Electronic Packaging Based on Thermal Constraints

David Walker
Advanced Thermal Engineering
P.O. Box 4528, Huntsville, AL 35815 USA
DLWalker@HiWaay.net

AbstractThere is a connection between the size of a printed
wiring board (PWB), its circuit card assembly (CCA), its
housing, its power dissipation, its external boundary
temperature, and its hottest PWB temperature. A simple
software package can solve this very quickly. Knowing this
general guideline allows the thermal concept to move forward to
a successful mechanical design. Trade studies of PWB size,
housing, power, and external boundary temperature can produce
a CCA that will satisfy the electronic component maximum
junction temperature. This saves time and money for the
electronic box manufacturer.
I. INTRODUCTION
There must be a Rule-of-Thumb for selecting the power
dissipation of a PWB in a CCA based on its size, housing,
external boundary temperature, and hottest PWB temperature
limit. The hottest temperature limit is the mounting
temperature for the electronic component. The manufacturing
company will provide the thermal resistance from the board
(PWB) to the case, the thermal resistance from the case to the
junction, and the joule heating of the device. Reliability
guide-lines shall provide the device hazard rate based on the
maximum design junction temperature. This information shall
define the temperature rise from the board to the junction and
thus define the hottest PWB temperature for the device to
meet reliability requirements. There is such a simple scheme.
The old schemes are difficult to manipulate. They involve
a computer aided design (CAD) package with a built-in
thermal analyser solving the heat conduction equation. The
shapes in the CAD model are fixed during creation and hence
there is no way to adjust the lengths after surface input. If a
new geometry is needed, a whole new CAD model must be
created. Thus, each new PWB size requires a new model with
its associated housing. A new approach is to program the heat
conduction equation as a function of PWB and housing
geometry. Now all the geometry can be addressed as
variables and quickly changed for new sizes of the PWB in a
simple computer program. Trades studies of PWB size are
now easy to perform with the new scheme.
power flux decreases. This concept can be checked by the
various experts helping the Electrical Engineer design the
PWB and the resulting CCA. With all disciplines in
agreement, the design process will easily move forward at a
predictable pace.
A. Formula for Success
a. Pick the housing for the electronics.
b. Pick the external boundary temperature,
including cooling mechanism
c. Pick the maximum PWB temperature for
reliability requirements.
d. Create a plot of various PWB sizes versus
the maximum allowable power flux.
B. Example
a. Let the housing be a normal box with CCAs
input through the top and a lid screwed on.
b. The boundary will be a conduction mount to
a 71C base plate.
c. Each component has a 10C rise above its
mounting surface and shall remain be low
100C. Therefore, the maximum PWB
temperature is 90C.
d. The PWB has Flat-Pak components on the
component side and a 0.062 aluminium
frame bonded on the circuit side. The
aluminium frame extends beyond the PWB
to mount wedge-locks.
e. The results are shown in Figure 1.

II. TRADE STUDY

The trade study is focused on one particular housing,

external boundary temperature, and maximum PWB
temperature limit. Now we can vary the size of the PWB to
determine the power flux. As the PWB size increases, the

1
 REFERENCES
[1] MIL-HDBK-217D, Reliability Prediction of Electronic Equipment,
15 Jan 1982.
[2] MIL-HDBK-251, Reliability/Design Thermal Applications, 19 Jan
1978.
[3] Cooling Techniques for Electronic Equipment, Dave S. Steinberg, John
Wiley & Sons, New York, 1980, ISBN 0-471-04403-2.
[4] Principles of Heat Transfer, 2nd Ed., Frank Kreith, International
Textbook Company, Scranton, Pennsylvania, 1965, Library of
Congress Catalog Card Number 65-16305.

Figure 1 PWB Flux Requirements

This curve shows the electronic box thermal performance. As

the PWB grows in size, the power flux shall diminish to
maintain the 100C reliability based junction temperature of
the components. Now the Electrical Engineer can use the size
of the various circuits to determine how many will fit on the
PWB. This relationship between size and power produces the
Rule-of-Thumb for the Electrical Engineer. These results
were derived using CardTemp, a simple $400.00 commercial
software package for any Windows based platform.

III. CONCLUSIONS
Programming the heat conduction equation for a
PWB in a particular housing allows easy access to various
PWB temperatures based on PWB power dissipation. Once
the relationship between PWB size and power is known, the
design has a robust concept. It is now ready for detailed
design by various experts.