Measurements of temperature in electronic equipment and in thermal characterization apparatus are most often made with thermocouples. As with any sensor, the goal is to gather information about the environment in the vicinity of the sensor, in this case the temperature. Unfortunately the environment around the entire instrumentation chain, including the lead wires and the data … [Read more...]
Quick and easy fan/sink characterization
It is often necessary to generate in-house pressure-drop and base-to-ambient thermal resistance data for ducted fan/heat sink assemblies. For reliable applicability of the performance data, the configuration of the test article should closely match the intended application so that the test article coolant flow characteristics (turbulence level, 3-dimensionality, etc.) match … [Read more...]
Understanding Phase Change Materials
Although phase change materials (PCM) were introduced nearly twenty years ago, it was not until the development of the high-powered Pentium processor that this class of interface material gained widespread acceptance. The large quantities of heat produced by these processors necessitated a carefully designed thermal path where all of the thermal resistances were minimized. For … [Read more...]
Thermal Design Challenges in Automotive Alternator Power Electronics
Ever since the advent of the automotive alternator, or claw-pole alternating current generator, in the 1960's, there has been an ever-increasing thermal design challenge to cool the power electronics in these machines. Figure 1 depicts a typical cutaway section of a modern day alternator. At first glance one may think that cooling the diodes in a rectifier bridge of an … [Read more...]
Estimating Temperatures in a Water-to-Air Hybrid Cooling System
As most readers are no doubt aware, the trend towards ever increasing processor module power is making it more and more difficult to cool directly with air. Many thermal engineers are convinced that water cooling may be the answer. This does not necessarily mean that cooling water must be supplied by the customer. Instead, in some instances it may be possible to use a … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 149
- 150
- 151
- 152
- 153
- …
- 180
- Next Page »
