Fast and Accurate Analytical Thermal Modeling for Planar PCB Magnetic Components

Abstract

The exploitation of PCB integrated magnetic components in the high power field brings new challenges due to the compactness of the design and the poor thermal performance of components using standard PCB technology. In this work, a thermal modelling approach is proposed which is suitable for optimization based design of planar PCB magnetic components. The targets are high accuracy, low computation time and easy implementation. The results show an accuracy comparable to Finite Element simulations, with average absolute error of 1.3 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{\circ }$</tex-math></inline-formula> C respect to measurement, while the computation time is 13 times shorter than simplified Finite Element simulations. The equations are purely analytical, i.e. no measurements or simulations are needed to obtain the involved parameters. The structure of the model enables easy and fast generation of PCB geometries, with the possibility to make a parametric sweep of any variable. The model has been verified with Finite Element simulations and experimental measurements for a wide range of operating conditions, including dc and ac excitation.