Investigation on current density limits in power printed circuit boards

Author

Coppola, Luisa ; Cottet, Didier ; Wildner, Franz

Author_Institution

Corp. Res., ABB Switzerland Ltd., Baden

fYear

2008

fDate

24-28 Feb. 2008

Firstpage

205

Lastpage

210

Abstract

Joule heating of copper traces is known as one major failure cause in high current printed circuit boards. The paper summarizes tests that were performed to investigate the actual failure mechanisms related to high current densities. The current values at which the boards failed show how conservative the present design rules for traces and via holes are. An electrothermal modeling method for printed circuit board is proposed for further analysis of current and temperature distributions in different layout configurations and under different load conditions.

Keywords

copper; current density; current distribution; failure analysis; printed circuits; temperature distribution; thermal management (packaging); Joule heating; copper traces; current density; current distribution; electrothermal modeling method; failure mechanism; power printed circuit board; temperature distribution; Conducting materials; Conductors; Copper; Current density; Failure analysis; Glass; Heating; Power electronics; Printed circuits; Temperature distribution;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, 2008. APEC 2008. Twenty-Third Annual IEEE

Conference_Location

Austin, TX

ISSN

1048-2334

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1873-2

Electronic_ISBN

1048-2334

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/APEC.2008.4522723

Filename

4522723