Best Value PCBs for Controlling Heat

Expert Printed Circuit Board Thermal Management and Metal Cladding

Electronic Interconnect – The PCB Experts

Electronic Interconnect is a reliable manufacturer of high quality PCBs – up to Class 3. We specialize in and focus on the design and manufacture of PC boards.
With nearly 30 years of experience, our customers have benefited from our unique technical advancements and distinct advantages, such as thermal management, use of metal cladding, heavy copper and outstanding solder-ability.

Effective Use of Thermal Management

Today, many PCB materials, constructions, and configurations for electronic assemblies require special thermal management to ensure continued operation without excessive heat issues, such as
- Hot spots
- CTE mismatch
- Solder joint stress
- Thermal fatigue failure
- Shock and vibration issues
While thermal management is important for any electronic assembly that is smaller, faster and stronger, it has become a critical part of PCB design for:
- High-power devices
- RF and wireless applications
- LED lighting boards
- DC/DC converters
- Electric motor controls

Thermal Management Expertise

As PCB specialists, we have become experts in the use of metals and Thermal Management. As a result, our PCBs exhibit faster heat dissipation, longer life and reduced energy needs. Our heat management capabilities include UL-certified metal-clad PCBs with various thicknesses of dielectrics and metal bases, such as aluminum and copper.

Materials Expertise

The combination of our knowledge and dedication to thermal management in PCBs, our expert processes and the use of many thermal laminates, allow us to optimize the performance and reliability of metal clad PCBs and provide the best solution to our customers. We manufacture boards with optional metal bases, provide metal cladding and use heavy copper weights.
Electronic Interconnect offers design counseling services to support the Thermal Management program.

Electronic Interconnect specializes in Thermal Management PCBs with broad capabilities in design and manufacturing.

Metal Clad PCB (MCPCB) Capabilities

The use of heavy metal and metal cladding is critical to effective thermal management of PCBs. Electronic Interconnect has very deep experience and broad capabilities in this area of specialization.
- Heavy copper capabilities up to 10 oz.
- UL approved MCPCBs up to 6 oz.
- Metal thickness from 30 mil to 125 mil
- Solder masks with high reflectance
- RoHS compliant
- Multi-layer and hybrid FR4 construction
- Many construction options

Flexi-Thermal PCBs

Often called Conformable MCPCBs.
- Metal Core PCBs (MCPCBs) from 0.004”
- Breakdown voltage AC from 2.5Kv to 10Kv
- External/internal radius up to 60°
- Extremely low thermal impedance
- Halogen-free, RoHS compliant

Direct Thermal Exchange (DTE)

With DTE technology, the thermal conduction path operates efficiently as a heat sink.
- Direct thermal conduction path
- Heat dissipates through Z axis
- No thermal transfer through the dielectric
- Resistant to UV and thermal discoloration
- Low thermal impedance
- 135W to 300W/mK conduction achieved
- Fast heat transfer rate through DTE pad
- Utilizes any base metal thickness
- Utilizes standard dielectric for the circuit area
- Utilizes FR4 epoxy, polyimide or any typical dielectric
- Other base metals available
- High power capacity
- No thermal via required

PowerLink PCBs (PLPCBs) with Heavy Copper 

There are multiple benefits of PLPCBs, ranging from smaller PCB size to extended life. They utilize a minimum of two copper weights on the same layer for the buss bar application.
- UL approved up to 6 oz.; capabilities to 20 oz.
- Use of multiple copper weights on same FR4 plane
- Prevents circuit failure
- Reduces number of connectors required
- Increases mechanical strength
- Higher current carrying capacity
- Use of high temperature dielectric material

Fabrication for Thermal Management

Precise machining tolerances and high-quality fabrication services at Electronic Interconnect enhance thermal management and long-term board reliability. A variety of laminates are available, based on the T-lam thermal lamination system, which includes:
1. Single side with a thermally conductive dielectric.
2. Double-sided with a thermally conductive dielectric on two sides of metal base.
3. Hybrid IMPCBs with FR-4 and a thermally conductive dielectric
4. Multi-layer construction with FR-4 and thermally conductive dielectrics on the metal base.

