Aluminium Based Copper Clad PCBs

What are Aluminium based copper clad PCBs?

This type of PCB is also called aluminum base, aluminium PCBs, aluminum clad, insulated metal substrate (IMS), metal clad (MCPCB), or thermally conductive PCBs.

For a typical metal based single sided PCB, the base laminate is made up of copper foil bonded to a thin, thermally conductive insulating dielectric which is in turn bonded to a thick metal base, usually aluminium. The copper layer is processed in the normal way to create the tracking layer, and the profile is machined to the required shape and size. The aluminium substrate must be protected from the etching chemicals during the manufacturing process.

The material is particularly suited for population with surface mounted devices. Through hole components are not appropriate because the metal base material is not an insulator. We offer single sided metal clad PCBs as standard.

Why use Aluminium based copper clad PCBs?

• Greatly improved heat dissipation without using external heat-sinks
• Very mechanically rigid base laminate
• Dramatically reduce thermal stress on components, improving reliability and MTBF
• Relatively low cost
• Improved heat transfer allows thinner base copper and thinner tracking for high current designs as compared with standard FR4 laminate PCB construction
• Better thermal management permits closer component mounting and smaller PCBs, yielding overall cost savings