How to get a custom board to hold 6-8 Luxeon Rebels???

I've been doing a lot of work first with the Luxeon 3, then the Cree XR-E LED's in doing auto upgrades. The only thing i've done so far is to with the new 2006+ BMW 3 series in upgrading the Angel Eyes to make they much whiter and much brigher.

What i would Love to do is get a custom board created that holds either 6 or 8 Luxeon Rebels wired Very close together.


. -+ | -+ |-+|-+
+ / 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 \ -
+ \ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 / -
. -+ | -+ |-+|-+

This is how i would like to wire them, 2 sets of 4 LED's stacked right next to eachother. All of this would have to fit on a board that is about 1inch x 1inch


Is there anyway i could do this? i know theres no way i could solder these by hand like this
Thanks everyone!

no one?

well, thats obvious:

1st cut Yourself an "u" shaped board from (dunno Your name, such a sheet of epoxy with a thin layer of copper on it). Just like Your "drawing" but with the cuts between the contacts of each emitter. "-" and "+" of the following have to be connected.
2nd mount the emitters on a heatsink that only covers the slugs
3rd place the "u"-board and solder

but this tiny little heatsink wont be enough for those leds and this might be the reason noone answered.

I don't see how you can get that much heat off of a 1" x 1" board, unless there is room for lots of fins off the back. Electrical design of the board is straightforward - you could probably do it in MS Paint if needed. It's the thermal design that is challenging - even with a 3000lb automobile to reject heat into .

Etch it onto metal core board. It would not be that tough. You would need a good heat path of course. I am not sure thermal epoxy would be sufficient for attachment. You would need to play around with a soldering method. Metal core is just about impossible to manually solder on.

Semiman

Ya i have a lot of room behind the LED's to put a heatsink, so i'm not too worries about that.

My biggest concern is now to get the LED's soldered onto the board.

something like this


I just dont know how i could solder this on a board, I can never do this by hand....

is the slug on the rebel neutral? if so just drill the hole for the slug, fill it with solder, or some other metal (maybe machine some aluminum plugs.) and then affix it to a heat sink, or a copper bar affixed to a shaded peice of metal.

If its not neutral, then just use thermal tape on the back to keep electric current from passing, but allowing the heat to pass.

There are small lot shops that specialize in prototype circuit board production, including SMT assembly. It's relatively expensive, and typically 5-10 boards cost little more than 1. A google search might help you, or visiting some of the robot hobby sites. Lady Ada has a "Where to have it made" that's good, but dated.

It you want to try it yourself, Instructables has a good intro. The Rebel isn't BGA, but the principle is the same. Technocrat has a pointer to some articles. Try google with "toaster oven reflow solder". Another good article is http://www.seattlerobotics.org/encoder/200006/oven_art.htm, but it's not really step-by-step instructions.

If you're really into it, there are a few articles on the web about building an oven controller to regulate the temperature and automate the soldering cycle.

Let us know how it goes - I haven't bought Rebels yet for just this reason.

Wow - just found this at Sparkfun:
http://www.batchpcb.com/faq.php?osCsid=784d30fa6a8af1ee3d672c4344a6c4c3

PCB's from Gerber files for $10 + $2.50 per sq in!