Temperature Rise in PCB Traces

Temperature Rise in PCB Traces Douglas Brooks:I built my first “electronic” device over 40 years ago. (I was really young at the time!) Over the intervening years, there have been dramatic changes in technology. Some of these changes include the shift from designing circuits with components to designing systems with IC’s, the shift from high voltage vacuum tube requirements (say 250 volts, or so) to (mostly) low voltage requirements, and the subsequent decline in the relative number of designs where high voltage and high current requirements are an issue. In the 60’s almost all designers had to worry about the current carrying capacity of PCB traces on at least some of their designs. Now, some designers can go through an entire career without having to address this issue at all. As I looked at this I began to understand why the significant investigations into PCB trace temperature-vs-current (T-C) relationships are mostly over 25 years old!