Evaluation of accuracy and performance of an optimized simulation model by measuring a manufactured test vehicle

Inhalt:
Thermal analysis of Printed Circuit Board (PCB) is gaining huge attention due to its increasing demand and complex/ miniaturized design of the emerging applications in the market. Some of the factors which affect the temperature distribution on the PCB are copper distribution in layers/vias, power dissipation from the components, placement of components and cooling conditions. Joule heating resulting from the current flow through a copper trace also contributes to the temperature increase in the PCB. Electro-thermal simulations on a PCB helps to ensure reliability, performance and efficiency of the board by identifying high temperature affected areas and thermal hotspots at the pre-development stage of the prototype. This ultimately helps in reducing the number of iterations in the prototype development process. This study aims to perform electro-thermal simulations on a test vehicle PCB and to compare the simulation results with laboratory measurements. Simulations are performed with the help of a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) tool (CST Studio Suite(r)) and thermal measurements are performed using the classical thermal camera setup. A Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC) resistor is also added to the test vehicle to check its reliability compared to the thermal camera for temperature measurement. Four different locations are selected on the test board and the temperature values at these locations are extracted through simulation and measurement and these values are then compared.