Electronics Cooling
Current Issues in Electronics Cooling and the need for New Thermal Management Technologies
Radar electronic circuitry is densely packed which leads to burn-out of components during operation
Electronics cooling solutions in airborne vehicles must be high-g compatible
Smartphones and other compact electronics cannot accomodate bulky cooling solutions
Radar electronic circuitry is densely packed which leads to burn-out of components during operationElectronics cooling solutions in airborne vehicles must be high-g compatibleSmartphones and other compact electronics cannot accomodate bulky cooling solutions There is a constant demand in the market for compact, lightweight and more powerful electronic applications. This has lead to a trend in miniaturization of electronic components with densely packed individual substrates stacked on top of each other. The main design constraint which emerges under this scenario is the thermal management of the electronic module. This is especially true for high power applications in the space and defence sectors.
Some of the mobile radar devices used by the military require huge amounts of input power. Since each pixel on the radar surface requires its own electronic circuitry, a large number of these circuit boards are packed next to each other in a very tight space due to space constraints. Each one of these PCBs generates a tremedous amount of heat and since this heat cannot be removed vertically, it leads to the periodic failure of pixels on the radar. A thin (~ 1mm), high-conductivity (> 20,000 W/mK) substrate is required in order to remove the heat laterally. Current state of the art in electronic cooling falls well short of these requirements.
The densely packed high-power electronic circuitry used in airborne vehicles such as missiles and fighter aircraft needs compact, high-heat-flux thermal managements solutions which are also high-g compatible. Jet-impingement type technologies are bulky and create other vexing problems whereas passive liquid phase change solutions such as heat pipes fail during high-g maneuvers in addition to being bulky.
Consumer electronics is another area where the device footprint is becoming smaller while the functionality and hence the power consumption is growing. Today's laptops and cell phones are considerably smaller compared to only a decade ago while the computing power has increased by orders of magnitude. The processor chips in these devices get extremely hot and the scenario is made worse by an extremely compact external packaging module. This calls for miniature high-performance thermal managment solutions which can integrate well with these planar electronic substrates.
Some of the mobile radar devices used by the military require huge amounts of input power. Since each pixel on the radar surface requires its own electronic circuitry, a large number of these circuit boards are packed next to each other in a very tight space due to space constraints. Each one of these PCBs generates a tremedous amount of heat and since this heat cannot be removed vertically, it leads to the periodic failure of pixels on the radar. A thin (~ 1mm), high-conductivity (> 20,000 W/mK) substrate is required in order to remove the heat laterally. Current state of the art in electronic cooling falls well short of these requirements.
The densely packed high-power electronic circuitry used in airborne vehicles such as missiles and fighter aircraft needs compact, high-heat-flux thermal managements solutions which are also high-g compatible. Jet-impingement type technologies are bulky and create other vexing problems whereas passive liquid phase change solutions such as heat pipes fail during high-g maneuvers in addition to being bulky.
Consumer electronics is another area where the device footprint is becoming smaller while the functionality and hence the power consumption is growing. Today's laptops and cell phones are considerably smaller compared to only a decade ago while the computing power has increased by orders of magnitude. The processor chips in these devices get extremely hot and the scenario is made worse by an extremely compact external packaging module. This calls for miniature high-performance thermal managment solutions which can integrate well with these planar electronic substrates.