Metal
Core Printed Circuit Boards
Printed
Circuit Board (PCB) can be classified into three categories if the criteria of
classification were to be made the core material of the PCB. The Printed
Circuit Board (PCB) are available in ceramic based core material, FR-series or
fire retardant series of the core material and the Metal core Printed Circuit
Board (PCB) or most commonly known as MCPCB. The most commonly used Printed
Circuit Board (PCB) is standard FR4 boards which have various fire retardant
material as their core. FR4 or FR-4 is a NEMA used for the glass reinforced
epoxy laminate material which is commonly used in standard Printed Circuit
Board (PCB) used in the PCB industry.
Ceramic Printed Circuit Board (PCB) or CPCBs
The
second type of PCB is the ceramic Printed Circuit Board (PCB) or the ceramic
core PCBs. The ceramic PCBs are used for high temperature, pressure, frequency
operations. They provide greater insulation and are highly reliable as compared
with other type of the PCBs. The ceramic Printed Circuit Board (PCB) are mostly
used for minor volume production of the electronic devices as for high volume
production it is more economical to use the standard FR-4 type PCBs. The
composition of ceramic Printed Circuit Board (PCB) is usually alumina aluminum
nitride and beryllium oxide. The conducting material used in ceramic Printed
Circuit Board (PCB) is either copper or silver palladium.
Metal Core Printed Circuit Board (PCB) or MCPCBs
The
third type of the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) is the Metal Core Printed Circuit
Board (PCB) or MCPCB. The metal core PCBs have some metal as their core which
mostly range from Aluminum, Copper and steel alloy. All three metal cores have
either own advantages and are used for their specialized purposes. The aluminum
core has greater heat transferring and dissipating capabilities and it is also
relatively cheaper as compared with copper and silver. Copper has better overall
properties as compared with aluminum but it is more expensive. Steel is more
rigid and provides greater stability to the core as compared with aluminum and
copper but its conducting properties are inferior as compared with copper and
aluminum. Making the comparison, it can be analyzed that aluminum is more
suitable and economical to be used as compared with silver and copper, so most
of the Metal Core Printed circuit boards make use of the aluminum core.
The
metal core PCBs are also referred to as the metal backed PCBs, metal base or
metal clad PCBs.
Advantages of Metal core Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
The
main advantage of Metal core Printed Circuit Board (PCB) over ceramic and FR-4
type of Printed Circuit Board (PCB) is their ability to dissipate heat more
efficiently away from the components on the circuit board, hence in turn saving
the components from overheating and damage. In most LED applications, metal
core Printed Circuit Board (PCB) is used because of its ability to dissipate
heat generated in the LED circuitry. In this case if the heat were not properly
dissipated, it would cause severe damage and output inefficiency for the
system. In this case, the main purpose of the metal core is to dissipate the
heat away from the board so as to protect the system.
The
second advantage of the metal core Printed Circuit Board (PCB) over the other
kind is their better coefficient of thermal expansion. Thermal expansion and
contraction is the inherent nature of the material and most material suffer
from it. The aluminum core Printed Circuit Board (PCB) on the other hand has
greater ability to without such changes under severe circumstances.
The
third bigger advantage of the metal core Printed Circuit Board (PCB) is their
dimensional stability. Even at high temperatures and severe conditions, the
size change of the metal core PCB is minimal as compared with the other type of
the PCBs.
Applications of Metal Core Printed Circuit Board
(PCB)
The
metal core Printed Circuit Board (PCB) are used in major applications such as
LED lights, cars, amplifier and audio systems, printers, switching electronic
devices.
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