Many people have contacted me regarding my column“Trace Currents and Temperatures: How Hard Can WeDrive ‘Em?” in the May, 1998, issue. In that column I talkedabout the possibilities and the problems associated withdeveloping a set of equations for the current/temperaturecurves we all have occasion to reference.But many of you posed a different question. It typicallywent something like this: “I need the trace to carry 5 Ampsfor only about .5 seconds before…“ something catastrophichappens. “Then I don’t care if the trace melts or not. Whatsize trace do I need?”My first reaction was that this is a fuse question, somethingI’ve never seen discussed. When enough of you askedme about it I began digging for information. What I foundwas there isn’t much to be found! But thanks to somedirection from a few experts in the field (Note 1) I discoveredthat there is some very interesting theory to draw from.CAUTION: The information that follows is based ontheory and, to my knowledge, has never been tested onprinted circuit boards. Designs based on this theoreticaldiscussion should be significantly derated and/or tested beforebeing committed to production.
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