Benmayor

Fabricante y distribuidor de maquinaria

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Candor Industries Produces One of the First Multilayer PCBs with Cobritherm

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Candor Industries is one of the first board shops in North American to produce a multilayer PCB with Aismalibar’s Cobritherm material. Cobritherm is thick aluminum-based substrate, cladded in ED copper foil and designed for an effective thermal dissipation and high electrical insulation.

The non-conductive via filled, four-layer, 30 mil multilayer board was based on Cobritherm 2.2W material which allows for better thermal dissipation than a standard FR-4 construction.

“Using our positive acting photo resist and simplified process philosophy, we were able to not only build an effective board, but we also saved the customer in design rev costs,” remarked Candor Industries president Yogen Patel. “We believe our innovative processes allow our customers to unlock new materials for their challenging requirements, as in project such as this.”

While the design was a four-layer board, Candor believes the process will scale well for future higher layer counts.

About Candor Industries

Since 1999, Candor Industries has provided 21st century customers with innovative PCB solutions for complex technologies through a commitment to service and support. Limitations created by standard manufacturing methods led Candor to invent and develop certain technological advancements, helping them to emerge in the forefront as a top of the line solutions provider. Candor continues to push the envelope of PCB manufacturing through continuous R&D, helping both customers and the industry to a brighter future.  For more information about Candor, click here.

Taken from:

http://www.iconnect007.com/index.php/article/110859/candor-industries-produces-one-of-the-first-multilayer-pcbs-with-cobritherm/110862/?skin=pcb#110859

 

AISMALIBAR NORTH AMERICA to increase production of FASTHERM.

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April 2018 – Aismalibar has announced that they will increase production capacity of their FASTHERM product by 42 percent in 2018 due to demand from the automotive industry. FASTHERM was developed by Aismalibar to achieve a faster thermal transition from the LED thermal pad to the heat sink. This superior thermal transition can be achieved by using the entire COBRITHERM HTC product range with either a copper or copper-aluminium base. By using Aismalibar COBRITHERM HTC range together with Fastherm technology, LEDs operate at a temperature 30ºC to 50ºC lower due to the direct thermal transition from the thermal pad to the heat sink.

Jeff Brandman, President of Aismalibar North America, remarks, “We’re very excited to continue to work closely with several OEMs within automotive lighting product development.  We’re very encouraged since the introduction of FASTHERM to the industry in a short time we have received production specification from OEMs with many new project on the horizon.”

About Aismalibar

AISMALIBAR was one of the first IMS laminate manufacturers in the world and was the first in Europe. Aismalibar is a manufacturer of copper clad laminates who produces high quality base materials for the PCB industry. Our products provide superior thermal management through high thermal conductivity, low thermal impedance and high dielectric capacity.  AISMALIBAR was one of the first IMS laminate manufacturers in the world and was the first in Europe.

AISMALIBAR is proud to introduce their material to the North American market in 2012. Their product IMS Cobritherm ® is a qualified and recognized Insulated Metal Substrate which gives the best thermal management solutions with high thermal conductivity, low thermal impedance and high dielectric capacity. AISMALIBAR has implement a 100% proof test with 1-3KV (High Pot Test) to all IMS laminates coming out of their plant. This is the only way to insure the dialectical strength is perfect and that production problems are detected before PCBs arrive to the end user.

Aismalibar to Exhibit at Light & Building

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February 20, 2018 | Aismalibar

Aismalibar will exhibit at the Light & Building trade show in Frankfurt, Germany on March 18-23, 2018. Light & Building is the world’s leading trade fair for lighting and building services technology

Aismalibar can be found at booth 4.0 F18 and encourages all to come see their cutting edge thermal management solutions.

Aismalibar will be showcasing their newest high technology Insulated Metal Substrate – Cobritherm Ultra-Thin. Aismalibar developed Ultra-Thin with a dielectric layer thickness of only 35 microns that provides higher thermal performance and excellent working temperatures. This product is well suited for high end LED applications.

