Electronics Cooling

Reference: Cengel, Heat Transfer,

2 nd Edition, Chapter 15

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Introduction

 All electronic components generate heat

due to I 2R (joule heating)
 Modern integrated circuits (ICs)
– approaching 1010 components/chip
– heat fluxes up to 100 W/cm2
 Failure rate of electronic devices
increases exponentially with operating
temperature
 Silicon p-n junctions
– Absolute limit of 125C for “safe”
operation
 85C desirable for extended life

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Supporting Electronic Equipment

 Chip Carrier
– heat flow paths
– junction-to-case thermal resistance (Rjc)
 Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
– Single-sided
– Double-sided
– Multilayer
 Enclosure
– sealed
– vented

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Common Cooling Methods

 Conduction cooling
– copper “heat frames“ attached to PCB
– copper layers and “vias” within multilayer
PCBs
 Air Cooling with or w/o heat sinks
– natural convection & radiation
– forced convection with fans
 Liquid cooling
– direct immersion
– indirect (hxer, pump)

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Electronics Cooling Models

 Component Model
– Semiconductor device
– Heat sink, mini-fan, heat pipe, hxer
– PCB
 Enclosure Model

– Chassis assembly
– Environment
 Air Flow Model

– Chassis-mounted fans
– Air intakes, exhausts,
– Shrouds, ducted flow
 System Model

– Combines component, enclosure, and air

flow models
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Component Model

 Physical system

 Thermal circuit

 Typical values

 Analysis

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Enclosure Model

 Physical system

 Thermal Circuit

 Analysis

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Air Flow Model

 Physical system:

 Thermal Circuit

 Analysis

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System Model

 Thermal circuit

 Analysis

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Example

 Given: Enclosure containing 16 TO-3 style

power transistors, mounted in sets of four, on
four EG&G 435 series heat sinks.
Transistor specs Enclosure specs
Rjc = 7.0 C/W L = 60 cm
Rcs = 0.09 C/W H, W = 20 cm
qc = 10 W t = 3 mm
Tj,max = 125 C k = 0.4 W/m-K
ho = 10 W/m2-K
To = 25 C
o = 0.8
hi  3.9 V / L W/m2 - K

Heat Sink specs

0.9 
Rsa  C/W (curvefit to data, V in m/s)
1V

Find: Fan flow rate needed to keep Tj below

125C

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