Hello friends and welcome to this article. Today we are going to have a look at the introduction to the ceramic printed circuit boards. we have previously introduced what a printed circuit board is and we noticed that it is a very important part that makes electronic circuits complete and well organized. Having that in mind, we had also discussed several materials that build up these PCBs and today our focus is on the ceramic types of PCBs.
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In this discussion, we shall have a look at a single-layer ceramic PCB. It consists of; the ceramic substrate layer, the copper layer and the solder mask layer. Let us have a look at the image below which is a double-sided layer ceramic PCB constructed through the normal method of lamination.
Single-sided layer ceramic PCB is shown below;
Ceramic PCBs are classified according to ceramic substrate material used and also according to the manufacturing method that was used. Let us have a deeper look into these classifications below;
They are the most used types of ceramic PCBs and aluminum oxide is the most readily available substrate.
They are also commonly used PCBs but they are a bit expensive when a comparison is done with the alumina PCBs.
They gave high thermal conductivity and smartly higher frequency performance again when compared to the Alumina ones.
More costly when compared with the aluminum nitride PCBs. They have higher mechanical strength and toughness hence finding greater use in the power modules such as IGBT and military modules.
This is diamond and has high thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity. They find applications in the areas of laser technology.
Has dozen times boron activities than the alumina ceramics but this type of ceramic is very poisonous. They find use in high power and frequency applications
This is the earliest method known for PCB manufacturing. The method is suitable for high power and not for high speed or high-frequency PCB manufacturing.
This one requires lower temperature compared to the HTCC. They have no PTH vias and they are mainly preserved for power electronic module packaging.
This has a requirement that the circuit line space should be at 60 micrometers. They find their use in applications that require lower power utilization.
They are usually multilayer and normally three-dimensional. They are best suited for communication devices with high frequency.
Has very high precision circuits but the copper layer has a limited thickness. These types of PCBs find their use in high precision devices and also in very small devices development.
They are developed from thin-film technology and can be in 3D and has very high circuit precision. They find their use in high-frequency and high-power circuits.
Ceramic boards have very distinct characteristics that always give them an advantage over the other type of boards. below is the list of these special characteristics;
The ceramic PCB boards are given high priority due to a number of material features and characteristics that they offer which proves to be beneficial in the process of PCB manufacturing. The character of heat dissipation gives this board an advantage over the traditional types of PCB boards. components of the board are placed on the boards directly without the involvement of the isolation layer and this makes the flow of heat throughout the board better compared to the other types of boards. The following are some of the benefits that make this board the most preferred;
They are the most popular in the field of electronics due to their features that are unique. One of these features is that it provides a very high thermal coefficient expansion. These boards will still offer very high thermal conductivity even when operated at high temperatures.
These types of boards use a metal core. The metal core is used when the board is undergoing the engineering process. The board can be changed to a rigid carrier which will offer a stiff mechanical strength. This stiffness is very crucial as it allows the board to be used in both fluids and solids.
The ceramic material offers a lasting-results to the PCBs being manufactured. The toughness of the material used in the making of the board will protect it against routine wear and tear. In addition, these boards offer high thermal resistance which will slow down the decomposition of these types of boards and therefore increase their durability.
They offer very high stability which is a result of a stable dielectric property that originates from the dielectric materials. Due to the toughness of the ceramic materials, it has a natural resistance to many chemicals.
It has a very high melting point hence it can be used in many applications for both low and high temperatures. The best thing about these ceramic boards is that they will offer good thermal conductivity while distributing heat evenly throughout the board and different positions of the devices.
It was done in Japan when a company crested an SRAM memory module by the use of the multilayer ceramic PCB. The ceramic PCB is appreciated for both high-density PCB and low-density PCB. Another example is about the USA company that had developed the telecommunication, aerospace and missile products using this type of board.
This is being done by an American company that is determined is building a transmission module for radar communication using the ceramic PCB boards.
Japanese have used low-temperature PCBs in the manufacture of digital PCBs. This is used because it reduces the weight of the circuit greatly. It also reduces the volume of the circuit.
The ceramic boards are mostly used in printed circuit boards because they support the miniaturization of the devices. It has a very high probability in the application of the boards in multilayer interconnects.
HTCCs and LTCCs are both applied in the process of making photovoltaic panels. In this device, we shall use multilayer ceramic PCBs to make them tough and durable.
There has been an increase in the use of wireless power transmission systems and this implies that most power transmission system has to use ceramic boards to achieve that ability.
With the introduction of very small pocket gadgets, many electronic circuits are getting miniatured. To achieve miniaturization, it starts with the use of semiconductors that have a highly reduced size. The normal boards cannot give the support needed in order to make sure that the miniaturization process is fully achieved. In order to make this possible, ceramic semiconductors have been introduced and this is accompanied by the use of ceramic PCBs.
When you are choosing the person or the manufacturer who can produce your board, you have to consider the manufacturer who has the superior tooling that is required to make the process successful. The manufacturer should be able to control the oxidation process so that the board can have superior thermal conductivity and higher temperature resistance.
Ensure that the manufacturer uses the automated process to do the manufacturing and this will make sure that your board is in perfect condition and of very high quality and the process will be less time-consuming.