Flex Ltd.
Heat transfer in the printed circuit board of an SMPS by an integrated heat exchanger

Abstract:

An integrated heat exchanger has a heat exchanger within a circuit board. The circuit board can be a PCB having one or more electronic components coupled to its top-side surface. The conductive layers of the PCB include a first sub-set of electrically conductive interconnects and as second sub-set of electrically conductive interconnects. The first sub-set of conductive layers are electrically connected to each other and to the one or more electronic components. The second sub-set of conductive layers are electrically isolated from the first sub-set of conductive layers by intervening non-conductive layers such as prepreg. In this manner, the heat exchanger is electrically isolated from the one or more electronic components. The second sub-set of conductive layers include a dedicated top-side conductive layer to which a baseplate can be attached. The baseplate is also attached to the one or more electronic components via an electrically non-conductive gap filler.