So I Get This Spam...., advertizing aluminum PCB's?

They said they can make aluminum PCB instead of copper.

OK, can someone tell me:

1) What purpose would this have? I could see maybe a cost saving, but...

2) How would you solder this? Bolt or screw stud I could see, but the image had an IC board shown.

Aluminum? like,the traces are Al? I've no clue. And like you say,how the heck would you solder to it?

I have seen some PCB's with an aluminum backing,or even that 'film' stuff (like those blasted ribbon connectors) stuck onto an aluminum back plate. That's about the closest I've come to seeing an "aluminum PCB".

I agree ->

Well, if it's spam, it could very well be poorly communicated...

Only kind I've heard is aluminum core. Supposedly vias can be made on it, but I don't know how that affects the cost. Otherwise, you're stuck with the challenge of a single layer circuit.

Tim

lol I'm pretty sure it was talking about aluminum cored (instead of fiberglass) but still with copper traces; the stuff that high power LED stars are made out of. The stuff is extremely useful in certain products where heat transfer is integral to the design.

Well... they do make products to solder it, but I'd think aluminum PCBs would be a nightmare...

somehow machines solder aluminum to copper traces.

yup, emi filters made from aluminum wire, coming to an appliance near you.

Yours and Tim's answer sounds most plausible.

Most of the PCB spam I get is in terrible, software translated Chinglish

I think I had only one "legit" spam that did use a business reference as to where they heard about me. That I consider valid target marketing....

Thanks folks!

*somewhere* in my travels , dealings and working on stuff (many years ago) i have seen aluminum cored pcbs .
it had something to do with high-dollar proprietary equipment .
at first i thought they were ceramic but proved to be aluminum .

Aluminum can be soldered, even with conventional solder, if the right techniques are used.
However, perhaps these boards were plated? I can see a silver plating being used over aluminum, but that would complicate the etching a bit, as I think you'd have to use a dual etchant, unless the plating was applied after etching.
Note than all of the connecting strips in my Siemens PV panel appear to be aluminum. So are the cell connectors on my amorphous panel, but those are appied by vapor deposition.

nope, i meant genuine aluminum wire, no plating as far as i know.

microwave ovens typically fuse the aluminum winding to the nickel plated brass quick connect terminal, but the same microwave oven will have a 14 or 16 awg aluminum wire common mode choke soldered to the board. my cheap induction cooktop also has the same, i have not yet found them in plasma tv's.

solar panel bus wire is typically tin plated copper, but there might be something mixed in with the tin such as silver. as far as i know the reason has to be for more reliable soldering.(it is also rather expensive)

Aluminum & copper can be joined by capacitor discharge or conventional resistance welding. Solder will also wet aluminum if the oxide layer is penetrated. This is as easy as scraping the aluminum with something steel while it's covered with molten solder. There are special solders made for this, but AFAIK, it can also be done with regular solder. I haven't tried it, I've got a special solder based alloy for repairing cast white metal, & it will solder steel to copper & either to aluminum.

I didn't realize that those chokes had aluminum wire. I'll have to check my collection & see how the soldering is done.

Oh dear - that "spam" was probably yours truly - Sorry! I sent it to perhaps 90 people whose names I had collected over the years, people with inquiring minds like you.

The forum reply from Sch3Mat1C was correct: the substrate is 5052 aluminum. Over that is a dielectric for insulation, then copper for the traces, then the usual solder mask and legend.

These boards are commonly 1-layer and virtually all the high power LED boards are made this way. Two-layer construction is also possible with a few more manufacturing steps.

Sergio

*edit*
DO NOT EVER... spam this forum again with that phone #. I will not banhammer you because you seem "teachable" for now...

This post has been edited by Geek on April 23, 2012 10:42 pm

Sergio - You do realize in spamming that you have broken the law in most countries and violated your ISP's Terms of Service (meaning you could get your net cut off).

Secondly, you tried to offer a whitepaper via phone # is violation of this forums rules.

Do not ever do that again. Read the rules, read your ISP's terms of service and Google anti-spam laws.

I will let you remain for now, since you seem a human and not a bot and you apologized.

Alu core PCBs are indeed quite usefull for high power LED applications. Their use for per example power supplies etc is limited by not being able to use mulit-layer boards..

Fun fact: some folks save cost by using alu-wire in patch cables etc. You won't know untill you try to solder one