In addition, Aismalibar will be featuring FASTHERM. This product is used to achieve a faster thermal transition from the LED thermal pad to the heat sink. This technology allows LEDs operate at a temperature 30°C to 50°C lower due to the direct thermal transition from the thermal pad to the heat sink. This superior thermal transition can be achieved by using the entire COBRITHERM HTC product range with either a copper or copper/aluminium base.

About Aismalibar

AISMALIBAR was one of the first IMS laminate manufacturers in the world and was the first in Europe. AISMALIBAR is proud to introduce their material to the North American market in 2012. Their product IMS Cobritherm ® is a qualified and recognized Insulated Metal Substrate which gives the best thermal management solutions with high thermal conductivity, low thermal impedance and high dielectric capacity. AISMALIBAR has implement a 100% proof test with 1-3KV (High Pot Test) to all IMS laminates coming out of their plant. This is the only way to insure the dialectical strength is perfect and that production problems are detected before PCBs arrive to the end user.

Aismalibar has a wide range of products including double sided, multilayer and a conformable material called Flextherm.  Our standard materials can help you come in on budget while our high end materials can give you the extra life and thermal performance you need in your high end LED applications.

We have been manufacturing IMS materials since the mid-nineties and have been able to run effective thermal aging tests guaranteeing our product. Our dielectric can withstand 60,000 hours at 150 Celsius. 100% of the laminate that leaves our facility is high-pot tested at either 1000v, 2000v or 3000v to guarantee the electrical strength of our dielectric in the final MCPC.

AISMALIBAR NORTH AMERICA to exhibit at Strategies In Light on February 13-15, 2018 in Long Beach, California

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February 2018 – Aismalibar is happy to announce their exhibit at the Strategies in Light trade show in Anaheim, CA on February 13-15 2018. Strategies in Light is the leading LED and lighting event in North America and has been for more than 15 years. Aismalibar North America can be found at booth 328 and encourages all to come see their cutting edge thermal management solutions.

Aismalibar will be showcasing their newest high technology Insulated Metal Substrate – Cobritherm Ultra-Thin. Aismalibar developed Ultra-Thin with a dielectric layer thickness of only 35 microns that provides higher thermal performance and excellent working temperatures. This product is well suited for high end LED applications.

In addition Aismalibar will be featuring FASTHERM. This product is used to achieve a faster thermal transition from the LED thermal pad to the heat sink. This technology allows LEDs operate at a temperature 30°C to 50°C lower due to the direct thermal transition from the thermal pad to the heat sink. This superior thermal transition can be achieved by using the entire COBRITHERM HTC product range with either a Copper or Copper / Aluminium base.

About Aismalibar

Aismalibar is a manufacturer of copper clad laminates who produces high quality base materials for the PCB industry. Our products provides superior thermal management through high thermal conductivity, low thermal impedance and high dielectric capacity.  AISMALIBAR was one of the first IMS laminate manufacturers in the world and was the first in Europe. AISMALIBAR is proud to introduce their material to the North American market in 2012. Their product IMS Cobritherm ® is a qualified and recognized Insulated Metal Substrate which gives the best thermal management solutions with high thermal conductivity, low thermal impedance and high dielectric capacity. AISMALIBAR has implement a 100% proof test with 1-3KV (High Pot Test) to all IMS laminates coming out of their plant. This is the only way to insure the dialectical strength is perfect and that production problems are detected before PCBs arrive to the end user.

Aismalibar on Laminates, Following the Market, and More

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February 6, 2018 | Barry Matties and Patty Goldman, I-Connect007

 Reading time 13 min (3438 words)

At productronica, Barry Matties, Andy Shaughnessy, and Patty Goldman of the 007 team sat down with Eduardo Benmayor, director general with Aismalibar, a laminate supplier currently focusing on thermal management for the LED and automotive markets. Here Eduardo discusses the company’s strategy for survival in such a highly competitive marketplace, the challenges they face due to rising material costs, and their pursuit of new technologies such as thermal flex.

Barry Matties: Tell us a bit about your company for our readers, what you do and what you offer.

