Artwork of an electronic board
Artwork of an electronic board
(OP)
When examining the artwork of an electronic board supplied from a 60 cycle, 120 volt power source and noting the different widths of the artwork, is there a rule of thumb at how current is flowing per,lets say, inch of width?





RE: Artwork of an electronic board
<nbucska@pcperipherals.com>
RE: Artwork of an electronic board
http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/search/web/copper%2Bcurrent%2Bcapacity%2Bboard
TTFN
RE: Artwork of an electronic board
There is much info on the web just use caution and a search engine.
RE: Artwork of an electronic board
RE: Artwork of an electronic board
However, when we tried to spec 1 oz copper we found that they still make it with 1 oz copper because of a cost issue- board house can buy 2oz copper clad all the time instead of stocking 2 kinds. These were only 2 layer boards.
With multilayer boards its sounds as though this would not be the case.
RE: Artwork of an electronic board
RE: Artwork of an electronic board
"Venditori de oleum-vipera non vigere excordis populi"
RE: Artwork of an electronic board
HOWEVER, if you come anywhere close to where the IR drop in the copper causes anything but a minor temperature change, you've underdesigned the layout. The copper traces should NEVER get to the point of being a dominant effect, UNLESS you purposefully designed it that way
TTFN
RE: Artwork of an electronic board
RE: Artwork of an electronic board
I did a little experiment a long time ago and had some 2 oz copper traces of various widths made up on a PCB (length was the longest we would ever use and the shortest). I then ran current through it to determine how much current it could actually handle without a significant rise in temperature. I suspect many other people have done this but you may want to do it as well to get some of your own numbers to use. (I don't have the results any more or I would give them to you).