stress.
These PCBs are available in single-sided, double-sided, and multilayer configurations. Single-sided and double-sided versions are simpler to fabricate, while multilayer versions are more complex. They are also more expensive to produce.
To create a heavy copper PCB, manufacturers use plating and etching techniques to add thickness to the sidewalls of the plated holes. This improves their durability and strengthens plated holes, which can weaken over time due to repeated cycles of current passing through them. Heavy copper also allows manufacturers to implement more complex switches in a smaller footprint and provide increased mechanical strength at connector sites. To design a heavy copper PCB, designers gauge the amount of current needed and then select the appropriate thickness of copper to use. They also need to determine the current capacity, maximum temperature rise, and trace width.
