Articles from February 2001 Issue

CFD: One measly letter away from CAD

February 1st, 2001

“The stuff you engineers design is too good,” the guy from Marketing said, “I need shoddier! Can you make them less efficient and cheaper?” I was working for a small company that made electric power…read more

Component thermal characterization

February 1st, 2001

For decades, the worldwide electronics industry has produced a stream of products that continue to amaze us with their capabilities, their compactness, and their low price. This track record is due, in part, to an…read more

Don’t underestimate radiation in electronic cooling

February 1st, 2001

don’t underestimate radiation in electronics cooling Bruce M. Guenin, Ph.D., Associate Editor, Amkor Technology, Inc. It is easy to underestimate the role of thermal radiation as a significant contributor to electronics cooling in environments without…read more

Future trends in heat sink design

February 1st, 2001

In today’s electronics equipment, total system dissipated power levels are increasing with every new design. Increases in power levels combined with the market expectation of reduced package sizes lead to heat problems that, if uncontrolled,…read more

The thermal conductivity of air

February 1st, 2001

In the Technical Data column of ElectronicsCooling Magazine, September 1998, the thermal conductivity of gases in general has been discussed. A few sentences were devoted to the temperature and pressure dependence of the most common…read more

The treacherous streams

February 1st, 2001

During the development of a telecommunications product, an unpredictable phenomenon of air streams within the maze of cards and module was encountered. It could only be compared to suddenly confronting powerful inner streams in a…read more

Thermal characterization of power ICs using virtual junction temperature

February 1st, 2001

Thermal experts generally view thermal resistance as a measurable property of a semiconductor device. A system designer, who designs an appliance, is usually not a thermal expert. The system designer just needs a way to…read more

We still have a headache with Arrhenius

February 1st, 2001

“We have a headache with Arrhenius” was attributed to Takehisa Okada, Senior General Manager of Sony Corporation, when asked about Sony’s perspective on reliability prediction methods during a U.S. Japanese Technology Evaluation Center visit.[1] The…read more