日本語
A new capability being rolled out by some of the more prominent "heavy copper" board houses is the ability to selectively plate thicker copper onto specific traces so that control and power circuits can be on the same board. For example, all of the control circuit traces can be the standard 1oz / 35um thick Cu while high current traces can be plated up to 20oz / 0.7mm. This is a fantastic thing for those of us who concentrate on power electronics, but I suspect few, if any, EDA programs will let you set the trace thickness for specific traces, nets or planes. So, I'm basically asking if this functionality is actually available?
- Comments(1)
A****min
Aug 10.2019, 11:53:18
This is how I would handle it so I'm not relying on any specific feature: I would create an additional layer for each layer that requires this selective plating, and copy onto it the traces that need to be plated. I would name the layer with the same name as the original layer, and add a "-plated" suffix or something.
Then of course I would attach a fabrication file listing all the Gerbers and their roles, stating what those extra layers are for, what's the expected plated thickness, etc.
Can be done with any software that allows selective copying of traces from one layer to another (many do), and for the PCB manufacturer, getting the information as additional Gerber layers is probably completely usable.
Just a thought.
