TWI Industrial Member Report Summary 916/2009
By A Mirlashari
Background
The temperature of electronic devices is important because it impacts on their performance and reliability. The objective of thermal management is to maintain device temperatures within a fixed range in order to functionally operate as specified. Many of the currently employed 'mature' thermal management technologies are now being viewed as a limitation on the development of the next generation of products, consequently new methods are being sought.
The work carried out in this project was part of a larger project performed within the Microtechnology section (TWI Report 1340). The aim of the project was to address reliability of electronics and the issue of thermal management. The Microtechnology section designed and built a thermal performance test bed (wind tunnel), as shown in Figure i, to assess novel materials and methods for device/circuit cooling and to characterise their thermal conductivity and reliability performance.