Articles from September 2000 Issue

Determining the junction temperature in a semiconductor package, part IV – localized heat generation on the die

September 1st, 2000

In the standard thermal test environment, thermal test chips are designed to dissipate the applied power uniformly over most of the die surface. However, in many situations of practical interest, the power is dissipated over…read more

High accuracy thermal interface resistance measurement using a transient method

September 1st, 2000

Heat dissipation of active devices has become one of the limiting factors in further miniaturization. While component manufacturers succeed in decreasing the overall thermal resistance of their packages, the thermal interface resistance to the board…read more

Low temperature electronic cooling

September 1st, 2000

The potential for low temperature enhancement of CMOS performance has been recognized for some time, going back as far as the late 1960′s and mid-1970′s. A collection of articles focusing on low temperature electronics is…read more

Multilayer circuitry on metal substrates

September 1st, 2000

Today’s electronics are becoming smaller and faster, resulting in increased power densities and greater risk of thermal problems. Thermal dissipation requirements thus need to be satisfied by the use of several cooling mechanisms. The cooling…read more

Natural convection modeling of heat sinks using web-based tools

September 1st, 2000

Heat transfer in electronic packages is a complex problem involving a network of resistive paths for the various laminated structures, bonding adhesives, lead frames, and attachment mechanisms, such as ball grid arrays. However, despite the…read more

The increasing importance of thermal test dies

September 1st, 2000

Thermal test dies are among the major tools used in package thermal design qualification. They are usually simple chips, containing heaters and temperature sensors. The sensors measure the temperature on the chip surface as a…read more

The thermal conductivity of fluids

September 1st, 2000

About 10-15 years ago, fluids, either directly (mainly Fluorocarbons), or indirectly (cold plates flushed with water) cooled the majority of mainframe computers. Nowadays, the expected increase in heat flux density causes a renewed interest in…read more