Eduardo Benmayor: We are a laminate company focused mainly on thermal management improvement of the printed circuit board, which of course is a big issue today as everything is becoming smaller and smaller. It’s a big problem to dissipate the temperature. Helping the temperature release on the boards helps the designer to make the board smaller, more compact and with better efficiency.

Matties: When you talk about thermal management, in what way does your product help?

Benmayor: We are adding a lot of mineral content to the epoxy resins in order to achieve much better thermal transmission, or a reduction in the thermal impedance, in order to transfer the temperature from one side of the board to the sides or to the heat sink.

Matties: Is this recipe unique to your product? Or are there industry standards for what you can put inside material?

Benmayor: Well, it’s not unique. I mean, there are many people working on the loading of mineral content inside the resin. This is not new. The industry has used it for many years, but everybody is running their own formulation. There are many directions to take this technology and the R&D developments are always focused on which kind of mineral content they use in order to achieve a better performance. The larger the percentage of mineral content inside the resin formulation the better for the thermal release, however it’s quite complex to achieve a higher percentage and also maintain the laminate properties with high standards.

Matties: How do the fabricators spec this in? What is their process?

Benmayor: The normal mechanism is they test and they compare. There are many different laboratory methods that people use in order to test the thermal resistivity or impedance on the board. But at the final stage everybody wants to test a real populated PCB board. They solder the components and see what the real temperature of the components is that they want to dissipate. This is what they always compare. If I have 80°C on this joint point with my actual material, will I be able to have a lower temperature with a  better material? What will be the new joint temperature? If temperature goes down, lifetime is expanded and power can be increased.

Matties: Where is the biggest demand for the thermal coming from? Is it the automotive industry?

Benmayor: Two main sectors. One is LED, especially in headlights. The high-end automotive industry is moving 100% to the LED industry because they are capable of a lot of functionality that they did not previously have. They really transfer all the old technology to LED. And due to this they need a lot of power, especially in the headlights. Rear lights are a completely different story. But today headlights are the most technology-driven in the industry. And they really need high-end materials to dissipate the temperature on the headlights. This is a priority for all OEMs today.

Number two is electric cars. The growing electric car industry requires a lot of power supplies and high current. Power supplies and high current means high temperature on the boards. To achieve certain goals, temperature must be dissipated and dropped down to extend the lifetime of the components.  Many engineering departments are working hard to improve their thermal performance.

Matties: Is automotive your core focus?

Benmayor: The market is being divided in general. We are seeing the home appliance industry moving toward LED, but they are very focused on pricing. They don’t really appreciate the technology as much because they can work with a lot of different materials and it’s workable for them. Then you have high-end customers that really need the technology and they appreciate what you can offer them, because we are providers of a technical solution.

Matties: Do you serve the HDI space?

Benmayor: We are starting to pay attention to this industry as they have thermal issues as well. We are now working on several projects to reduce temperature on GPUs for avionics. According to the OEMs they have achieved very interesting results with our Cobritherm prepregs and Thin Lam. We are building up a team to work in this market as we see good potential.

Matties: So how do you grow your company? What’s your strategy?

Benmayor: We are focused today on two main aspects: one is to work with our customers and help them upgrade from traditional FR-4 to high thermal connectivity materials, which they really appreciate because they can then offer their customers better solutions. These are prepregs and thin cores with 2 and 3 w/mk. We are seeing a nice growth there. On the other hand, we are putting a lot of emphasis on the relationship with OEMs. We have added two more members into our organization that are dedicated to providing support to OEMs exclusively.

Matties: When you’re comparing to the traditional FR-4, is there a price differential on the material?

Benmayor: Yes. The price of thermal management products are higher, but they can save a lot of the costs in heat sinks and metallic cases of vacuum pipes, which are normally used to reduce temperature on components with high temperature. For example, we made several tests with a very big producer of GPUs and with our Cobritherm. We were able to reduce the temperature of the board by 14%. By achieving this goal the OEM could save the cost of metallic components for plastic cones and remove the vacuum pipes. By doing this they paid a little more for the base material, but saved a good deal more by removing metallic covers, heat sinks and pipes. The savings were incredible.

