A method to measure heat dissipation from component on PCB

Knowledge of heat dissipation from electronic components is critical input for thermal design in the product development phase. Unfortunately heat loss is not always available to design engineers even when a prototype is available. This paper presents a new method to measure and calculate the component heat dissipation on printed circuit board from a thermal standpoint. Based on the error analysis of the thermal resistance network, an error indicator is defined to account for the interference from nearby heat sources. Different cases are simulated to confirm the effectiveness of the measurement method and the error indicator. Using the error indicator in compensation, measurement error can be reduced greatly. Uncertainty analysis is conducted to assess the error sources from measurements and their impacts to result. Preliminary experiments have been conducted on a mock-up board to prove the concept of this method.