JANUARY 2023 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 75
Heat sink failures can be difficult to
detect, especially when the failure
rates are low. But even if the volume
of failures is
low, those costs
quickly run into
thousands of
dollars.
When I was a sophomore in
college, I had an amazing pro-
fessor for Physics II: Electricity
and Magnetism. He made a
series of complex topics fun
to learn, and his personality
and way of teaching were almost tailor-made for the
way I like to learn. However, I did find myself wondering,
"Will I ever use any physics in real life?" It turns out that
the answer to the question was yes.
The PCB industry still sends
scanned copies of paper docu-
ments, which I have termed "ePa-
per," back and forth to each other;
this process requires humans to
interpret the information on the
electronic copy of a document
before manually entering it into a
computer. So much for the con-
cept of continuous improvement.
E-mobility is a challenging new paradigm for
electronics design. Regardless of industry,
automotive, two-wheeler, vertical takeoff, and
landing (VTOL), rail, or marine, e-mobility
presents new challenges that the electronics
supply chain is working together to resolve.
IPC APEX EXPO started out as a show for
the PCB manufacturing community, but
it's grown beyond that. This year, there's
more design curriculum at the show than
ever before. IPC instructor Kris Moyer
has been instrumental in leading the
organization's efforts around PCB design
and design engi-
neering curriculum.
So, I asked him the
million-dollar
question.
The resistance of a copper
trace is mostly determined by
its geometry (cross-sectional
area), and there are lots of
studies trying to look at the
relationship between the
current down a trace (of known size) and the
resulting temperature of the trace. But the situation
is much more complicated than this.
For the latest news and information, visit PCBDesign007.com
Dana on Data: PCB Data
Transfer Non-evolution
Physics, Electrical Engineering,
and PCB Design
Connect the Dots:
Managing Solder for Fewer
Heat Sink Failures
Electronics vs. Physics:
Why Vias Don't Get Hot
E-mobility a Driver of Topics
at IPC APEX EXPO
A New Gathering Place for
Designers
