Fig.1
Thermal Imaging cameras are one of the most useful tools in thermal analysis of existing or newly developed electronic products or subassemblies. Although it looks very similar to a simple thermal gun, this camera is actually a power analysis and debugging tool. This camera will shoot an infrared thermal picture of the object it is aimed at and actually capture details of the temperature profile at each point of the object in digital format. This digital image is then stored into a data card and the data can be studied in a laptop or computer. As color grading is used, the hot spots can easily be seen. A sample of the output is shown below in Fig.2:
Fig2
This thermal image is of a complete product (an LED bulb) as shown in Fig.3 below:
Fig.3
Note that on the computer, when you move the cursor you can read the temperature at that cursor point.
Another picture (Fig.4 below) depicts the thermal profile of a driver of another LED product (Fig.5).
Fig4
Fig.5
A very nice and affordable Thermal camera we can recommend is the "True Sense Infrared Thermal Imaging Camera" shown in Fig1 at the top. You can check it out here on Amazon.
This has an Infra Red resolution of 32x32 Pixels and is good for most electronic applications.
Detailed features & specifications of this camera are as below:
True Sense Infrared Thermal Imaging Camera Handheld Digital Thermal Imager Temperature Range -20~300℃ With 1024 Pixels 32x32 IR Resolution
【High Resolution Imagery】 Our 2.0" full color display screen shows thermal detection in 32 x 32 resolution, allowing the user to see the full range of infrared imagery. It can measuring temperature between -20℃ and 300℃.Unit switching function, Celsius and Fahrenheit, you can choose your own unit measurement.
【Palette Features】Iron red palette and white hot palette. For the iron-red palette, which focuses on display colors, the palette is well-suited for high-temperature contrast situations and is used to increase the contrast between high temperatures and low temperatures. However, the white-hot palette provides a uniform linear color. Choosing the right palette can better show the details of the target object.
【Ideal For Professionals】Build in USB(16MB),which is support for data storage,and this imaging camera is ideal for work in the medical, fire-fighting, archaeology, traffic, farming, and electronic manufacturing fields,as well as any job that requires accurate temperature readings (accurate within ±2%/±2℃)
【Troubleshooting】Infrared thermal camera can accurately locate hot spots and clearly show heat problems. The measurement is safer and the perception is more accurate. Precise image capture and storage for easy analysis of every test result and quick troubleshooting.
【Functions】To improve recognition, this product is equipped with a vision camera, based on practical requirements, it can turn thermal image into visional image, thermal image and visional image can be stored in dismountable memory card, adjust the images and store them in PC which are used to generate report for printing.