The aluminum substrate of LED light strips

Presently, the heat dissipation of LED strips is one of the major issues for LED light strips companies. The aluminum substrate is used to overcome the difficulty, for it has the great thermal conductivity and excellent heat dissipation. The substrate is a unique copper clad laminate with good thermal conductivity, electrical insulation properties, and machinability. The PCB should be mounted close to the metal base as far as possible to lessen the thermal resistance.
Initially, the features of the aluminum PCB.
1. Using surface mount technology (SMT).
2. The particular circuit design is beneficial for heat diffusion.
3. The lower working temperature of LED lights, improve the dependability, as well as increase service life.
4. Decreasing sizes of the product, and costs of hardware and assembly.
5. Having better mechanical durability than other traditional substrates.

The aluminum-based PCB consists of the copper foil, the thermally conductive insulation layer and the metal plate, and its composition is classified into 3 layers:
1. Circuit layer: it is the same as normal copper clad, and its thickness is 1oz to 10oz.
2. Dielectric layer: also known as the insulation layer, is a low thermal resistance material covering on the LED light strip.
3. Base layer: it is a metal board, usually aluminum or copper.
The circuit layer is the printed circuit that used to connected different components. In most cases, the circuit layer needs to have a large current carrying ability, so that the thick copper foil should be utilized.
The heat conductive insulation layer is the key of the aluminum PCB, which has small heat resistance, great viscoelasticity, resistance to heat aging, and can resist physical and thermal stress.
The metal plate is the base of the substrate, which is needed to has great thermal conductivity. In production, aluminum plate and Copper plates are most commonly applied, which suited to traditional machinings including drilling, punching, and cutting etc.
Aluminum PCB materials have advantages that are unmatched by other materials, such as no need for a heat sink, greatly reduced sizes of LED lights, excellent heat dissipation, good insulation, and mechanical properties etc.