Ceramic Printed Circuit Boards

Rush Flex PCB offers ceramic printed circuit boards for your company’s requirements. Ceramic boards offer several advantages over traditional PCBs. The main advantage is we make these PCBs for electronic circuits with special ceramic substrates that have high thermal conductivity and low coefficient of thermal expansion.

Being extremely versatile, ceramic PCBs can easily replace traditional PCBs while offering improved performance. You can use ceramic PCBs in multiple products, including high-power circuits, proximity sensors, and chip-on-board modules.

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Why Ceramic PCBs?

As the electronics industry has massively accepted chip components and surface mount technology, traditional PCBs with substrates made of organic laminates are trending towards high-density, high-precision, and high-reliability materials.

Ceramic PCBs are a relatively new type of circuit board, which the electronic industry has readily accepted due to their effectiveness in achieving miniaturization of electronic products.

Rush Flex PCB provides a comprehensive guide for ceramic PCBs in terms of their characteristics, fabrication methods, categories, and applications. Ceramic PCBs offer solutions to two major challenges confronting traditional PCBs in achieving miniaturization:

Heat Dissipation Challenges

Traditional PCBs face heat dissipation issues with increasingly wider applications of VLSI and SMT. This primarily results from the low thermal conductivity of most ordinary PCBs. On the other hand, ceramic PCBs from Rush Flex PCB, with their improved thermal conductivity of nearly 90 times that of epoxy fiber, offer excellent conduction cooling.

This ultimately results in a lower operating junction temperature of components mounted on ceramic PCBs as compared to those on ordinary boards.

CTE Compatibility Challenges

The electronic industry typically uses SMT for almost all electronic assembly. Here, components are directly soldered on both sides of the board. SMT leads to higher reliability at lower costs, mainly because of the ease of implementation of automation and reduction of board size.

However, incompatibility of the CTE or coefficient of thermal expansion between regular PCB material and the mounted components often leads to soldering failure, as the two expand and contract at different rates. Ceramic PCBs from Rush Flex PCB offer an optimal solution as they can defeat thermal cycling failures.

Their CTE being compatible with electronic components like leadless ceramic chip carriers, the combination offers higher thermal conductivity, higher reliability, and higher stability.

When Should You Use Rush Flex PCB Ceramic Boards?

Ceramic PCBs from Rush Flex PCB are tools that you can use for different applications, but they may not be the best fit for all situations. You may have to consider many things before deciding their suitability for your project.

Our ceramic circuit boards can withstand harsh environments. Moreover, they do not change shape drastically when operating in hot or cold environments. We offer ceramic boards in special shapes, and we can make them very thin. Therefore, if you require light boards that are stable in harsh environments and good at removing heat, try our ceramic boards.

Our production facilities can make production boards with multiple layers.

Their ability to spread heat well makes the outside and inside parts of the board operate without local heat concentration. Therefore, if your application is in big industries, in the military, in planes, or in cars, where the operation can get very hot, try using our ceramic PCBs.

Although ceramic PCBs are more expensive compared to regular boards, their improved performance and superior characteristics more than make up for their increased cost.

Properties of Rush Flex PCB Ceramic PCBs

Ceramic PCBs from Rush Flex PCB offer many advantages making them highly desirable for various applications. In general, these demand high reliability, performance, and efficiency. Some key advantages of ceramic PCBs from Rush Flex PCB are as follows:

High Thermal Conductivity: We offer various ceramic materials like alumina (Al2O3), aluminum nitride (AlN), and silicon carbide (SiC), with excellent thermal conductivity. Our ceramic PCBs can effectively dissipate the heat generated by components, thereby preventing overheating while ensuring all high-power electronics operate reliably.

Excellent Electrical Properties: Our ceramic materials exhibit exceptional electrical properties like low dielectric loss, especially at high frequencies. Therefore, our ceramic PCBs are well-suited for RF, microwave, and high-speed digital circuit applications, effectively meeting the critical requirements of signal integrity and low signal loss.
Mechanical Strength and Durability: Our ceramic PCBs possess greater rigidity and mechanical strength as compared to organic PCBs. They are robust enough to withstand shock, vibration, and mechanical stress, making them suitable for applications in challenging environments.
Chemical Resistance: Our ceramic PCBs are highly resistant to chemicals, acids, bases, and solvents. This resistance makes our ceramic PCBs well-suited for applications in industries where exposure to harsh chemicals is common, such as in the aerospace, automotive, and industrial sectors.
High-Temperature Tolerance: Our ceramic PCBs can resist much higher temperatures than traditional PCBs. This capability is critical in industries like aerospace and automotive, where electronics must operate reliably even in elevated temperatures.
Miniaturization: We design our ceramic PCBs to accommodate high-density interconnects, fine traces, and smaller components, allowing for the design of compact electronic devices. We provide this feature essentially for applications requiring miniaturization, but without sacrificing performance.
Signal Integrity: Our ceramic PCBs offer fantastic signal integrity due to their high dielectric constant and low loss tangent, particularly at high frequencies. This makes them suitable for communication systems with high-speed data transmission.
Harsh Environment Compatibility: Due to their improved thermal, mechanical, and chemical resistance properties, ceramic PCBs from Rush Flex PCB are well-suited for applications in harsh environments, such as in military applications, oil and gas exploration, and aerospace.
Reliability and Longevity: Our ceramic PCBs are highly reliable in the long term. This is due to their effective combination of high thermal performance, robustness, and chemical resistance. It effectively reduces the risk of failure while improving the lifespan of electronic devices.
Customization: You can effectively customize our ceramic PCBs to meet all specific design requirements, including layer configuration, substrate material, trace layout, and component placement. This flexibility allows engineers to optimize the board’s performance for any given application.
EMI/EMC Performance: Our ceramic materials inherently provide better EMI or electromagnetic interference and EMC or electromagnetic compatibility. This is due to their electrical properties and shielding capabilities.

