IPC-2152 – Standard for Determining Current-Carrying Capacity in Printed Board Design released

Citation

(2010), "IPC-2152 – Standard for Determining Current-Carrying Capacity in Printed Board Design released", Circuit World, Vol. 36 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/cw.2010.21736aab.003

IPC-2152 – Standard for Determining Current-Carrying Capacity in Printed Board Design released

Article Type: Industry news From: Circuit World, Volume 36, Issue 1

IPC have released IPC-2152, Standard for Determining Current-Carrying Capacity in Printed Board Design. The 97-page document sets the sole industry standard for determining 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 conductor sizing charts that currently exist in IPC-2221 (which were based on data sets more than 50 years old), the new IPC-2152 standard provides guidance on how thermal conductivity, vias, power dissipation, printed board material and thickness, and most importantly, the presence of copper planes all factor into the relationship between current, conductor size and temperature.

“It's been a long time coming”, says 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. But the need was to provide general design guidelines that were simple and accurate. So we've divided IPC-2152 into two sections.”

The main document establishes general, conservative guidelines for sizing conductors and contains simple charts that show testing results for both internal and external conductors in air and vacuum environments. The document's appendix provides more specifics, giving clarity and insight into how variables impact the temperature rise of a conductor and presenting detailed charts based on copper weights.

IPC members may request a free, single-user download with digital rights management of IPC-2152 by e-mailing MemberTechRequests@ipc.org within 90 days its release; after 90 days, the price for members is $50. The nonmember price of IPC-2152 is $100. Additional formats of IPC-2152 are available. Visit: www.ipc.org/onlinestore for details.

For more information on the work completed by the IPC 1-10b task group, contact John Perry, IPC Technical Project Manager, at: JohnPerry@ipc.org

AT&S – results for second quarter of financial 2009/2010

Measures taken to reduce the cost base and realignment of the Leoben-Hinterberg plant are bearing fruit. Results for the second quarter show a positive trend, and in a difficult market environment sales revenues were 6 per cent up on the first quarter. By the end of the quarter, all AT&S's plants were operating at full capacity. While sales in July of €25.5 m continued in line with the poor results for the first quarter, customer demand picked up rapidly from mid-August onwards. Sales for August climbed to €27.7 m. In September, all the plants were once again operating at full capacity and sales jumped to €34.8 m. Indeed, demand was so strong that some orders had to be turned away because of lack of capacity. Quarterly sales were 6 per cent higher than in the first quarter (Table I).

Table I

While volume production in Shanghai gained momentum for seasonal reasons, the Leoben-Hinterberg plant also registered significant volumes of new orders. All volume production has been transferred to Asia during the past 12 months, and production capacity in Leoben is now entirely focused on European business. At 85,000 m² of PCB area annually, capacity earmarked for Europe has more than doubled over the same period, although market analyses show that total production in the European PCB industry will shrink by more than half in 2009. From the first to the second quarter, sales in AT&S's industrial and automotive businesses, which are primarily serviced from Europe, increased by €8.7 m (41 per cent) and €1.4 m (17 per cent), respectively.

“These developments confirm the correctness of our strategy for Europe. There is a substantial market here, which needs to be serviced locally. Many of our customers also appreciate working with a business partner that can produce large batches in-house in Asia at attractive prices and to high quality standards. Especially, in the current economic climate, we are trusted as a financially stable, long-term business partner”, commented Harald Sommerer, Chairman of the AT&S Management Board. “From today's perspective, it seems that the losses of the first quarter – excluding the non-recurring items – can be made up in the course of the financial year 2009/10”, added Steen E. Hansen, CFO of AT&S.

As at September 30, 2009, AT&S employed 5,644 people at its production sites in Austria, China, India and Korea, and a total of 16 sales offices around the world.