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Current industrial requirements increasingly demand heavy copper PCB designs. These PCBs are seeing growing use in the electronics sector, especially in complex switches that must fit into compact spaces, owing to copper’s excellent electrical and thermal conductivity. The end product typically consists of multi-layered or double-sided boards with detailed exterior layers and heavy copper layers in the interior. Consequently, these boards are found in power converters and planar transformers.
A heavy copper PCB features a circuit with thick copper layers, requiring specialized plating and etching techniques such as step plating and differential etching. It is also known as a thick copper PCB, with copper weights ranging from 4 oz/ft² to 20 oz/ft².
Using a heavy copper PCB eliminates the need to separate high-current/power circuits and control circuits onto different boards due to its thick copper plating, facilitating simpler board designs that are highly dense.
Why should you consider using a heavy copper PCB? Here are some advantages:
1. **Versatility**: Not every board can support heavy copper without compromising quality or performance. These boards are more adaptable across various devices with different power and signal levels compared to regular PCBs.
2. **Compact Size**: Heavy copper boards can handle high frequencies, currents, temperatures, and thermal cycles due to their layered construction. This reduces the overall size and weight of the board, enabling the use of compact, high-performance circuits.
3. **Thermal Resistance**: High-frequency boards generate significant heat, which standard cooling systems may struggle to dissipate efficiently, potentially damaging the board’s solder joints and reducing performance. Heavy copper PCBs, with their enhanced conductivity, dissipate heat more effectively and withstand external thermal stresses better.
4. **Improved Current Handling**: Instead of creating multiple parallel layers, heavy copper PCBs utilize copper vias to reduce current-sharing issues associated with parallel traces.
5. **Structural Integrity**: Multi-layered heavy copper PCBs offer increased mechanical strength due to their layered stacking and plated-through holes.
The production of extreme copper PCBs typically involves specialized plating and etching processes aimed at increasing copper thickness on sidewalls and plated holes. Unlike standard etching processes, these methods ensure even copper distribution across the PCB.
Throughout the manufacturing process, heavy copper PCBs undergo continuous electroplating to enhance the thickness of plated through-holes (PTHs), reducing layer count and improving impedance control. However, care must be taken during manufacturing to prevent PTHs from becoming fragile after multiple cycles.
Two notable methods for heavy copper PCB fabrication include:
– **Blue Bar Method**: Inserts thick copper bars onto PCBs to handle higher currents more efficiently, reducing PCB weight and manufacturing costs.
– **Embedded Copper Method**: Incorporates thick copper into the prepreg resin of the PCB, with resin thickness determining the copper thickness.
The primary distinction between regular PCBs and thick copper PCBs lies in the thickness of the copper layer. While a standard PCB typically has a 1 oz copper layer (about 35 micrometers), thick copper PCBs can feature copper layers ranging from 4 oz to 20 oz (140 to 700 micrometers), enabling them to conduct significantly higher currents.
Moreover, while standard PCBs struggle with mechanical stress and heat dissipation, thick copper PCBs excel in these aspects, making them ideal for high-current applications where heat management and mechanical robustness are critical.
When selecting manufacturers for heavy copper PCBs, consider their ability to meet these specifications and deliver consistent performance and thermal management capabilities. Although heavy copper PCBs tend to be more expensive to produce, their benefits often outweigh the costs, especially in demanding applications requiring high energy and reliability.
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