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Trace width calculation for metal clad PCBs

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mayd85

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Is there a standard/calculator available to calculate trace width for designing metal clad PCBs? Many calculators available online can only calculate trace width for FR4 PCBs based on the IPC standard. I understand that due to better thermal performance of metal clad PCB, the temperature rise of the trace will be less compared to FR4 PCB for the same amount of current, thus providing more current capacity. But is there a standard or a correlation (maybe a formula) available, with which we can translate the trace width values for FR4 PCB to metal clad PCB?
 

Have you tried the Saturn PCB calculator?

Yes, I did try Saturn PCB calculator. In fact that was the first thing I tried. Saturn PCB Toolkit does not offer any specific method to calculate trace current for metal clad PCBs.
 

You more or less have the trace with a plane very near, use that figure in Saturn and you should be ok as a start point, anything else you will have to measure and qualify yourself, hence why I use the IPC-2152 figures from Saturn.
 

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