Accidentally this week and last week I did some non-standard thermal simulations with through-hole pins by imitating hot solder solder wave underneath the PCB. Of course a mere thermal simualtion can only look at heat spreading in detail but cannot cover metallurgical or fabrication aspects. Nevertheless, the results gave a correct agreement of positions of the problematic pins (and those without problems) compared to the solder wave result. Among other effects it showed that local copper around a solder pin can help heat to flow toward the pin rather than flowing away from it. But all that depends on details of the layout in the bottom layer and maybe in other layers as well, the mass of the component, how the flux is dispensed and many more influencing parameters. A numerical investigation can help to reduce the number of prototypes.
Author: admin
Overdesigned Copper costs Money
Copper got more expensive. The price for a ton of copper was jumping from 4800$ to 5800 $ at London Metal Exchange end of october 2016.
Temperature simulations with TRM uncover paths how you can design printed boards more cost effective, tailored to specific environmental conditions and applications. Do you want to pay for surplus copper?
Around the Corner
Through the years, the impact of right-angle corners on printed circuit board (PCB) traces has been a hot topic. As early as the 1990s, some were arguing strongly against the use of 90˚ corners, using mitered corners instead. How do TRM simulations and experiments come together?
Read more in our collaboration: Thermal Effects around Right-Angle Trace Corners
Happy Electric New Year!
In the past I was asked several times about AC on boards and its consequences due to electro-magnetic induction. How does an alternating current change trace heating and how does it influence the traces around? Plenty of approximating formulae on skin and proximity effect for simplified geometries can be found in literature. For traces in boards it is better to solve Maxwell's equations directly.
Over Christmas and New Year there is some time to play with. A test code gives good results for classic test cases. What has to be done now is to define industrial use cases and to solve them.
Call for Action: If you work with AC in printed boards and want to contribute, please leave a message in the comment field below.
ADAM Research and partners wish you a happy holiday season and a new year filled with peace and prosperity
(This picture is simulated heat conduction by TRM with some artistic effects added in ppt.)
New web site of ADAM Research
The new new web site finally is adapted for smart phones.
Release TRM2.2.2
RELEASE TRM 2.2.2 (Nov 2016)
· Individual path to material library per user and extra long path names
· 2D preview of results during calculation
· Extensions in the Altium interface
For previous updates of TRM > History
Temperature awareness and thermal integrity
Why is temperature of printed boards so important?
Because there are limiting temperatures for operation:
- Secure maximum operational temperature of components
- Glass transition temperature of the board material
- Stability of solder joints
Why should temperature be known as good as possible?
Because too many items depend on temperature:
- Material properties, e.g. electric resistance of traces and thus voltage feed or impedance for transmission of signals
- Performance of components
- Derating of power for hot ambients needs knowledge of component temperature
Why don't simplifying spread sheet calculations work?
Because the local thermal conductivity (the artwork) controls the temperature of a component. It is impossible to include copper patterns, drills and influence from other components in a simple formula, a data sheet or a simple network. Better do a holistic simulation using dedicated software.