A bare printed circuit board can be defined as heavy copper PCB when it’s final finished copper thickness up to more than 2oz (or 70um) in the internal and external layers. So, compared with other normal circuit boards, the heavy copper PCB is made of a thicker layer of the Copper foil sheet.
The advantages of heavy copper PCB
Excellent endurance to thermal strains.
Excellent high-current carrying capacity.
High performance on mechanical strength at connector sites as well as in PTH holes.
Available to reduce the circuit board size as combining several copper weights in the same PCB
The circuit’s mechanical characteristics improved due to high reliable materials used in the PCB.
The high thermal resistance provided by copper-plated via holes,be helpful to transfer heat to the heat-sink in the exterior.
Available to optimize the circuit board physical size by reducing it’s wired buss configurations
Easy integration or embedding with high-power circuits as well as control circuits
Available to reduce the PCB layer count due to easy incorporation of layout multiple copper weights on a single layer
Excellent features of withstand high thermal cycling
Universal application of thick copper PCB board
Nowadays, the electronic devices with heavy copper PCB base are widely used for a variety of purposes. For example, in High inductance planar transformers Thermal runaway propagation, high power thermal dispersion, Power control converter system, etc. As well as in PC, automotive, military and mechanical control system, benefitting from the prompt growing of copper-plated sheet. A large number of heavy copper printed circuit boards are also used in:
Solar Power Converter System
Electronic Overload Relays
High Power Rectifiers and Converters
Power Supply and Converters for Railway Electrical Systems
Safety and Signal Control Systems
Railway Traction Converter Protection Relays
Excitation Control Systems for Power Regulators
Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) Systems
Nuclear Power System
Control Systems for Weapon Equipment
Power Supplies for Radar and RF System
PCB Designer Must Know About Heavy Copper PCB Manufacturing
PCB designer must know some common issues below that often happen in the process of heavy copper PCB manufacturing, which can be eliminated by appropriate work in the PCB layout process.
1. Base material: As thick copper PCB is more complex than normal thickness PCB board in it’s manufacturing process (such as in laminate press process, etch process);so the laminate with it’s self-quality is very important to make sure the stable manufacturing flow process. The known brand of good quality laminate base material such as Shengyi, ITEQ(taiwan) is prior to other normal brand material. Some unknown base material will take the cost down, but the potential quality risk hidden in accordingly, such as laminate blister, etc.
2. Specific copper thickness: When you release a heavy copper PCB order to circuit board manufacturer, the specific copper thickness is necessary: such as if 2oz (70uM) specified, the manufacturer maybe use 1oz+extra copper plating so as the finished copper thickness would be 55um (minimum); if 2oz or 70um (min) specified, the manufacture could use base copper 2oz + extra copper plating to start production, so as the finished copper thickness would be 2oz or 70um (minimum). Therefore, specific (nominal or minimum) thickness could be necessary if you want to your PCB to be purposely manufactured.
3. Appropriate circuit track width/spacing: You must consider your minimum track width/spacing match it’s final copper thickness. Due to etching factors, the minimum track width/spacing differ from it’s final copper thickness: such as 3mil/3mil could be ok for 1oz copper but you could need to release it to 6mil/6mil when the final copper thickness is 2oz. Much more width/gap if the more thick copper thickness needed. You can contact us or your manufacturer for consulting before your work for a heave copper PCB layout.
4. Solder mask color: If you have any QFN or QFP component assembled on your heavy copper PCB board, the best option for solder mask color is green instead of any other color such as black, yellow, blue, etc. As green solder mask is more flexible to have enough width of solder mask dam between SMT pads, on the contrary, the other solder mask require more solder mask dam (that means the width of SMT pad sometimes to be limited to narrow width due to expand the solder mask dam spacing between SMT PADs). So, if no special application, please consider green solder mask color as the first option.
5. Heave copper PCB stack up design: Stack up is critical and important for multilayer heavy copper PCB manufacturing. It requires more thick dielectric thickness than that in circuit board with standard copper thickness. Inappropriate dielectric thickness could take preprge starved after laminating process. So as much more resin between copper layers would be very helpful to ensure the high quality of laminate stick. Please refer more Heave copper PCB stack up design study more details.
6. Minimum hole size: The minimum via hole size must be follow below formulate that: the aspect ratio of PCB thickness/via hole size<10:1; it could take extra risk of circuit open due to that plated copper in the through via hole is insufficient once the aspect ratio >10:1.
HALS/HALS lead-free, Chemical tin, Chemical Gold, Immersion gold Immersion
Copper Thickness
2.0-8.0oz
Solder Mask Color
Green / Black / White / Red / Blue / Yellow
Hole Tolerance
PTH:±0.075, NTPH:±0.05
Heavy Copper PCB Specifications
At Weller Technology you can receive an instant quotation for heavy copper PCB manufacturingservice for your home or office. So, you don’t have to waste your time looking for the services providers because our experienced technical engineer will send our thorough engineering suggestion along with our quotation sheet.
Weller Technology has specialist people that deliver the best services upon the reasonal prices. What’s more, our team will also provide you with the estimated costs of your project. You can also count on our DFM support service to optimize your design before release it to manufacturing process.
