Application Example Aluminium LED Bar For Linear Lighting
A single sided aluminium-based board in a long strip format, populated with LED footprints and finished with OSP, intended to be clamped into a metal extrusion.
What Had To Be Solved
A linear LED module has to stay optically straight and thermally cool over its full length. If the bar bows, emitters sit at different distances from the lens. If junction temperature rises, lumen maintenance falls away long before the rated life is reached.
Customer name, order volume and project dates are confidential and are not published.
Four Things That Had To Stop Happening
- Emitters at inconsistent heights along a bowed bar
- LED output degrading early because of junction temperature
- Screw holes that do not line up with the extrusion
- Paying for a gold finish on a board that only carries LED pads
How The Board Answers Them
An aluminium core moves junction heat sideways into the extrusion rather than trapping it under the emitter. Bow and twist is held below 0.01 mm per mm so the optical line stays straight when the bar is clamped. OSP is used because the board has no fine pitch or mating surfaces and is assembled soon after delivery.
How The Board Is Produced
Each stage below runs inside our own plant in Fuyong, Shenzhen.
Stage 1
Aluminium core scrubbed and imaged
Stage 2
Circuit etched and the dielectric verified for insulation resistance
Stage 3
OSP applied on the roller coater
Stage 4
Routed to strip format on CNC routers to ±0.2 mm
Stage 5
Flatness checked against the 0.01 mm/mm bow and twist limit
Where Coordination Happens
The bare board and the assembly are handled by the same plant, so the surface finish, the panel format and the reflow route are decided together rather than negotiated between two suppliers. There is no shipping leg between fabrication and assembly, and no handover where damage or delay can enter.
Components are either bought here on a turnkey basis or consigned by you, with the split marked line by line on the bill of materials.
What Is Verified
- Dielectric strength verified above 1.3 kV/mm
- Insulation resistance at 1012 Ω at normal condition
- Thermal stress check at 265 °C for 5 seconds
- Bow and twist held below 0.01 mm per mm
- Laminate flammability rated FV-0 to GB/T4722 clause 26
Where This Board Stands Today
The board is a standard catalogue item in the aluminium family. Thermal resistance of the laminate is measured at 1 °C/W and the maximum working temperature is 125 °C.
Boards In The Same Family
Other catalogue items built on the same line to the same published tolerances.
Questions About This Example
Can you tell me who this board was built for?
No. Customer names, order volumes and project dates are confidential and are not published. What is published is the board, its family and the process tolerances behind it.
Can you build the same board for me?
The board shown is a aluminium pcb catalogue item. Send your own files and we will quote against the same process and the same published tolerances.
What if my requirement is close but not identical?
That is the normal case. The capability tables define the envelope, and anything inside it can be built. Anything outside it we will tell you about before tooling.
Which industries does this apply to?
This example sits in automotive electronics, but the same board family is used across the other sectors in the catalogue as well.
Bring Us A Board With The Same Problem
Send the files and describe what has to stop happening. We will tell you which family and which tolerances solve it before quoting.