Electrical – How to design a PCB for high current applications

high-currentmosfet-driverpcb-design

I'm attempting to design a PCB that will have 8 high-side drivers. I'm struggling with designing the PCB, because it seems the pad on the back of chip isn't large enough to carry the max current it is rated for.

The FET is a VN7020AJTR. According to the data sheet, it's rated for 45 AMP maximum with internal current limiters. According to the PCB trace calculator I'm using, I'd need 32mil (or about .8mm) thick copper on the PCB to handle a trace that's only 2.2mm wide (the input pad on the FET is 2.2×2.9mm).

That's just at the FET. There will multiple FET, and we need to handle up to 100A total (we're limiting in software), I'd need traces 11mm wide.

The 100A limit is easy enough, I can supplement the current capacity by attaching a bus bar, but I still need the traces to handle the current to the pad.

I even considered putting the bus bar on the back side of the board and using multiple vias to transport the current to each pad. I haven't calculated how many vias I would need though. I'm sure it's several.

Now the question, Are my calculations correct? Do I need that much copper just to connect to the FET (assuming a copper bus bar is added) and how do I figure out how many vias I need if the bus bar is on the back side?

If this is anywhere near accurate, it might be better for me to split the FETS onto a separate board than the logic circuits.

Best Answer

Page 38 example R5 4L gives the lowest 'C/W rise.

It is impractical to choose copper tracks with 10 oz layers, so the prudent design uses heavy busbars as SIPs that carry high current. if low ESR and low ESL are critical then edge layout is mandatory with Litz wire interconnects with twist pair for lower EMI.

Busbars:enter image description here
wave solderable edge conn.
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