Temperature dependence of surface breakdown on printed circuit board

In this paper, surface breakdown phenomenon of printed circuit board was investigated with increasing temperature from 23/spl deg/C to 150/spl deg/C, and decreasing the atmospheric pressure from 100 kPa to 1 kPa. The experiment was carried out by 30 kV DC pulse voltage with the frequencies in the range of 50 Hz to 150 Hz. Printed circuit boards of epoxy resin laminate have been employed to investigate the effects of the low pressures, surface temperatures, electric stress and the frequencies of applied voltage on the discharge quantity. The study revealed that the times to breakdown decrease with increasing temperatures, frequencies and the magnitude of electrical field. The characteristics of discharge currents with increased temperature and the electric stress were discussed by power spectral density. The results show that the power spectral density of discharge currents increases with increasing the temperature, and increases with increasing the electric stress.