Electronic Interconnect uses advanced thermal management technologies to create PCBs for a wide variety of applications, such as LED lighting and power inverters.

The materials used feature strong thermal performance with high dielectric strength and low capacitance. They can eliminate the need for fans, heat sinks, and heat spreaders.

Download the PDF Brochure on Printed Circuit Board Thermal Management

Stencils for PCB Prototypes

Electronic Interconnect is now offering Prototype Stencils which we can ship along with our quality fabricated printed circuit boards!

To find out more about this low-cost and highly affordable solution for prototyping your next great PCB project, please visit our website for more details on Proto Print Stencils.

Electronic Interconnect - Engineering Student Program

At Electronic Interconnect we value our engineering students, because they are the future for engineering advances.

Our Engineering Student Program Features:

1. Projects sponsorship
2. PCB Standard Spec for ONLY $25.00 Each
3. PCB standard Spec for ONLY $2.50 Per Square Inch
4. PCB Layout Software
5. PCB File Check [Free DRC]
6. Multilayer Zoom PCB orders

Find additional information at http://www.eiconnect.com/students_program.aspx

Contact Electronic Interconnect for sponsorship details!

Heavy copper or PLPCB - PowerLink Printed Circuit Boards

What is PLPCB technology

PLPCB (PowerLink Printed Circuit Boards) technology allows multiple copper weights on the PCB for the Buss Bar Application.

“PowerLink” is defined as the use of 2 or more copper weights on the same external layer of a printed wiring board.

• Use of multiple Copper weights
• In size reduction
• Protects circuit failure
• Reduce number of connectors
• Increased mechanical strength
• Higher current carrying capacity
• Use of high temperature dielectric

Production capabilities

Layer count: 1 - 25
Overall board thickness: 5 - 250 mil
Smallest drilled holes size: 6 mil

Copper weights
• Outer-layers: up to 50 doz/ft2  (3.12 lbs./ft2)
• Inner-layers: up to 8 oz/ft2, with standard processes & up to 90 oz w/special processing.

Dielectric Materials
• FR4, Polyimide, BT-epoxy, Cyanate, Ester, High Frequency laminates – other

LPI Solder-mask
• Green, Red, Black in semi-gloss.

Silkscreen Ink
• LPI White ink (5 mil or larger features)
• Available in : white, black or yellow (8 mil or greater)

Final Finishes
• Lead Free HASL Solder, HASL PbSn Solder, ENIG, OSP

Electrical testing
• Net listed (with fixture), flying probe(fixtureless)
• Insulation Resistance and HI-POT testing

Production Lot traceability on all parts

Unique manufacturing capabilities at Electronic interconnect:

• Multi-copper weights capabilities.
• Heavy / Extreme copper tracks and vias.
• Edge Plating & Plated Castellations

Stencils for Prototypes

Electronic Interconnect is now offering Prototype Stencils which we can ship along with our quality fabricated PCBs!

The new ‘Proto-Print’ is an easy-to use, quick solution to the need to print prototypes and low volume runs at the benchtop. It’s low-cost and affordable, quick to set up and provides good results when printing solder paste and other electronic materials such as mask or adhesives.
To find out more about this exciting new offer, please visit our website for more details on Proto Print Stencils.

PCB Arrays & Panels

The terms Array and Panel have been used interchangeably by various sectors. The PCB Fabrication industry normally uses the term Array to mean a pallet which contains multiple copies of the same circuit board.

