Thermal experts generally view thermal resistance as a measurable property of a semiconductor device. A system designer, who designs an appliance, is usually not a thermal expert. The system designer just needs a way to determine the size of the external heat sink. At high heat sink temperatures, less power dissipation is allowed in the device. The ratio at which case … [Read more...]
Determining the junction temperature in a semiconductor package, part III the use of the junction-to-board thermal characterization parameter
In recent issues, this column has dealt with the use of a number of thermal metrics to calculate the junction temperature of integrated circuits under various conditions. These metrics explored were JA, JC, and JT. To summarize the uses of these metrics: JA represents the junction-to-air thermal resistance for a package tested in an industry-standard test environment. It is … [Read more...]
Thermal characterization of active components
In the European project SEED (Supplier Evaluation and Exploitation of DELPHI), the methods for thermal characterization of active components developed in the predecessor DELPHI (Development of Libraries of PHysical models for an Integrated design environment) were evaluated by component suppliers. The methods were improved for practical application and extended to a large … [Read more...]
Standardizing heat sink characterization for forced convection
Figure 1. Wind tunnel configuration Introduction While there has been a flurry of activity inliterature addressing the behavior of heat sinks in computer electronics,the reusability of the data presented in these papers has been somewhatlimited for two reasons: 1) The data presented is application specific. 2) There has never been a standard method for characterizing … [Read more...]
Electronic package characterization per JEDEC standard
Introduction With the increase in power density resulting from advancements insemiconductor packaging technologies comes the issue of heat dissipation. Heatis generated as a result of electrical energy being converted to thermal energyduring circuit activities. The junction temperature of a chip directly affectsthe performance of the circuits and the reliability of … [Read more...]
