A comparison of thermal vias patterns used for thermal management in power converter

A daunting challenge in packaging design for power electronics products is removing the heat from the power devices in a cost effective manner. In this paper, a thorough literature review of the design and analysis of thermal vias in PCBs for thermal management of power electronics devices are presented. Based on the results from the available literature and practical manufacturing guidelines, four different via patterns for single power devices are selected. Each of the four via patterns is laid out multiple times with their via holes are filled with a filler material and their performance are compared to non-filled thermal vias. One dimensional analysis is performed to characterize the thermal performance of the thermal via patterns. The experimental results presented closely matches the theoretical prediction to identify the most efficient thermal via pattern.