How to choose the thickness of copper on PCB

As a general rule, this thickness of copper foil for single-sided PCB and double-sided PCB is approx.35um(1.4mil). There is also another specification, which is 50um and 70um. The surface thickness of multilayers PCB is 35um(1oz(1.4mil)) generally, and the inner layer has a thickness of 17.5um(0.7mil). 70% of PCB uses the copper foil thickness of 35um. This is based on PCB purpose and signal voltage as well as current. In addition, for PCB requiring large current, copper thickness of 70um or 105um will be used, and 140um is also used in some cases.

heavy copper pcb
heavy copper pcb

People often use OZ to represent copper thickness. 1OZ stands for the thickness of 1OZ copper covered on the area of 1 square feet evenly. I.e. approx. 1.4mil. The weight of unit area is used for representing the average thickness of copper foil. I.e. 1oz=28.35g/ FT2(FT2 stands for square feet, 1 square feet=0.09290304 square meter).

For heavy copper PCB, if the substrate has a thickness of 1 to 3mm, then the thickness of composite copper foil will be approx.35um. If the substrate has a thickness of less than 1mm, then the thickness of composite copper foil will be 18um. If the substrate has a thickness of above 5mm, then the thickness of composite copper foil will be 55um.

heavy copper pcb
heavy copper pcb

The thickness of copper foil(wiring width) will influence current. Even though there is a formula to directly calculate the largest current loading capability of copper foil, things will get more complex when designing wiring. In this case, safety should be fully taken into consideration during design.

Copper foil will have different thickness, if there are different purposes. General 0.5OZ, 1OZ and 2OZ copper foil are most widely used for consumption and communication products. The thickness of copper foil above 3OZ belongs to heavy copper products, which are widely used for products with large current, such as high pressure products, and power supply board.                                               

This is all about how to choose proper copper thickness during your project. Hope this is helpful to you. If you are still confused, please contact Best Technology. We have online customer services for 24 hours.

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