Although the potential for low temperature enhancement of CMOS circuit performance has been recognized for some time, circuit scaling (proportionally reducing the size of the circuit) has been the preferred method of achieving higher performance. But as minimum feature size passed well into the sub-micron and now into the nanometer region, this route to higher performance has … [Read more...]
Parameters affecting package thermal performance a low end system level example
Thermal management of electronic equipment is a dynamic process. For example, the anticipated power trends for CMOS technology can be found in the roadmaps of [1 and 2]. They closely follow the rapidly rising power trends seen in the 1980s for the bi-polar circuits [3] but with a time shift by a decade. It is a fortunate circumstance that a tremendous amount of heat transfer … [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...]
Application of Thermoelectric Coolers for Module Cooling Enhancement
Figure 1. Cooling power density for different T.E. cooler designs (adaped from Vandersande and Fleurial [6]). Introduction Many advances in computer technology have been made possible by increases in the packaging density of electronics. These advances began with the introduction of the transistor in 1947 and continue today with ultra-large scale integration at the chip level … [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...]