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, can significantly shorten the life of the electronics. Although this "increased power - decreased size" scenario has been prevalent for … [Read more...]
Low temperature electronic cooling
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 included in the book by Kirschman(1) where a number of researchers [2-6] have identified the advantages of operating electronics at low temperatures. Jaeger … [Read more...]
Computer-related thermal packaging at the millenial divide
Examples of state-of-the-art thermal management solutions at the dawn of the 21st century (left to right): a TCM module, a high-density heat sink, and an ultra performance, low profile fan-sink. Thermal management has served as a key enabling technology in the development of advanced microelectronic systems and has facilitated many of the "Moore's Law" [Moore, G.E., 1975] … [Read more...]
Improving productivity in electronic packaging with flow network modeling (fnm)
As the complexity and power density of electronics systems increase, so too does the demand for tools to improve both product quality and designer productivity. This is especially true for thermal designers who use Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools for thermal designs. Several important factors are driving this trend: System complexity has increased to the point that … [Read more...]
An introduction to thermoelectric coolers
Figure 1: Cross Section of a Typical TECouple Introduction Thermoelectric coolers are solid state heat pumps used in applications wheretemperature stabilization, temperature cycling, or cooling below ambient arerequired. There are many products using thermoelectric coolers, including CCDcameras (charge coupled device), laser diodes, microprocessors, blood analyzersand portable … [Read more...]
