The development, specification, and quality control of materials used in electronics packaging and thermal management often require the measurement of thermophysical properties.This data can be critical to a successful design, especially with the rapidly increasing cooling requirements that result from the packaging of higher performance devices. A variety of methods, involving … [Read more...]
The Thermal Conductivity of Thermal Insulators
This issue, we present an overview of a number of materials that are often used as thermal insulators. The world would have been much easier for thermal engineers if only the creator had provided us with a choice of materials showing the same range in thermal conductivity values as exists for electrical conductivity. Alas, this isn't the case. Thus, not a single one of the … [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...]
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 Issues in GaAs Analog RF Devices
Wireless communication and advanced radar systems require circuitry that can operate at frequencies greater than 2 GHz and at high power levels. Analog gallium arsenide (GaAs) semiconductors are frequently used in these applications and present additional challenges for thermal engineers compared to silicon semiconductors. Whereas thermal characterization modeling and … [Read more...]
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