Printed circuit thermocouple arrangements for personnel training and

Abstract

A thermocouple arrangement for developing, evaluating, monitoring and adjusting any process performed on or otherwise so as to thermally affect a printed circuit board assembly or other electronic assembly (including bare circuit board or boards in the manufacturing process), such as soldering/desoldering and various other production, rework and repair processes including cleaning, fluxing, preheating, thermocompression bonding and spot welding. In accordance with various embodiments, a layer of a first conductor material is applied on a first surface of an electrically insulative support, while a second layer of a second, dissimilar, conductor material is applied to at least one other surface of the support using conventional printed circuit board construction techniques. At those locations where thermocouple junctions are required, holes are drilled through the conductor layers and support material, and then the two layers of conductor are electrically connected by a plating of the first conductor material through the through hole. The voltages produced by the thermocouples during a production/repair/rework operation on an emulated electronic assembly may be monitored and used to develop, modify or adjust the operation of thermally affecting processes thereon, train personnel or evaluate equipment. Numerous different processes can be evaluated involving different permutations of thermal mass configurations, heat source locations and types, and thermocouple locations.