EEVblog 1559 - PCB Design: Trace Current Rating

Dave answers a Twitter question: How should I design a PCB trace to carry 80A of current, and can this be done on one PCB layer? The answer is, well, complicated. Let’s go down the PCB design rabbit hole of current rating PCB traces. PCB Design Video Playlist: 00:00 - Twitter question: How should I design a PCB trace to carry 80A of current 01:09 - Ohms law and copper losses 02:06 - PCB Trace calculator 02:45 - The three (four) major factors to PCB current handling calculations 02:54 - Trace Width and Copper thickness (weight) and PCB stackups 04:18 - A trap with Multilayer PCB designs 05:20 - External vs Internal layer matters with thermal design 06:20 - What happens if you exceed the maximum current rating? 07:23 - PCB plating matters 08:12 - Electrical vs Thermal design considerations 09:30 - 1oz copper vs 2oz vs 4oz 10:35 - Solder and tin plated traces 11:37 - Let’s look at what a PCB manufacturer offers, HASL, SMOBC, ENIG etc 12:46 - How do you get your PCB traces plated in your design? 14:31 - Those are rookie temperature numbers, you gotta pump those up! 14:51 - The IPC 2152 and IPC 2221 standards are a bit How’ya’Doing 16:30 - The physical and thermal part of your product design matters 16:47 - Thermal conduction to planes matters 19:30 - Does VIA stiching matter? 20:30 - Have you considered a Bus Bar? 21:56 - We can get 80A on a single PCB trace, BUT... 23:18 - Can I interest you in bodge wire Sir? It’s complete legit. 24:17 - PCB Standard WARS! 26:19 - Forget about etch factor 27:08 - Internal vs External trace calculations If you find my videos useful you may consider supporting the EEVblog on Patreon: Or with crypto: BTC: 33BsprBQNBtHuVzVwDmqWkpDjYnCouwASM ETH: 0x68114e40ff4dcdd384750500501e20acf3875f8c BCH: 35n9KBPw9T7M3NGzpS3t4nUYEf9HbRmkm4 USDC: 0x68114e40ff4dcdd384750500501e20acf3875f8c LTC: MJfK57ujxy55su4XicVGQc9wcEJf6mAoXF Web Site: Other channels: EEVblog2: EEVdiscover: T-Shirts: #ElectronicsCreators #PCB #Design