Price Compare: metal core PCB v’s fr4
Fr4 PCB is a very conventional PCB type of electronic industry.
In LED industry Fr4 PCB not use first widely, its metal core PCB uses more widely.
That is the reason why many people don’t know metal core PCB but call it as LED PCB.
Due to thermal management, metal core PCB has to consider more heat than conventional PCB design process.
Add the metal material also not so cheap.
Resulting in most metal core PCB board is more expensive than the FR4 PCB board.
Heat Performance compares: metal core PCB v’s fr4
In traditional electronic PCB design theory, electronic transfer is the first, then the layout.
Metal core PCB design is more than above two points, add consider a PCB heat transfer.
You know in LED lighting applications, heat increase is the biggest problems.
If you choose high performance metal, this situation may change.
By the way, most metal core PCB heat performance is better than FR4 PCB.
The stack up of metal core PCB board VS.Fr4
We have compared the price and performance, this part we will discuss about construct or stack up of metal core PCB.
Metal core PCB have three layer stack up.
And FR4 stacks up depend on each application, it can have 1, 2, 3 or even more later.
In three layer stack up of metal core PCB, the dielectric layer is most different from fr4 PCB.
Metal core PCB has high heat management most reason is it have dielectric layer.
Application compares: metal core PCB VS FR4
Fr4 PCB application has widely than metal core PCB.
But in LED industry, most engineers will choose metal core PCB for new projects.
For example, a single layer metal core PCB stack up, base is metal core, top is the copper, dielectric layer is in the middle. MCPCB is used instead of traditional FR4 or CEM3 PCB because of the ability to efficiently dissipate heat away from the components. This is achieved by using a Thermally Conductive dielectric Layer.
