Cambridge Nanotherm has announced Nanotherm™ MBPCB (Metal-Backed Printed Circuit Board), an innovative thermal management material, with a dielectric thermal conductivity of 7 W/mK, which is able to significantly reduce LED die temperatures – even in the most thermally challenging Luminaire designs.

The company’s core IP exists in its unique process for converting Aluminium into Alumina (Aluminium Oxide [Al2O3]). This process allows the surface of an Aluminium plate to be converted into a layer of Alumina – which acts as a dielectric. A range of standard Printed Circuit Board fabrication techniques can then be used to apply circuitry onto the nano-ceramic dielectric layer.

Independent testing of the Nanotherm™ MBPCB, in LED lighting applications, has shown that it offers a 20% reduction in substrate thermal resistance over some of the best available metal-backed PCBs. In back-to-back comparison testing with other metal-backed PCBs, LED temperatures were seen to be reduced by as much as 20°C, thus allowing designers to increase component density and power or give longer lifetime guarantees.