Material Witness

It’s one thing to know you have to reduce the temperature at active devices mounted on a PWB and another altogether to do so while maintaining a “normal” manufacturing and assembly process for circuit boards. In our previous discussion of thermally conductive materials (“Beating the Heat – a Nonmathematical Introduction to Thermal Properties”) we summarized some of the important properties of laminates and prepregs that would be ideal for such applications: high thermal conductivity (at least 1 W/m-K, and preferably higher), minimum thickness, and the ability to flow and fill the interface to minimize thermal impedance. This time we will talk about some of the practical issues involved.