DETERMINING CURRENT CARRYING CAPACITY

摘要

Determining appropriate trace sizes for current requirements is an important aspect of board development. Since copper is not a perfect conductor, it presents a certain amount of impedance to current flowing through it, and some of the energy is lost in the form of heat. For many applications, it is necessary to predict the temperature rise caused by this loss, which traditionally has been accomplished using a chart created over 50 years ago by the National Bureau of Standards (IPC-2221, Figure 6-4), or by using one of several calculators based on it.