Thermal pad (electronics)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thermal pads can be seen in several locations on this PCB, in particular, the bottom pad of the three vertical pads in the top left corner.

A thermal relief pad is a PCB pad connected to a copper pour using a thermal connection. It looks like a normal pad with copper "spokes" connecting it to the surrounding copper.

A typical pad on a printed circuit board is only connected to a few narrow tracks at most. A pad directly connected to the copper pour would be difficult to solder, since the heat provided by the soldering iron will quickly leak away from the pad and into the copper pour (due to high thermal conductivity of copper). A thermal connection restricts the heat flow, making the pad easier to solder.