Matties: So they really have to see the value or have a problem in order to convert because otherwise, we’re so price sensitive.

Benmayor: If a customer can use FR-4 and the board works at a proper temperature there is no need to use thermal laminates. Due to our raw material cost, the Cobritherm product range will never be able to compete with the standard FR-4 market. Just as an example, our product incorporates nano particles to improve thermal conductivity; just this one component has a higher cost than all the ones used in an FR-4 laminate.

Matties: So as you were saying, the only way for them to really quantify the value difference is by trying it.

Benmayor: If an OEM is not able to see the technological advantage or collateral cost savings, they will never pay for it. We are 100% technical driven and our customer must be able of appreciate the thermal technology.

Matties: How do circuit board designers fit into the equation? Do you market to the designers and say, “We have solutions for thermal abatement?” Or is it driven on another level?

Benmayor: Both. We normally try to approach the OEMs and explain the advantages of using our material, and they normally go back to the PCB fabricators and ask them if they can make some prototypes with our Cobritherm line. So we are pushing both sides because PCB companies are also an OEM-prescriber at the end of the day. This is because many engineers at the OEM level talk to the PCB manufacturers and ask them for solutions. This is one direction. But for the big OEMs, we really need to approach the R&D centers and explain to them, “If you use this material, you will gain this and this.”

Matties: The automobile is now using a lot of electronics.

Benmayor: As far as I know, 10%-13% of the cost of a car is electronics but big players say it will go up to 30% in the near future. There is no doubt that electronics in automotive will grow during the coming years. There is no way to see the end.

Matties: This gives you an advantage in that you’re really focused on a market as opposed to just being a broad supplier. That gives you a chance to really stand out.

Benmayor: Basically, our advantage is that we are an EU supplier with high-end technical laminates capable to target the engineering departments of the biggest automotive producers in the world. As you may be aware, the EU leads the automotive industry and it’s considered at the highest level. Our disadvantage is that many of the mass production PCBs for the automotive industry are made in the Far East.

Why the need for a thermally conductive dielectric?

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by Gareth Parry, P.Eng

AISMALIBAR

Thermally conductive dielectrics used in the PCB substrate have been steadily growing in demand and application, with a surge following the development of LED lighting.

Many thermally conductive dielectrics are similar to the standard FR-4 dielectrics used in the PCB industry: epoxy (or polyimide) reinforced with woven glass with the addition of a conductive ller. The type, size, geometry, and concentration of the ller dictate the thermal/ mechanical properties of the dielectric. Typical conductivity values are 1.0–3.2 W/mK. In comparison, standard FR-4 has a thermal conductivity of 0.3W/mK, and copper is 398 W/mK.

Why the need for a thermally conductive dielectric?

The simple answer is thermal management of the system. Components mounted to the PCB or IMS need power to operate and the bi-product is thermal energy. Current running through a copper conductor will generate heat due the resistance of the copper. The greater the resistance, the more thermal energy that must be dissipated. As the temperature of the conductor increases, so does the resistance. In an uncontrolled design, one can experience a runaway condition where the increase in temperature drives an increase in resistance which drives an increase in temperature and so on, eventually destroying the circuit. In most situations this is not the case, but for high-power applications, and high-speed signals, thermal management is a real concern.

It is true that LEDs generally do not produce much heat, and are cool to the touch. Then why the exponential growth in demand for thermally conductive dielectrics? To put it in perspective, the energy consumed by a 100-watt incandescent bulb produces around 12% heat, 83% IR and only 5% visible light. The typical low watt LED might produce15% visible light and 85% heat[1]. But with high power LEDs (>1 watt), it is essential to remove the heat through ef cient thermal management. Without good heat sinking, the internal temperature of the LED rises, and this will cause the LED characteristics to change.

As the junction temperature of an LED increases, the lumen (brightness) output decreases. The output wavelength also shifts with a change in junction temperature. The optimum way to address this heat passively is by using materials with a high thermal conductivity to move heat away from the junction as quickly as possible. The dielectric should have high thermal conductivity both laterally (x and y directions) as well as vertically through the base of the device.

