What is the best PCB practice for thermal via placement for SMT semiconductor devices?

My teammate are designing an LED Board and confused by PCB heat sink problem. Is it on the back or the sides with copper traces? Is it on the anode and cathode pad or side copper traces?

PCB Assembly
September 13, 2023

Thermal via’s don’t work well to conduct heat because they are essentially a copper-lined hole. If you really want to conduct heat to another layer, then you should really think about using through-hole components.

Copper pads do conduct heat well

When we use the ‘copper pour’ function of your layout software to fill everything else with as much copper ground plane.
When we oversize heat generating traces* to wick the heat away from the hot component

* where signal frequency is low enough to not be a consideration

#PCB Assembly #THT PCB Assembly #LED #PCB Design

Oliver Smith

Oliver is an experienced electronics engineer skilled in PCB design, analog circuits, embedded systems, and prototyping. His deep knowledge spans schematic capture, firmware coding, simulation, layout, testing, and troubleshooting. Oliver excels at taking projects from concept to mass production using his electrical design talents and mechanical aptitude.

Oliver Smith

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