Don’t guess the temperature of your PCB
A PCB does not heat up based on current alone. Real temperature depends on geometry, layer stack, material properties, components, and the cooling environment. That is why simple calculations and generic online tools often miss the actual thermal behavior of a design.
PCB-Investigator Physics helps engineers analyze thermal and electrical effects directly in the layout. You can identify hotspots, critical voltage drops, and excessive trace resistance before the first prototype is built.
3D field solving instead of rough estimates
The Physics module combines an electrical and a thermal 3D field solver. The electrical solver calculates potential distribution, voltage drop, and resistance in traces, planes, and vias based on the real layout geometry.
Once the electrical distribution is known, the thermal solver uses the power loss in conductor paths, planes, vias, and components to calculate the temperature field. Heat spreading in copper and FR4 becomes a computed result, not an assumption.
Current, loss, and cooling must be evaluated in the real board structure, not in isolation.
Why this matters in development
- Find hotspots early before components or traces exceed limits.
- Assess voltage drop and resistance under realistic operating conditions.
- Run steady-state and transient thermal analyses.
- Model load profiles with multiple operating states.
- Reduce prototype iterations and save design time.
The combination of current and thermal simulation is especially valuable because it connects electrical loss with the resulting temperature rise. That gives engineers a much clearer picture of how the board behaves in the real world.
If you want to validate thermal behavior earlier in the design flow, explore PCB-Investigator Physics and see how your layout performs under load.
