IPC 2152 Determines Current-Carrying Capacity in Printed Board Design
October 19, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS
IPC released IPC 2152 - Standard for Determining Current-Carrying Capacity in Printed Board Design.
This standard provides information to help determine the appropriate sizes of internal and external conductors as a function of the current-carrying capacity required and the acceptable conductor temperature rise.
Replacing the outdated conductor sizing charts that currently exist in IPC 2221, the new IPC 2152 standard provides guidance on how thermal conductivity, vias, power dissipation, printed board material and thickness and the presence of copper planes all factor into the relationship between current, conductor size and temperature, according to the IPC.
"It's been a long time coming," said Michael Jouppi, chairman of the IPC 1-10b Current-Carrying Capacity Task Group that has worked on developing the standard since 1998.
"The temperature rise of a printed board conductor is a complex problem that required a significant amount of testing, as well as the development of computer simulations to improve the understanding of how certain variables impact the temperature rise of a conductor," Jouppi said.
"But the need was to provide general design guidelines that were simple and accurate," he said. "So we've divided IPC-2152 into two sections."
The main document establishes general, conservative guidelines for sizing conductors and contains charts that show testing results for both internal and external conductors in air and vacuum environments.
The document's appendix provides more specifics, giving information into how variables impact the temperature rise of a conductor and presenting detailed charts based on copper weights.
Source: IPC.