ME60006 : Fundamentals of Electronic Packaging
Thermal Management: Practice problems
1. Forced air at 25°C and 10 m/s is used to cool electronic elements mounted on a circuit
board. Consider a chip of length 4 mm and width 4 mm located 120 mm from the leading
edge. Because the board surface is irregular, the flow is disturbed and the appropriate
convection correlation is of the form Nux = 0.04 Rex0.85 Pr0.33. Estimate the surface
temperature of the chip, Ts, if its heat dissipation rate is 30 mW.
2. An array of electronic chips is
mounted within a sealed rectangular
enclosure, and cooling is
implemented by attaching an
aluminum heat sink (k = 180 W/m-
K). The base of the heat sink has
dimensions of w1 = w2 = 100 mm,
while the 6 fins are of thickness t =
10 mm and pitch S = 18 mm. The
fin length is Lf = 50 mm, and the
base of the heat sink has a thickness
of Lb = 10 mm. If cooling is implemented by water flow through the heat sink, with U∞
= 3 m/s and T∞ =17 oC, what is the base temperature Tb of the heat sink when power
dissipation by the chips is Pelec = 1.8 kW? The average heat transfer coefficient for
surfaces of the fins and the exposed base may be estimated by assuming parallel flow
over a flat plate. Properties of the water may be approximated as k = 0.62W/m-K, =
7.73 x 10-7 m2/s, and Pr = 5.2.
3. A printed circuit board (PCB) is cooled by laminar, fully developed air flow in adjoining,
parallel-plate channels of length L and separation distance a. The channels may be
assumed to be of infinite extent in the transverse direction, and the upper and lower
surfaces are insulated. The temperature Ts of the PCB board is uniform, and air flow with
an inlet temperature of Tm,i is driven by a pressure difference, p. Calculate the average
heat removal rate per unit area (W/m2) from the PCB.
4. A novel scheme for dissipating heat from
the chips of a multichip array involves
machining coolant channels in the
ceramic substrate to which the chips are
attached. The square chips (Lc = 5 mm)
are aligned above each of the channels,
with longitudinal and transverse pitches
of SL = ST = 20 mm. Water flows
through the square cross section (W = 5
mm) of each channel with a mean velocity of Um = 1 m/s, and its properties may be
approximated as = 1000 kg/m3, Cp = 4180 J/kg-K, = 855 x 10-6 kg/s-m, k = 0.610
W/m-K, and Pr = 5.8. Symmetry in the transverse direction dictates the existence of
equivalent conditions for each substrate section of length Ls and width ST.
a. Consider a substrate whose length in the flow direction is Ls = 200 mm, thereby
providing a total of NL = 10 chips attached in-line above each flow channel. To a
good approximation, all the heat dissipated by the chips above a channel may be
assumed to be transferred to the water flowing through the channel. If each chip
dissipates 5W, what is the temperature rise of the water passing through the channel?
b. The chip–substrate contact resistance is R”tc = 5 x 10-5 m2-K/W, and the three-
dimensional conduction resistance for the Ls x ST substrate section is Rcond = 0.120
K/W. If water enters the substrate at 25°C and is in fully developed flow, estimate the
temperature Tc of the chips and the temperature Ts of the substrate channel surface.
5. A vertical array of printed circuit boards is
immersed in quiescent ambient air at 17⁰C.
Although the components on the board protrude
from their substrates on the circuit boards, it is
reasonable, as a first approximation, to assume
them as flat plates with uniform surface heat
flux. Consider boards of length and width L =
W = 0.4m and spacing S = 25mm. If the maximum allowable temperature of the board is
77⁰C, what is the maximum allowable power dissipation per board?