The circuitry routing for most LEDs is very simple, requiring only one layer of traces. A single-sided IMS would incorporate a thin thermally conductive dielectric sandwiched between a copper foil and aluminum heatsink. The dielectric helps to conduct the thermal energy away from the copper circuit to the aluminum heatsink where the energy is dissipated through convection to the air, or by conduction via a mechanical mounting system. More complex designs will have multiple layers of copper circuitry mounted to a heatsink. Components can be mounted on both sides by routing the aluminum prior to lamination. Very rarely will the aluminum heatsink be used as an electrical ground for the circuit. If electrical contact to the aluminum is a requirement for the design, it is a complex process to manufacture a plated via with connection to the aluminum. The aluminum interacts negatively to the electroless copper bath, and although feasible, few PCB shops offer the process. The easier approach is to use a copper heatsink versus aluminum.

Copper is an exceptional thermal conductor (~400W/mK), but cost and weight considerations drive aluminum to be the preferred heatsink for most applications.

As discussed earlier, aluminum reacts negatively to electroless copper. This is also true with some surface nishes, for example, electroless nickel/immersion gold (ENIG).

There is an adverse reaction if the immersion gold bath is exposed to the aluminum. The work-around is to mask the exposed aluminum with a photo polymer and/or tape. Most fabricators do not want to take the risk of a scratch or pinhole in the protective material, and will avoid offering ENIG or ENEPIG as a viable surface nish for IMS product. Lead-free hot air leveling (HAL) is the most common nish, but the designer needs to verify their nish of choice with the fab house to be safe.

The thermal conductivity of most laminates is reported as the thermal conductivity of the standalone dielectric. Some specification sheets report the thermal conductivity of the laminate (copper + dielectric + aluminum). This can be misleading. As an overall performance measure of the system, the designer may want to focus on the thermal impedance vs thermal conductivity. The thermal impedance (or thermal resistance) is the inverse of the thermal conductivity times the material thickness. Thus, the thinner the dielectric, the lower the thermal impedance. For the total system, or at a particular joint, the thermal impedance can be calculated (see equation 1).

One can see that the benefit from going from a 5-mil dielectric with 3.2 W/mK thermal conductivity, to a 1.5-mil dielectric with a thermal conductivity of 2 W/mK will have a 2x improvement in thermal impedance of the dielectric. The thinner the dielectric, the lower the thermal impedance. Dielectric withstanding voltage becomes a greater consideration as designs specify thinner dielectrics. To ensure quality and reliability, it is recommended that IMS laminate be 100% high pot tested by the laminate manufacturer prior to shipping. This will ensure there are no pinholes or foreign material in the thin laminate that could cause a high pot failure.

Traditionally, thermally conductive dielectrics have been used in PCB designs demanding high current loads. Motor controls, power supplies, AC/DC converters and solid-state relays were the major industry applications. As discussed, the LED industry has been the driving factor for the growth experienced over the last 10 years.

Recently, we have seen a growing interest for thermally conductive dielectric solutions in full build multilayer PCBs. The thermal energy output of components can be more effectively managed within the PCB versus use of expensive fans, heat pipes and liquid immersion cooling. In partnership with Advanced Micro Devices Graphic Card Division, Lazer-Tech PCB and Cartel Electronics, 6-layer and 12-lay- er, HDI, impedance-controlled PCBs were built using 2.2 W/mK and 3.2 W/mK thermally conductive dielectric systems throughout the stack. A 16% reduction in the thermal resistance was realized with the PCBs made with the thermally conductive dielectric as compared to the PCBs made with FR-4. This improvement in thermal impedance allows tremendous opportunities in cost savings long term.

Much more work is needed to fully appreciate the benefits of these materials in full build complex PCBs. As technologies continue to evolve the need for thermal management solutions in PCB design are only going to increase. PCB

Reference

1. Fact or Fiction: LEDs don’t produce heat, Tim Whitaker, LEDs Magazine.

 

 

 

by Gareth Parry, P.Eng