Electronics thermal management

Thermal Control of Electronics Testing Environments

Electronic components are performance tested after they are manufactured, often at high or low temperatures that represent the extremes of actual operating conditions. Packaged devices may be tested at temperatures as high as 150C and as low as -50C. These test conditions are established within a chip handling machine, which presents the component under test to an automatic tester that is itself at a temperature near ambient. The tolerance on the test temperature is tight, roughly 1C, and, moreover, it must be maintained while the component under test is in thermal communication with the tester. This project was aimed at developing design strategies for high accuracy thermal control of the components being tested. Sponsor: Teradyne and its subsidiaries.

Publications

M. Sweetland, J.H. Lienhard V, and A.H. Slocum, “A Convection/Radiation Temperature Control System for High Power Density Electronic Device Testings,” ASME J. Electronic Packaging, Vol.130, 2008, pg.0310123 (PDF file)

C.C. Ritcher and J.H. Lienhard V, “Active Thermal Control of Distributed Parameter Systems Excited at Multiple Frequencies,” J. Heat Transfer, 128:93-99, 2006. (pdf)
M. Sweetland and J.H. Lienhard V, “Active Thermal Control of Distributed Parameter Systems with Application to Testing of Packaged IC Devices,” J. Heat Transfer, Vol.125, No.1, pp. 164-174, 2003. (pdf)
M. Sweetland and J.H. Lienhard V, “Rapid IR Heating of Electronic Components in the Test Cycle,” Proc. 35th Natl. Heat Transfer Conf., Anaheim CA, 10-12 June 2001. (preprint)
A.C. Pfahnl, J.H. Lienhard V, and A.H. Slocum, “Thermal Management and Control in Testing Integrated Circuit Devices,” Proc. 34th Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, Vancouver BC, August 1999. (PDF file)
A.C. Pfahnl, J.H. Lienhard V, and A.H. Slocum, “Heat Transfer Enhancing Features for Handler Tray-type Device Carriers,” IEEE Trans. Components, Manufacturing, and Packaging, Part C: Manufacturing, Vol.120, No.4, 1998, pp.302-310. (open access)

A.C. Pfahnl, J.H. Lienhard V, and A.H. Slocum, “Temperature Control of a Handler Test Interface,” Proc. 1998 IEEE Intl. Test Conf., Washington DC, Oct.20-22, 1998, pp.114-118.
A.C. Pfahnl, J.H. Lienhard V, and A.H. Slocum, “Maximizing Handler Throughput with a Rib-Roughened Test Tray,” Proc. 1998 IEEE Intl. Test Conf., Washington DC, Oct.20-22, 1998, pp.109-113.

Patents

A.C. Pfahnl, J.H. Lienhard V, and A.H. Slocum, “Heat Transfer Enhancing Features for Semiconductor Carriers and Devices,” Intl. Patent #WO99/03130A1, 21 Jan. 1999; U.S. Patent #6036023, 14 March 2000; European Patent #EP00995226A1, 26 April 2000.
A.C. Pfahnl, J.H. Lienhard V, and D.J. Watson, “Method and Apparatus for Temperature Control of Semiconductor Electrical-Test Contactor Assembly,” U.S. Patent #6091062, 18 July 2000; Intl. Patents #WO99/382090A2, 29 July 1999, #WO99/382090A3, 23 Sept. 1999.

Thermal Simulation of Electronically Commutated Motors

Motors used in automobile engines face a particularly harsh environment. Ambient temperatures may reach 125C and steep thermal and electrical transients occur often. With the growing use of electronic commutation for these motors, electronics modules are now regularly placed onboard the motor. These modules must be held below 150C. The designers of such motors thus require simulation tools that will provide thermal response estimates during the electrical design of the motors. Tradiation simulations, using tools like FEA, require too much computation for rapidly design revisions. This project employs reduced-order volume-element techniques in conjunction with commercial network simulation software to prediction of motor thermal response in the engine environment. Comparison of results to test data have been excellent. Sponsor: Robert Bosch Corporation.

Y. Liu, J.H. Lienhard V, J.D. Booth, and R.W. Stairs, “Integrated Simulation Toolkit for Electronically Controlled Motor Systems,”2002 THERMES Conference, Santa Fe, January 2002. (PDF)