A Novel Scheme in Thermal Modeling of Printed Circuit Boards

This paper presents a simple yet novel analytical approach to model the heat conduction in a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) by taking advantage of the large thermal conductivity contrast between the copper and glass-epoxy layers. The model provides a compact expression for the effective thermal resistance of a PCB and captures an approximate 2-dimensional temperature distribution within the PCB copper layer using simple one-dimensional fin equations in successive copper-glass epoxy layers. The results for effective thermal resistance and temperature distributions in copper layers agree within ±10% of those predicted using finite element (FEM) simulations. The present approach can significantly improve the system level thermal modeling and design of single and multi-component PCBs.