PCB material and copper weight basics in PCB Design - Dashboard Guide

Dashboard Mode - PCB material and copper weight basics

Goal

Understand how different PCB materials and copper weights affect cost and performance.

Sample Data

Material	Copper Weight (oz)	Cost per sq.ft ($)	Thermal Conductivity (W/mK)	Typical Use
FR4	1	2.50	0.3	General purpose
FR4	2	3.50	0.3	Higher current
Polyimide	1	4.00	0.4	High temp
Polyimide	2	5.00	0.4	High temp, high current
Rogers	1	6.00	0.9	High frequency
Rogers	2	7.50	0.9	High freq, high current
Aluminum	1	8.00	2.0	LED boards
Aluminum	2	9.50	2.0	High power LED

Dashboard Components

• KPI Card: Average Cost per Material
  Formula: Average Cost = AVERAGE('Cost per sq.ft ($)')
  Shows the average cost for each material type.
• Bar Chart: Cost by Material and Copper Weight
  X-axis: Material
  Y-axis: Cost per sq.ft ($)
  Legend: Copper Weight (1 oz, 2 oz)
  Shows how cost changes with copper weight for each material.
• Table: Detailed Data
  Shows all columns from the sample data for reference.
• Scatter Plot: Thermal Conductivity vs Cost
  X-axis: Thermal Conductivity (W/mK)
  Y-axis: Cost per sq.ft ($)
  Points colored by Material
  Shows relationship between thermal conductivity and cost.

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+--------------------------+
|  KPI: Avg Cost       |  Bar Chart: Cost by       |
|  per Material        |  Material & Copper Weight |
|                      |                          |
+----------------------+--------------------------+
|                      |                          |
|  Table: Detailed Data |  Scatter Plot: Thermal   |
|                      |  Conductivity vs Cost    |
+----------------------+--------------------------+
  

Interactivity

Filter by Material: Selecting a material filters the bar chart, scatter plot, and table to show only that material's data. The KPI card updates to show the average cost for the selected material.

Filter by Copper Weight: Selecting 1 oz or 2 oz filters the bar chart, scatter plot, and table accordingly. KPI updates average cost for the filtered data.

Self Check

If you add a filter for Material = 'FR4', which components update?

• KPI Card updates to show average cost for FR4 only.
• Bar Chart shows cost bars only for FR4 copper weights.
• Scatter Plot shows points only for FR4.
• Table shows only rows where Material is FR4.

Key Result

Dashboard showing cost, thermal conductivity, and typical uses for PCB materials and copper weights.