Several questions about design and fabrication of metal base PCBs.

Raphael Gimenez asked Jan 18,2025
0

All questions are with respect to design and fabricating a multilayer, single-sided, aluminum metal base PCB. See attached screenshot for an example of what I want to order.


  1. What layer numbers exactly are defined when selecting a Finished Copper weight in PCBWay quote form? Put another way, does a multilayer metal base PCB have 1 outer layer or 2 outer layers? My assumption is the answer is 1.
  2. What are the design/fabrication considerations for Inner Layer weight greater than 1oz?
  3. Can the aluminum metal base still be drilled/slotted and insulated even though copper will not be traversing into the hole (non-plated aluminum hole)? This is to make room for non-PCB parts.
  4. If answer to #3 is yes, how to define and order such a thing? How to define metal base hole/cutout vs copper/dielectric hole/cutout so that PCBway can reliably fabricate? Can they be defined in Altium PCB designer / gerbers in addition to PDF instructions or can they only be defined in PDF instructions?


Thanks in advance for any insight :)

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