As the title indicates, since the middle of the last decade, there have been very pessimistic projections regarding the growth of the total annual energy used by data centers in the U.S. One of them suggested that by 2030, the energy consumption in the U.S. in the IT sector would be roughly 60% of that used by its entire industrial sector. [1,2,3] What was the origin of this … [Read more...]
Calculation Corner: Thermal Interactions Between High-Power Packages and Heat Sinks, Part 2
These days, many thermal engineers face the challenge of defining effective heat sink cooling solutions for high power processors and ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits). The usual practice would be to calculate a value of ΘJA (junction-to-air thermal resistance) for the combined package/heat sink assembly and compare it to the requirements of the … [Read more...]
Calculation Corner: Thermal Interactions Between High-Power Packages and Heat Sinks, Part 1
Bruce Guenin, PhD Associate Technical Editor The need to accommodate increasing chip power has led to improved package and heat sink designs having much lower thermal resistance values than previously. This has led to challenges in accurately calculating the thermal performance of the package and heat sink as an integral unit on the basis of thermal resistance measurements … [Read more...]
The Uses of Simplicity in Thermal Analysis
Bruce Guenin, PhD Editor-in-Chief, Summer 2010 Issue The dramatic trajectory of Moore’s law has produced a number of changes in key areas of technology that are critical to our industry: 1) greater packaging and system complexity; 2) increased power dissipation; and 3) enhanced software tools and computing performance. The first two we put into the challenge category. They … [Read more...]
When Moore Is Less: Exploring the 3rd Dimension in IC Packaging
Introduction As consumers of electronics we have become spoiled. We not only expect our electronic devices to get smaller, faster, more functional, cheaper, more interconnected, and more reliable, we actually demand it. It would not be a pretty picture either for the consumer or the electronics industry if suddenly the design of our electronic gadgets became static. At this … [Read more...]
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