PCB FABRICATION

Heavy Copper Printed Circuit Boards Manufacturing

Heavy copper PCBs have thicker copper thickness opposed to standard copper thick circuit boards, widely used in power supply, automotive, energy storage and high current application products.

What is a Heavy Copper PCB?

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 printed circuit boards, the heavy copper PCB is made of a thicker layer of the copper foil sheet.

thick copper PCB fabrication
High-Current Heavy Copper Circuit Board for Racing Systems

The Advantages of Heavy Copper PCB

Power-distribution-from-heavy-copper-PCB

Universal Application of Thick Copper PCB Board

Heavy copper PCBs are now widely used in various applications, such as high inductance planar transformers, thermal runaway propagation, high power thermal dispersion, power control converter systems, and more.

They are also prevalent in PCs, automotive, military, and mechanical control systems, thanks to the growing availability of copper-plated sheets. Additionally, heavy copper PCBs are extensively used in:

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Heavy Copper PCB Manufacturing Capability

At Weller Technology, you can get an instant quote for heavy copper PCB manufacturing for home or office use.

Our experienced engineers will provide detailed engineering suggestions along with the quote.

We offer top-notch services at reasonable prices and can give you an estimate of your project costs. Plus, we provide free DFM support to optimize your design before manufacturing.

4OZ-Heavy-copper-PCB-assembly-power-supply
4-Layer 6oz Heavy Copper PCB - High Current Multilayer Circuit Board

01

Layer count

1-60 layers

02

Base material

FR-4 (high Tg, Halogen free),CEM-1,CEM-3, FR-1,FR-2,Aluminum

03

Board thickness

0.3mm-7mm

04

Max.Finished Board Size

500mm*500mm

05

Min.Line Width

0.10mm(4mil)

06

Min.Line Spacing

0.10mm(4mil)

07

Min.Drilled Hole Size

0.25mm

08

Surface Finish/Treatment

HALS/HALS lead-free, Chemical tin, Chemical Gold, Immersion gold Immersion

09

Copper Thickness

2.0-8.0oz

10

Solder Mask Color

Green / Black / White / Red / Blue / Yellow

11

Hole Tolerance

PTH:±0.075, NTPH:±0.05

PCB Designer

Must Knows About Heavy Copper PCB Manufacturing

PCB designer must know 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.

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.

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.

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.

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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.

Heave copper PCB 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.

4-Layers-Heavy-copper-PCB-stack-up-design-guidelines

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.

Aspect-ratio-for-4L-Heavy-copper-PCB-design