I am brining current from an IGBT to an inline current sense hall effect. Connecting them I am using a filled zone utilizng the front and back of the pcb.
Would filling these zones increase the current carrying capability? Would I want to solder fill and across the vias?
I want to carry continious 50 amps with short 50 ms of 120 amps.
Thank you for your input, I am very interested in how you increase current carryng capabilty in your designs. I can machine a piece of copper and lay it on the PCB as another option.
I’d suggest to specify thick copper plating (e.g. JLC offers 3.5 and 4.5 oz/ft²). Specialty PCB manufacturers can do much thicker, and also can do copper inserts (a.k.a. copper slugs or copper coins).
Solder plating will help, but bear in mind that copper is 6.5x more conductive than tin, so quite a thick layer is needed to have a large impact. The added mass also would help with absorbing heat: useful for peak currents.
For long traces, you could consider soldering a busbar to the board (the piece of copper you mentioned), but that would not be helpful with such short traces.
There are also variants of those current sensors with straight high current pins for attaching to busbars, and avoid having high currents in the PCB altogether.
