Typical PCB designs do not exceed 10 A, or even 5 A. Especially in home, consumer electronics, usually the PCB does not exceed 2 A continuous operating current. However, the company's products are designed for power wiring recently, and the continuous current can reach about 80 A. Considering the instantaneous current and the remaining amount for the whole system, the continuous current of power wiring should be able to withstand more than 100 A.

So the question is, what kind of PCB can withstand 100 A current?

Method 1: Route on PCB

To figure out the overcurrent capability of a PCB, we start with the STRUCTURE of the PCB. Take a double-layer PCB for example, which is usually a three-layer structure: copper, plate and copper.

The copper skin is the path through which the current and signal pass in the PCB. According to the physics knowledge of middle school, we can know that the resistance of an object is related to the material, cross-sectional area and length. Since our current is flowing through copper, the resistivity is fixed. The cross-sectional area can be seen as the thickness of the copper skin, which is the thickness of the copper in PCB processing options. Copper thickness is usually expressed in OZ. 1 OZ of copper translates to 35 um, 2 OZ to 70 um, and so on.

It is easy to conclude that for high currents on a PCB, the wiring should be short and thick, and the thicker the copper, the better.

In practical engineering, there is no strict standard for the length of wiring. Usually used in engineering: copper thickness/temperature rise/wire diameter, these three indicators to measure the current carrying capacity of PCB board.

So if I want to run 100 A current, I can choose 4 OZ copper thickness, set the wiring width to 15 mm, double side wiring, and add heat dissipation device, reduce PCB temperature rise, improve stability.

Method two: terminal

In addition to wiring on PCB, wiring can also be used in the way of terminal.

Fix several terminal posts that can withstand 100 A on THE PCB or the product shell, such as table nut, PCB terminal, copper pole, etc. Then use terminals such as copper nose to connect the 100 A resistance wire to the terminal post. This allows a large current to flow through the wire.

Method three: custom copper bar

Even, can also be custom-made copper. It is a common practice in industry to use copper bars to run high current. For example, transformers, server cabinets and other applications all use copper bars to run high current.

Method four: special process

In addition, there are some special PCB processes, which may not be processed by domestic manufacturers. Infineon has A PCB with three copper layers. The top and bottom layers are signal wiring layers, and the middle layer is A copper layer with A thickness of 1.5mm, which is specially used for arranging power supplies. This KIND of PCB can easily achieve small volume overcurrent of more than 100 A.

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