Time：2016-01-20  Back

Thermodynamics can be a difficult enough?subject to understand. But when combined?with high-frequency PCB design and fabrication,?it can really get complicated. Thermal?management of PCBs has received a lot of attention?over the past few years and it will probably?continue as new technology pushes the?limits of this issue.?For simplicity purposes, we will only discuss?two sources of heat generation. One source?of heat on the PCB is an active device or chip?generating heat. The other source occurs when?RF power applied to the circuit causes the heat.?Of course there can be a combination of these?sources, but to keep this column simple, the individual?sources will be addressed independently.?And for simplicity, examples will be given for?a double-sided (microstrip) circuit, with a heat?sink attached to the ground plane side of the?circuit.?The basic concept of thermodynamics related?to PCBs is concerned with thermal conductivity,?heat flow and thickness of the circuit.?In the case of a double-sided circuit, the copper?has extremely high (good) thermal conductivity,?but the substrate is typically in the range?of a thermal insulator with very low conductivity.?Having a high heat flow is good for keeping?the circuit cooler by more efficient heat transfer?from the heat source to the heat sink. The heat?sink is designed to dissipate the heat away from?the circuit and is typically a large metal plate?bonded to the PCB with some cooling functionality.As mentioned, most substrates used in the?high-frequency PCB industry have low thermal?conductivity and are in the range of 0.2–0.3?W/m/K. A common tradeoff to improve heat?flow and ultimately thermal management is to?use a thinner substrate, which givesa shorter heat flow path and enables?more efficient transfer of?heat to the heat sink. If the?heat source is a chip mounted?on the circuit, this is sometimes?helpful and often copper-?plated vias are placed beneath?the chip to act as thermal?channels to the heat sink.?In the case of a high-frequency?circuit with PCB circuit?traces that heat up due?to RF heating, the selection?of thinner substrates may be?troublesome because it can?generate even more heat. The?heat generated by RF heating?is from insertion loss,?and a circuit with more loss?will generate more heat. Typical?high-frequency RF circuits are of?the controlled impedance variety, and a thicker?substrate will require a wider conductor to?maintain this impedance. A thicker substrate?and wider conductor will generally have lower?insertion loss, which means there will be less?RF heat generated. Unfortunately, a thicker substrate?will have a longer heat flow?path from?the RF heat generated on the signal plane to the?heat sink on the ground plane.?There are some tricks that can be beneficial?for using thin, low-loss, high-frequency laminates.?When a laminate is relatively thin, the?conductor surface roughness will contribute to?the insertion loss to a greater extent than a thick?laminate. A thin laminate using copper with a?smooth surface will have less conductor loss,?which in turn will cause lower insertion loss?and a smaller amount of heat generated. Additionally,?the thinner laminate will be a shorter?heat flow path, so thermal management issues?will benefit.?The selection of material becomes more important?for high-frequency, high-power PCB applications. ?Even though a thicker substrate will?have a longer heat flow path, it can be less of an?issue if the substrate has a very low dissipation?factor. The lower dissipation factor will reduce?the insertion loss and cause less RF heat generation.?Ideally it would be good?to have a substrate with very?low dissipation factor and a?high thermal conductivity;?however, that is an extremely?unusual combination of?properties for high-frequency?laminates. The substrates?that typically offer the lowest?loss are the PTFE-based?laminates, and most of them?have thermal conductivity?numbers in the range of 0.2?W/m/K–0.3 W/m/K.?Recently, there has been?several laminates brought?to the market claiming high?thermal conductivity and?low loss. Many of these laminates,?depending on how they?were tested, do not have as high?thermal conductivity in actual use?as one might expect. There are exceptions,?though, including RT/Duroid 6035HTC, which?has a very low dissipation factor (0.0013 @ 10?GHz) and extremely high thermal conductivity?at 1.44 W/m/K.?The general desired properties of circuit?materials for thermal management of high frequency?PCBs are low dissipation factor, high?thermal conductivity and smooth copper for?thin constructions. However, there are typically?some tradeoffs, so it is recommended that you?contact your material supplier when designing?a new PCB application where thermal management?is a concern. Disclaimer: this post was excerpted from PCB007.