At Electronic Interconnect, we design Arrays daily to meet the best yields of our PCB fabrication processes, and to meet the requirements of our customers. We can design with V-Scoring parameters, CNC Routing parameters, as well as a combination of both of these processes. By engineering PCB Arrays at our location, we are able to not only pass on the savings to our customers, but we also use our years of experience to design Arrays to result in trouble-free Assembly after fabrication! For more info please visit http://www.eiconnect.com

ATV1010 - a full-featured DAQ computer packaged in a 28-pin skinny-DIP

Electronic Interconnect presents ATV1010 - a complete, stand-alone stored program control computer on a chip. It requires no external components for full operation.

ATV1010 consists of a high speed micro-controller capable of executing up to 8 MOPS (million operations per second) with no external support. The speed can be increased to 16 MOPS by the addition of an external crystal or external clock source.

ATV1010 has on-board FLASH memory, EEPROM, RAM, 8 MHz oscillator, high speed UART, two high speed serial communications channels, 23 programmable input/output ports, counter/timers, PWM output channels, six channels of 10-bit analog to digital converters, an analog comparator, internal and external interrupts and everything necessary to implement a wide variety of high performance control and monitoring circuits.

See the product details at http://www.eiconnect.com/product_detail.aspx?b=10

Protect-R-Shield - Maximum protection for LED and PCB

Protect-R-Shield automated conformal coating process applies a clear, flexible, non-yellowing silicone onto printed circuit boards and LED components.

The fully automated Protect-R-Shield application process is extremely versatile. The coating can be applied to different types of printed circuit boards regardless of shape, size or the number and type of board components.

Coated boards are inspected for proper thickness and adhesion per customer specification and IPC-TM-650 guidelines and are visually inspected using a high-power video microscope.

Read more at http://www.eiconnect.com/industrial_link_detail.aspx?b=1 

PowerLink PLPCB for Thermal Management Applications

Electronic Interconnect (EI), a leading manufacturer of printed circuit boards and provider of PCB engineering and design services, announces the availability of Powerlink PLPCB constructions for electronic assemblies where thermal management (heat dissipation) capabilities are desired.

PowerLink technology enables power and control circuits, both heavy copper and standard copper, to reside on the same layer with interconnection between the circuits. Bus bars with multi-copper weights handle the heat dissipation in the PCB, enabling extended PCB life and safety in overall functioning. The bus bars allow heat to dissipate more efficiently due to their high surface area to cross-sectional area ratio.

Read more at http://www.eiconnect.com/pressrelease_detail.aspx?b=35

Electronic Interconnect provides Design for Manufacturing (DFM) services

Electronic Interconnect provides Design for Manufacturing (DFM) services automatically for new PCB orders, to detect, identify, and fix design problems before they reach the prototype or production stage. This saves money for customers and prevents manufacturing problems downstream, according to Shehryar Abbasi of EI’s Engineering Department. EI is a PCB fabricator, serving design engineers and contract assemblers, providing all types of PCBs from single‐sided to complex multilayer boards and Surface Mount (SMT) boards from prototype through production.

Before any PCB design goes to even tahe prototyping stage, the engineers at EI subject that design to a number of reviews and checks to make sure that the PCB that the customer requests can actually be built, Abbasi says. Quite often, designers will submit the artwork for a PCB that is superb in concept, but may not be compatible with the limits of the manufacturing process.

“A PCB design may also create issues for the assembly stage, such as a lack of solder mask between component leads that might cause bridging and shorts during the soldering process, when components are attached to the bare board. All of these things must be looked at in light of DFM, Design for Manufacturability and DRC, Design Rule Check principles and limitations. We don’t run files ‘as is’; every board that we make initially goes through a comprehensive DFM check” Abbasi says.DFM at EI includes the following checks:

• Soldermask clearances ‐ distance to keep mask away from solderable areas;
• Soldermask bridges ‐ mask between SMDs to prevent solder bridging during later assembly;
• Trace/Pad Widths & Spacing ‐ minimum spacing and trace widths, trace width tolerances allowed;
• Copper finish ‐ to determine how much artwork compensation needs to be done for chemical processes.

These are the primary checks, but there are many others. For more information and a complete listing, visit www.eiconnect.com.