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PCB/Electronics: Thermal Management, Cooling and Derating (Udemy.com)

Master the most important concepts of cooling, thermal management and derating, with a focus on PCB development aspects.

Created by: Marco CATANOSSI

Last updated April 2020

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What you will learn

  • Design a PCB/electronic application using comprehensive approach to thermal management, cooling and component derating for reliability.
  • Know what heatsinks are, their most important aspects and how to choose them for a proper thermal management and cooling.
  • Undersand and choose heat sink mounting techniques and thermal interface materials.
  • Understand the use of fans in thermal management and cooling, their impact on heat sinks thermal resistance and parameters.
  • Master thermal aspects with respect to PCB routing and design (copper plane, vias and similar) and parameters influencing it.
  • Understand re-rating and de-rating of electronics components (derating power, voltage, currents, fan out, and so on).
  • Master the reliability aspects of thermal management, cooling and derating, especially with respect to electrical and thermal stress factors.
  • Analyse, calculate, and design the hardware thermal control of a PCB.

How it compares

Against the other 335 rated Udemy courses in Engineering on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.3 out of 5higher than 28% of them
  • Reviews1,416#62 of 336 by number of reviews
  • Length1.5 hoursshorter than 91% of them
  • Last updatedApril 2020earlier than 82% of them

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Course Description

This course is about cooling, thermal management and derating in PCB design.

After introducing the basic definitions, it provides a clear and logical path to a complete design of thermal aspects.

- It starts with calculating the dissipated power for different types of components, and understanding whether the thermal equilibrium is optimal or we need a thermal management strategy.

- Then it introduces heat sinks, which is by far the most used cooling approach, talking about their features, mounting techniques, parameters and so on.

- Than it speaks about thermal interface materials, used to couple heat sinks to integrated circuits, their types and characteristics.

- It also speaks about the forced air cooling technique, introducing how to calculate a fan performance and its impact on the heat sink thermal resistance.

- Then it explains PCB related aspects for thermal management, of particular relevance when the used devices have exposed pads.

At the end of these group of lessons, you will be able to understand the need for thermal management and provide your design with a comprehensive strategy mastering all the related aspects and variables influencing it (like altitude, spreading resistance, etc. )

Then the course dedicate an entire section to a related and very important aspect: derating.

It explain the concept of re-rating and de-rating, its impact on electronic devices reliability and expected life (MTBF, Mean Time Between Failure, nowadays often used instead of MTTF, Mean Time To Failure), and it shows how the most used electronic components are derated and which parameters are reduced.

The course is enriched with exercises and real life examples, using real devices datasheets to show where parameters are gathered and how they are used.

At the end of the course you will have a broader understanding of the thermal/cooling management and derating aspects, and you will able to design a PCB that is able to manage the dissipated power (and related temperature rise), and properly choose components parameters based on the right derating considerations.  

Therefore, you will be able to design a PCB that stands thermal and electrical stresses and that actually works and last in the real world environment.


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Instructor Details

Marco CATANOSSI

Marco Catanossi lives and works in Italy. 

He has a MSc in electronics engineering, is a Certified professional in Engineering, and he is an expert in product legislation, international standards and certifications, helping many companies from different countries to successfully put their product on the market and reach safety and quality goals.

The Author has also experience as assessors on product legislation and international standards on behalf of the Court of Justice and he is member of the European Union engineering panel for innovation projects evaluation. 

Since 2008, Marco has built a consulting business helping manufacturers from different fields (from medical devices to machinery and toys) to meet regulatory and technical requirements worldwide, and to certify their organization according to management standards, like ISO 9001 and ISO 13485.

He is a dedicated professional with a high specialization in products legislation (including electrical/electronics) and certifications (both for quality like ISO 9001 and for products like IEC 60601, IEC 60335, etc.), a deep insight in product liability and a strong practical approach to product engineering and design.

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Reviews

4.3

1,416 ratings on Udemy

Select a bar to show only those reviews.Select the bar again to show every rating.

By Alexandru-Cristian Bivolaru on 7/11/2026

I love the fact that the course offers quizzes after every single lesson and also the course links concepts pretty well. However, I don't feel a deep understanding of the concepts, nor is it the most mathematical focused. Overall, it's good for beginners/students studying electrical engeneering as well as passionate people who do not posses the greatest math foundation, quite an easy course actually

By Ali Afr on 1/31/2026

Well, the spoken and written language were so poor and hard to understand, the course was so superficial and there are little or no detailed explanation about different topics. To be honest, don't know how this course got that much of rating!!

By Raghul Gnanasambanthan on 9/21/2023

Needful contents on the thermal aspects of electronic parts/circuit design are covered with detailed explanation and plenty of practical examples with datasheet references. Liked the way how the course content is organized and the instructor's way of teaching. Thank you!

By Brittany Repac on 3/21/2023

This was a great comprehensive course for Mechanical engineers who work on thermal management for low-voltage or high-voltage electronics. I do appreciate the quizzes along the way to make sure I understood the concepts before proceeding.

By Saurav Mitra on 7/22/2020

In the current state of online courses, the formatting of some of the discussions could have been better, specially the answers after Quizzes. There were cosmetic issues. The sentences extended beyond the browser.

By Abraham Josue Castañeda Islas on 11/29/2019

El curso muestra lo esencial sobre manejo térmico en tarjetas de circuito impreso (PCB), muy bueno para aquellos que se adentran en este tema, ofrece muy buenos ejemplos y ofrece varias formulas que son imprescindibles si quieres mejorar tus diseños. Los únicos puntos malos son: 1) No tiene muchos ejemplos prácticos ni para componentes ni para el diseño del circuito impreso. 2) Los temas se exponen algo rápidos.

By Othman Ait Maatallah on 10/7/2018

It is highly regrettable that this type of courses are neglected by ECE departments and if they were available, most Students would neglect taking this type of courses in their curriculum. After their graduation, it turns out this is one of the things a Hardware Engineer should have in his/her veins. From a PCB/Electronics Thermal/Stress Management stand point, I think this is the best course one can find online. The content is concise, clear, well documented (including datasheet examples), and does not waste the industrial learner's precious time. Moreover, the Instructor is kind and very responsive ... All these valuable things in just 1.5 hours! Amazing Course and Amazing Instructor as well!

By Christane D Machado on 9/22/2018

Excellent. Exactly what I was looking for. Great introduction. Would be great to have a direct follow on course with Heat Sink Design and possible liquid cooling systems, etc. Great energy Marco! Pleasant life to you too.

By Lyndon Tomaine on 6/8/2018

Awesome course for what I paid. The course was direct and informative. I would have liked to have seen more info a PCB traces, heat dissipation and trace size/layout. One or two full PCB layouts breakdowns would have made this course perfect.

By Dariusz Modzelewski on 1/14/2018

I am an engineer and I work in Power Electronics. This course is presented with an extremely practical approach. The author doesn't want to give you 5 or 8 years of electrical engineering education, explaining all the complicated analytical theory. Everything that can be simplified - is simplified, with practical implementation in mind. In my opinion, after participating in this course you will be able to design thermally-safe & reliable power electronic circuits without much prior knowledge in this field. The are small interface-related mistakes in this course but nothing major. Taking into account the quality of the content presented, I think that 5 stars is the only fair rating, especially when compared to other courses on Udemy that are often made by amateurs or students. This course is an incredible value for the money when bought at one of these huge discounts that udemy offers frequently.

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Overall Score : 86 / 100