Adding thermal vias can take up valuable board space with little benefit.

We have developed several articles and publications in the past questioning the value of thermal vias.¹ Here is our definitive conclusion, and why.

Thermal vias are non-current-carrying vias between two layers provided for the purpose of permitting heat to conduct from one layer in a PCB to another. The idea is to lower the temperature of the heated surface compared to another, lower temperature surface. In a typical application, the heated surface might be a pad underneath a heated component. The opposite surface might be another pad or plane further down in the PCB structure. Someone untrained in heat transfer might suggest using thermal vias without an opposite copper surface, but we will show that such an approach is totally ineffective.

Building and maintaining what's said to be the world's largest CAD database requires strong relationships.

Keeping up with the increasing demand for new and specialized components is no easy task, but Ultra Librarian's team has proven up to the task – to the tune of more than 16 million components in its library and a quarter of a million unique downloads per month.

When we visited Ultra Librarian's office in Huntsville, AL, in early December, EMA Design Automation had just announced the library service's spinoff into a new ECAD-oriented company, Accelerated Designs, which was the original name of the company under its founder, Frank Frank, before it was acquired by EMA in 2016.