Copper layer thickness according to amperage

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But somebody IS wrong on the internet https://xkcd.com/386/

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  1. Check what your PCB house can do.
  2. While you maybe can set copper thickness in an EDA, gerber don’t have that info.
  3. If your not use your PCB house’s default stack, write stuff down. Else they’ll ■■■■ up for sure.
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Well, yes and no. The gerber job file is part of the gerber standard although it’s pretty new. KiCad v5.99 can write the thickness to it:

"MaterialStackup": [
    {
      "Type": "Legend",
      "Name": "Top Silk Screen"
    },
    {
      "Type": "SolderPaste",
      "Name": "Top Solder Paste"
    },
    {
      "Type": "SolderMask",
      "Color": "Green",
      "Thickness": 0.01,
      "Name": "Top Solder Mask"
    },
    {
      "Type": "Copper",
      "Thickness": 0.035,
      "Name": "F.Cu"
    },
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At risk of piling in too deeply; current and heating is not the only concern. If the voltage being conducted is 1V (as in some FPGAs & CPUs) then you might not want to tolerate a 10 mV voltage drop which would be 1%. This would almost definitely add to other error sources. But if you get the same 10 mV drop in 12V then that is less than 0.1% and may well be considered negligible.

Based upon some work I am doing now…Does anyone know of an open source tool for (maybe finite element analysis) calculation of point-point resistance of copper zones? Maybe give it a gerber file and copper thickness and temperature. Specify two points and have it spit out a calculated DCR between the two points?

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I just had the chance to read your comments and replies today, and I have nothing to say except that I learned plenty of new information and insights. That’s exactly what I was looking for in this platform. I will absolutely put your advice in consideration next time I am working on a big project.

Best Regards,
Omar Maaly

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