ST. LOUIS -- The United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted Viasystems a patent for a thermal management solution for printed circuit boards.

Patent no. 7,741,566 B2 for “Microelectronic Substrates with Thermally Conductive Pathways and Methods of Making Same,” describes a method for using a copper heatsink as an integral part of the board rather than as an attachment.

Earlier methods for dissipating heat through a PCB involved “via farms,” or arrays of vias (copper-lined holes), that permitted heat to pass out of the boards. As miniaturization increased and PCBs became more densely populated, Viasystems found via farms to be no longer effective. Coin-attached heatsinks made of copper have been an important technical solution, the company said.

"As electronic products become smaller and denser, and as higher speed devices populate our printed circuit boards, our customers’ heat dissipation requirements become increasingly challenging,” said Craig Davidson, Ph.D., Viasystems’ Vice President of Engineering and Technology."Viasystems has invested in thermal management technology over a period of several years and now offers a spectrum of thermal management solutions that range from basic to leading edge.

Viasystems has used the embedded heatsink technology in production volumes for telecommunications products, he added.

• Prev
• Next