Metal Core Printed Circuit Board

Home > Product > Metal Core PCB

General Information About Metal Core PCB

As Metal Core PCB means the base material for PCB is metal, but not normal FR4/CEM1-3, etc, and currently what the metal used are Aluminum, Copper alloy. MCPCBs are used instead of traditional FR4 or CEM3 PCBs because of the ability to efficiently dissipate heat away from the components. This is achieved by using a Thermally Conductive Dielectric Layer.

The main difference between a FR4 board and MCPCB is the thermally conductive dielectric material in the MCPCB. This acts as a thermal bridge between the IC components and metal backing plate. Heat is conducted from the package through the metal core to an additional heat sink. On the FR4 board the heat remains stagnant if not transferred by a topical heatsink. According to Avago’s white paper (AV01-0615EN.pdf) a MCPCB with a 1W LED remained near an ambient of 25C, while the same 1W LED on a FR4 board reached 12C over ambient.

1.heat dissipation

Some LEDs dissipate between 2-5W of heat and failures occur when the heat from a LED is not properly removed; a LED’s light output is reduced as well as degradation when the heat remains stagnant in the LED package. The purpose of a MCPCB is to efficiently remove the heat from all topical IC’s (not just LEDs). The aluminum base and thermally conductive dielectric layer act as bridges between the IC’s and heat sink. One single heat sink is mounted directly to the aluminum base eliminating the need for multiple heat sinks on top of the surface mounted components.

2. thermal expansion

Thermal expansion and contraction is the common nature of the substance, different CTE is different in thermal expansion. As its own characterics, aluminum and copper have unique advance than normal FR4, thermal conductivity can be 0.8~3.0 W/c.K.

3. dimensional stability

It is clear that the size of the metal-based printed circuit board more stable than insulating materials. The size change of 2.5 ~ 3.0% when Aluminum PCB and aluminum sandwich panels was heated from 30 ℃ to 140 ~ 150 ℃.

LED lights

Industrial power equipment

Cars

Power

Audio

OA

Audio

Sorting of Metal Core PCBs

According to different location of metal core and trace layers of PCB, right now, we divide into four basic types:

• Single Layer MCPCB(only one trace layer one one side),
• Double Layers MCPCB (two trace layers on one sided;
• Double Sided MCPCB (two trace layers on each side);
• Multi Layers MCPCB (More than 2 trace layers per board)