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I am designing a new board for an automotive application, and I will need to use potting. I have found guides on how to use potting before pouring it into a pcb enclosure but no layout specifics. Are there any guides/guidelines/experience of others to share for PCB design when performing a layout for potting?

Things I have considered with my limited knowledge-

  1. such as cutouts for potting flow?
  2. shapes and sizes of cutouts?
  3. quantity of cutouts/distance from each cutout?
  4. Distance from board edge to enclosure ID?
  5. Thermal resistance calcs for potting?
  6. perhaps, empirically designing for my specific size and application and just iterating to find my solution?

Note: I saw IPC-HDBK-850 but that does not seem to cover PCB design at all, unless I am mistaken.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I've used 6) only, I don't think this is some exact science. Though ask some contractor who's doing potting jobs, they'll have lots of valuable experience. They'll know where they want cut-outs etc. The datasheet of the potting material should give an idea of thermal characteristics, in case you are doing this to spread heat out more evenly (explosive atmospheres or such). Also some things to avoid are trimmable passives (potentiometers etc) and non-sealed inductors. RF components in general are tricky, it's basically trial & error when dealing with such. \$\endgroup\$
    – Lundin
    Commented Oct 28 at 15:53
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    \$\begingroup\$ What is your primary reason for potting? \$\endgroup\$
    – Andy aka
    Commented Oct 28 at 16:10
  • \$\begingroup\$ The item we are developing can be mounted externally and could be exposed to salt and ice to name a few. \$\endgroup\$
    – Nolanarchy
    Commented Oct 28 at 17:05
  • \$\begingroup\$ Have you ruled out conformal coating? \$\endgroup\$
    – vir
    Commented Oct 28 at 17:50
  • \$\begingroup\$ Since this is a redesign from an older product, that route has been taken before and they decided to not use that in this product. \$\endgroup\$
    – Nolanarchy
    Commented Oct 28 at 20:01

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