Electronics Sourcing caught up with Daleba Printed Circuits’ business development manager, Tony Hawkins, to discuss PCB manufacturing trends.
Daleba Printed Circuits is a UK-owned company within the TCL Group. It has UK manufacturing capabilities but specialises in volume PCB production from Asia. With teams in Hong Kong and China, Daleba manages the complete PCB supply chain and offers PCB storage in its 75,000 ft2 UK facility for on-demand delivery.
What types of PCBs are most popular?
Flex and rigid-flex PCBs are popular, but conventional FR4 boards with moderate layer counts still dominate demand. There is also increasing interest in specialised technologies.
What’s driving the surge in specialised PCB technologies?
Power electronics and demand for high-current/ high-temperature solutions are big drivers.
What are examples of specialised technologies?
Heavy copper PCBs: Daleba’s engineers are pushing boundaries with copper tracks greater than 1.2mm thick, supported by proprietary manufacturing techniques.
Embedded components:
This reduces parasitic inductances, offers enhanced utilisation of the devices’ voltage capabilities and improves EMI performance/ miniaturisation.
Pedestals:
These enhance the thermal performance of IMS boards. Daleba removes dielectric and plates a connection from a heat generating component to the cold plate below. This can be copper to copper or copper to aluminium.
Copper coins:
A solid copper insert in the PCB, vastly increasing the cooling efficiency compared to thermal vias.
Ceramic PCBs:
Still manufactured in Asia, these offer excellent thermal conductivity and high-temperature tolerance, also ideal for hermetic packages.