When it's too hot to touch use infrared thermography

Infrared (IR) thermography applications in the design, development and production of printed circuit boards (PCBs), hybrid circuits, microcircuits, and other electronic components are described. This noncontact temperature measurement technique can capture a highly accurate record of the thermal dynamics of small objects at intervals as short as 1/30th of a second. It is ideal for studying the heat distribution across boards to determine the optimum layout of components, the effectiveness of proposed heat-dissipation and -removal devices, and the performance of developmental systems under stimulated load conditions. The effects of the emissivity of the object, the ambient temperature, the atmospheric conditions surrounding the object, and its size and distance from the camera on the temperatures observed by the IR camera are discussed.<
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