PCB/Electronics: Thermal Management, Cooling and Derating

Description

This course is about cooling, thermal management and derating in PCB design.

After introducing the basic definitions, it provides a clear and logical path to a complete design of thermal aspects.

- It starts with calculating the dissipated power for different types of components, and understanding whether the thermal equilibrium is optimal or we need a thermal management strategy.

- Then it introduces heat sinks, which is by far the most used cooling approach, talking about their features, mounting techniques, parameters and so on.

- Than it speaks about thermal interface materials, used to couple heat sinks to integrated circuits, their types and characteristics.

- It also speaks about the forced air cooling technique, introducing how to calculate a fan performance and its impact on the heat sink thermal resistance.

- Then it explains PCB related aspects for thermal management, of particular relevance when the used devices have exposed pads.

At the end of these group of lessons, you will be able to understand the need for thermal management and provide your design with a comprehensive strategy mastering all the related aspects and variables influencing it (like altitude, spreading resistance, etc. )

Then the course dedicate an entire section to a related and very important aspect: derating.

It explain the concept of re-rating and de-rating, its impact on electronic devices reliability and expected life (MTBF, Mean Time Between Failure, nowadays often used instead of MTTF, Mean Time To Failure), and it shows how the most used electronic components are derated and which parameters are reduced.

The course is enriched with exercises and real life examples, using real devices datasheets to show where parameters are gathered and how they are used.

At the end of the course you will have a broader understanding of the thermal/cooling management and derating aspects, and you will able to design a PCB that is able to manage the dissipated power (and related temperature rise), and properly choose components parameters based on the right derating considerations.  

Therefore, you will be able to design a PCB that stands thermal and electrical stresses and that actually works and last in the real world environment.

What You Will Learn!

• Design a PCB/electronic application using comprehensive approach to thermal management, cooling and component derating for reliability.
• Know what heatsinks are, their most important aspects and how to choose them for a proper thermal management and cooling.
• Undersand and choose heat sink mounting techniques and thermal interface materials.
• Understand the use of fans in thermal management and cooling, their impact on heat sinks thermal resistance and parameters.
• Master thermal aspects with respect to PCB routing and design (copper plane, vias and similar) and parameters influencing it.
• Understand re-rating and de-rating of electronics components (derating power, voltage, currents, fan out, and so on).
• Master the reliability aspects of thermal management, cooling and derating, especially with respect to electrical and thermal stress factors.
• Analyse, calculate, and design the hardware thermal control of a PCB.
• Cool components in PCB design using a proper approach.
• Understand the most used cooling techniques and all the parameters influencing it.

Who Should Attend!

• Students interested in electronics, embedded systems and PCB design.
• Students who want to understande the most important cooling techniques and basics.
• Students who are interested in electronics reliability against thermal and electrinic stress.
• Persons interested in derating and its impact in enhancing a device expected life.

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