Cooling a TO-220 7812 regulator

Pimpom · 2024-09-15T11:28:01+00:00

I'm going to use a standard 7812 TO-220 regulator on a single-sided 1 oz board with the dissipation varying as below:- Idle at 120-150mW- 0.5W for 1-5 minutes at irregular intervals- Up to 4W for 1 second at the start of each 0.5W phaseThe interval between the 1-5-minute periods is variable and may be 1 to 10 minutes.The ground pin is soldered to ~2 of copper on the PCB.Options:1) As described. No extra heatsinking.2) Mount it on a small Al heatsink.3) Place the regulator horizontally on the underside and bolt it to the copper.Tamb = ~35ºC maxDo you think option 1) is enough? Or should I go for 2) or 3)?

Sep 15, 2024 Last reply: 1 year ago 20 Replies

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LM 1 year ago

I would very much try to get a switcher mode replacement for 7812. They don't get hot. Mouser and Digikey stock them, and probably EBAY and Alibaba too. And many others. Examples TSR 1-24120 P7812B-1000 R-78K12-1.0

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Cooling a TO-220 7812 regulator

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