What Is The PCB Current Calculator(Latest)

With the advancement of technology, the size of electronics boards becomes miniature. This reduction in size arises the problem of heating and failure of printed circuit boards. Thus, optimal trace width while designing a PCB with the help of a PCB current calculator. This is very important. Without working on the area of a current-carrying trace of copper on the printed circuit board. The current cannot be increased otherwise it will melt the trace and fail the designed circuit. The standards were formed to address the problem. And a generic standard became much popular among others. It is called “generic standard on printed board design”. Often tagged as IPC-2221 and compiled by “Association Connecting Electronics Industries”. Some people also use standard width calculators as provided by ANSI.

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PCB current calculator estimates the current rating for a given trace in PCB by using the area of the trace. It material available for conduction in that area, I.e. thickness of copper trace, and allowed the rise in temperature. In PCB current calculator, the area is proportional to the thermal conductivity of copper. It is inversely proportional to the rise in temperature. It is represented by the following formula.

The x and y variable in PCB current calculator depends on trace location on the printed circuit board. The values for x and y are higher for inner layer PCB as well as traces that lies in the center of the printed circuit board. The width in PCB current calculator is then calculated by dividing the area by the thickness of the copper conductor in the layer. Thus, as a quick guide, the increase in width will allow the designer to pass more current from the printed circuit board.

Other factors that are taken into account in PCB current calculator are clearance between traces on the same layer. Clearance depends on the nature of the circuit which is being designed. I.e. DC circuit or AC circuit as well as voltage level which is being applied to the electronics components.