Here is how those boards with the depression/gap thermal pad perform.
Note: Ambient temperature is slightly higher on the Noctigon XM20 testing, which should give Sinkpad a leg up! Solder alloy is identical in all tests.
What is not mentioned here is that none of the 3XP have a depression/gap at all on the thermal pad, in the single batch we did so far for those.
Important is that not all boards have that depression for the thermal pad is only a certain batch, again the one in the test is one of those, mistakes happen and flaws appear, we are not claiming flawless here.
In this case of the thermal-pad depression/gap boards batch, there is no thermal issue due to the slight depression as the seller implies as the test shows it.
that is a nice test Hank! It indicates how well the direct bond to copper of the thermal pad actually performs. I am sure that a gap filled with solder does have some influence on those temperatures, but doubt that the influence will be more than 1 or a few degC.
Still, for the hardcore snobs, even if you proof that the difference is negligible, no gap will always be more desirable than a gap
I asked Hank at CNQG about stencils and he said they won’t be selling any. I have a query in now about releasing the file so we can have them made at Oshstencil but whoever is more proactive on this will certainly have a leg up on the competition.
Nice job Dsche! and thanx Hank for those test results. What is the thickness of the boards? That picture you have seemed to clip off the reading. I'd love to see these at 2 - 2.5 mm thick.