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Thermal Nodes and Heat Sink Nodes


Jim Nadir

Problem Statement: The Inner Planes allow only one type of VIA which is a "thermal via" (it has spokes which facilitates soldering and unsoldering of through hole components). Some high power surface mount devices (such as DC-DC converters, CREE LEDs, etc) have heat sinks mounted on the package's underside. Using a solid copper via to an inner plane can be effective in routing constrained designs.

Request: It would be nice if I could attribute a subset of nodes (usually connected to the Ground Net) to have a solid connection to one of the inner power planes. Please note that I am not requesting that all nodes attached to the net be of the same type, only a subset (I would still like to be able to unsolder a through hole component easily).