| Considerations for Thermal Management of Printed Wiring Boards |
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| Jun 01 2008 | |
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Advertisement: Typical methods utilized in transferring heat away from component junctions have included metal back planes, thermal vias, thermal coins, heat spreaders, heat risers, thermally conductive adhesives, air over (forced air), and water cooling (Figure 2). Though widely applied within the electronics industry, the aforementioned cooling methods are often accompanied by negative design factors that typically include increased cost, weight, and size. Thermal Management for Digital and LED Designs Figure 2. Methods of heat transfer from component junctions include metal back planes, thermal coins, heat spreaders, heat risers, and thermally conductive adhesives.  Figure 3. Materials with “in plane” thermal conductivities of 2 to 4 W/mk will increase a board’s ability to remove component-generated heat by a factor of 10 to 20 times over that of conventional epoxy board materials. Thermal Management for RF DesignsAs the importance of good thermal management applies to high-power digital designs, proper thermal management is equally important in the RF arena, and in particular, to RF power amplifier applications. Often, the use of conventional heatsinking in high-power RF circuits creates a host of design issues, and therefore it becomes increasingly necessary to incorporate unique or novel heatsinking methods within the active RF realm, typically incurring additional costs for engineering, prototyping, and manufacture. |
