Rev Date: 06/28/2018 5 www.seielect.com
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Thick Film Current Sensing Resistor
Stackpole Electronics, I nc.
Resistive Product Solutions
High Power Chip Resistors and Thermal Management
Stackpole has developed several surface mount resistor series in addition to our current sense resistors, which have
had high er po wer ra tings th an sta ndard r esist or chi ps. This has ca used som e un certaint y an d even c onf usio n b y users
as to how to reliably use these resistors at the higher power ratings in their designs.
The data s heets for the RHC, RMCP , RNCP , CSR, C SRN, C SRF, CSS, a nd CSSH state th at the rated p ow er ass umes
an ambient temperature of no more than 100°C for the CSS / CSSH series and 70°C for all other high power resistor
series. In addition, IPC and UL best practices dictate that the combined temperature on any resistor due to power
dissipated and ambient air shall be no more than 105°C. At first glance this wouldn’t seem too difficult, however the
graph below shows typical heat rise for the CSR ½ 100 milliohm at full rated power. The heat rise for the RMCP and
RNCP would be similar. The RHC with its unique materials, design, and processes would have less heat rise and
therefore would be easier to implement for any given customer.
The 102°C heat rise shown here would indicate there will be additional thermal reduction techniques needed to keep
this part under 105°C total hot spot temperature if this part is to be used at 0.75 watts of power. However, this same
part at the usual power rating for this size would have a heat rise of around 72°C. This additional heat rise may be dealt
with using wider conductor traces, larger solder pads and land patterns under the solder mask, heavier copper in the
conductors, via thr ough PCB, a ir movement, and heat s inks, among m any other tec hniques. Bec ause of the var iety of
methods customers can use to lower the effective heat rise of the circuit, resistor manufacturers simply specify power
ratings with the limitations on ambient air temperature and total hot spot temperatures and leave the details of how to
best accomplish this to the design engineers. Design guidelines for products in various market segments can vary
widely so it would be unnecessarily constraining for a resistor manufacturer to recommend the use of any of these
methods over another.
Note: The f inal resistance value can be af fected b y the boar d layout and as sem bly pro cess, especially the s ize of the
mounting pads and the amount of solder used. This is especially notable for resistance values ≤ 50mΩ.
This should be taken into account when designing.