This is something I don't know much about. I need to lay out a pcb pattern for an SOT-223 voltage regulator, and I want to allow it to have some "reasonable" amount of board heatsinking. What are the guidelines for doing this kind of thing? Can I make the tab footprint larger without causing problems with reflow soldering? I know I'd need to adjust the solder paste footprint, manually I guess. I gather another technique is to use vias to conduct heat to a similar footprint on the bottom of the board.
Any advice would be welcome.