aluminium pcb prototyping?
OakGraphics
Posts: 202
Okay - I have been looking around and it seems the latest craze for LED design is to use aluminum clad pcb for thermal management with SMD based LEDs like the Luxeon Rebel. There are plenty of 'star' pcbs out there but I wanted to make a flood light type of thing.
I have yet to find a company that can do 'prototype' type stuff on this material, so if you guys had heard of a place, I would love to hear about it.
Any suggestions? I can continue with the standard FR4 stuff, but thought ultimately the Aluminium pcb seemed the most logical conclusion since I want to put a heat-sink on the back of my pcb to help draw away the heat.
I have yet to find a company that can do 'prototype' type stuff on this material, so if you guys had heard of a place, I would love to hear about it.
Any suggestions? I can continue with the standard FR4 stuff, but thought ultimately the Aluminium pcb seemed the most logical conclusion since I want to put a heat-sink on the back of my pcb to help draw away the heat.
Comments
From their site, it looks like they can do pretty anymuch any type of manfuacturing from PCBs to keypads, etc.
Bill
Aluminum is no good for circuit boards except as case or heat sink, unless there is new technology, aluminum circuit boards
are a very bad idea and if you even try to make one out of aluminum tape you will see why, you can't solder it, and
it is serious danger if it shorts out, or batteries leak on it. It must be new tech alloy, or it is worthless dangerous junk.
Electrical code does not allow aluminum wiring in homes because it is a serious fire hazard.
Maybe it is tin plate, since aluminum is sometimes called tin even though they are not the same at all.
The aluminum is a core material. The PCBs still use copper for the conductive layers.
-Phil
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We have been manufacturing PCBs for over 30 years now. We have been fabricating aluminum (Thermal Stress Management) PCBs for the past 10 years. We can build just about anything. We can even plate up to 15oz of heavy copper on aluminum or any other material for high voltage. We can assist you in design and production. Check out our website and feel free to contact me.
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Thank You
I have CNC which I use for PCB manufacturing, so making own layout will not be a problem at all.
See #4 - the Aluminium is in the core, (or on the back surface ?) and used as a heat spreader.
There is also Aluminium oxide, used for ceramic substrates, and thermal insulator washers,
["Aluminium oxide is an electrical insulator but has a relatively high thermal conductivity (30 Wm−1K−1[1]) for a ceramic material."]
There are many ways to lower a thermal path & get better thermal conductivity
* Thinner material
* Thermal vias
* Thermal slugs
* Thicker copper
* More direct pathways from LED die to heatsink.
Do you mean as a single-sided no-holes design ?
Normally I'd expect a multi-layer PCB approach, where they build a thin 2(+) layer pth laminate, and then bond to an Al backplate for stiffness and easy thermal connection.
Yes, PCB Pool offer this service: https://www.pcb-pool.com/ppuk/info_pcbpool_alupanel.html - I've yet to take advantage of it. As I understand it milling might not be reliable due to the risk of metal shards penetrating the insulating layer between Al and Cu - perhaps an interesting experiment though.
http://pcbnet.com/led.html
Why not just buy a copper PCB and then epoxy it to the aluminum backing? I suspect that's how the manufacturers do it, since you couldn't make PTH with the aluminum backing in place.
I don't want DIY. I want to buy.
-Phil
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83361
The main reason that I figure aluminum is uses is to reduce material costs, but having to work with it may add costs.
I suppose on can electroplate copper on to aluminum after it comes out of the etch. This would aid soldering and avoid the creation of a high resistance aluminum oxide layer.
I'm thinking not so much about LEDs, but the same sort of problem, those tiny power supply chips come in DFN or thermally enhanced msop packages that handle amps of current. It would seem that ordinary 2oz copper is still the best bet for circuit that needs to have two layers for electrical connections.
On the subject of etching aluminum: I've used phosphoric/acetic acid for that.
It seems that electroplating sheet aluminium may be the easiest way to go. One would first have to etch the oxide off of the aluminium in order to get a direct metal to metal contact for good electrical properties.
Then one would have to epoxy backing to aluminium. I suppose the order could be reversed - laminate first and plate last.
As far as I can tell, many places that would provide an aluminium layer in a PCB would do all these tasks. While what you can buy ready made is just the copper clad boards. The world is not directly supporting milled circuit boards. The market place considered itself supporting etched copper boards.
If you are still in need of an aluminum trace PCB we can help. We manufacture PCBs with solderable 40 μm aluminum bonded to an FR4 substrate. The product is used by customers who need a more robust wire bond connection than gold for chip on board applications and also want to solder components to the PCB. We are Omni (www.omnicircuitboards.com). Let me know if you have any questions.