Types of Rush Flex PCB Ceramic PCBs

We make ceramic PCBs in various types and configurations, designing them to cater to specific applications and performance requirements. Some common types of ceramic PCBs from Rush Flex PCB are:

Single-Layer Ceramic PCBs: These are our basic ceramic PCBs. They have a single conductive layer on a ceramic substrate. These are often used for simple applications where high thermal conductivity is necessary but without any complex circuitry.
Multilayered Ceramic PCBs: These PCBs are made up of multiple layers of ceramic substrates and conductive traces, with vias interconnecting the various layers. We design our multilayer ceramic PCBs to be suitable for high-density interconnects, complex circuit designs, and applications requiring signal integrity.
Thick Film Ceramic PCBs: For this type, we use thick film technology to create conductive and resistive traces on substrates made of ceramic materials. These ceramic PCBs are highly durable and suitable for applications in harsh environments like automotive and industrial settings.
Thin Film Ceramic PCBs: For our thin film technology, we deposit thin layers of conductive and insulating materials onto ceramic substrates. Our thin film ceramic PCBs offer accurate electrical properties useful in high-frequency applications, such as RF and microwave devices.
Hybrid Ceramic PCBs: For our hybrid ceramic PCBs, we combine ceramic materials with different materials like metal cores or organic substrates. This hybrid approach balances the benefits of ceramics with the advantages of other materials, such as cost-effectiveness or specific thermal properties.
Al2O3 or Alumina Ceramic PCBs: We make our alumina ceramic PCBs from aluminum oxide, and they offer high thermal conductivity, electrical insulation, and mechanical strength. These are suitable for various applications, including power electronics, LED modules, and high-power RF devices.
AlN or Aluminum Nitride Ceramic PCBs: We offer aluminum nitride ceramic PCBs with much higher thermal conductivity as compared to alumina, thereby making them suitable for applications where efficient heat dissipation is critical. The industry often uses them in high-power electronic devices and LEDs.
BeO or Beryllium Oxide Ceramic PCBs: The special characteristic of our beryllium oxide ceramic PCBs is extremely high thermal conductivity. The industry uses them in applications with efficient heat dissipation demands, such as in high-power RF amplifiers.
SiC or Silicon Carbide Ceramic PCBs: Known for their excellent electrical and thermal properties, including their ability to withstand high temperatures and harsh environments, the industry uses our silicon carbide ceramic PCBs in high-temperature electronics and power electronics.
LTCC or Low-Temperature Co-fired Ceramic Boards: In our LTCC technology, we co-fire many layers of ceramic substrates at low temperatures. The industry uses our LTCC ceramic PCBs in RF modules, sensors, and other miniaturized devices.
HTCC or High-Temperature Co-fired Ceramic PCBs: We achieve high-temperature co-firing by mixing aluminum oxide and adhesive, lubricant, plasticizer, and solvent, leading to the roll-forming of the raw ceramics. We follow this up with coating and implementing circuit tracing on refractory materials, and firing it at high temperature, baking it for 32–48 hours. Applications include small-scale boards, carrier circuits, and derived boards.

As a leading manufacturer of ceramic printed circuit boards, Rush Flex PCB has decades of rich manufacturing and assembly experience. Our high-quality alumina PCBs, aluminum nitride PCBs, LED COBs, DOB LEDs, IGBT ceramic substrate boards, 3D alumina products, and more, are in great demand in the electronic industry. Avail of our free design and manufacturing guidance, along with our one-on-one engineering support to bring out the best in your high-quality ceramic PCBs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you offer DFA and DRC support for Ceramic PCBs?

Yes, our DFA, DFM, and DRC support is available for all types of PCBs including Ceramic.

What is the level of thermal conductivity you offer in your Ceramic PCBs?

Ceramic PCB Type	Thermal Conductivity (W/mk) at Room Temperature
Aluminum Nitride	80 – 200
Aluminum Oxide	18 – 36
Beryllium Oxide	184 – 300
Boron Nitride	15 – 600
Silicon Carbide	70 – 210

Do you offer surface finishes on your Ceramic PCBs?

As ceramic PCBs typically operate at very high temperatures, we do not provide surface finish. However, if silver corrosion is a problem, we can protect exposed pads by gold plating them.

Up to what temperatures can Ceramic PCBs operate safely?

Typical safe operation for Ceramic PCBs goes up to 800 degrees Celsius.

Is good high-frequency performance possible from Ceramic PCBs?

Yes, Ceramic PCBs offer excellent high-frequency performance, with very good signal integrity and very low signal degradation.