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0542-4322

Thermal design of electronic equipment

Also listed as: תכנון תרמי של ציוד אלקטרוני

Keeping silicon cool, which in Israel is arguably the highest-paying direct application of mechanical engineering. Resistance networks, heat sinks, air and liquid cooling, and reliability against temperature.

Semester
Semester A
Weekly hours
4h
Counts as
Department electives
Interest areas
Flow and thermal design · Mechanical design

Comes after

  • Heat transfer

What it covers

Topics

  • Heat-transfer fundamentals in an electronics context
  • Junction-to-ambient thermal-resistance networks
  • Conduction in packages and printed circuit boards
  • Natural and forced-air convection
  • Heat-sink design and selection, fin analysis and effectiveness
  • Thermal interface materials
  • Fans, blowers and system airflow
  • Liquid cooling, heat pipes, thermoelectric coolers
  • Reliability against temperature: Arrhenius, electromigration
  • Transient behaviour and thermal cycling
  • Thermal CFD practice

Results worth carrying out

  • Junction temperature

    Tj=Ta+Q˙RjaT_j = T_a + \dot{Q}\,R_{ja}
  • Junction-to-ambient resistance

    Rja=Rjc+Rcs+RsaR_{ja} = R_{jc} + R_{cs} + R_{sa}
  • Arrhenius acceleration factor

    AF=exp ⁣[Eak(1Tuse1Tstress)]\mathrm{AF} = \exp\!\left[\frac{E_a}{k}\left(\frac{1}{T_{\text{use}}} - \frac{1}{T_{\text{stress}}}\right)\right]

Figures worth knowing

  • Thermal-resistance network diagrams
  • Heat-sink resistance against airflow
  • Temperature contour maps
  • Fin-efficiency charts

Related courses

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The topic outlines are not official syllabi. The university publishes a catalogue blurb per course, not lecture-by-lecture material, so each outline describes what a course of that name, at those hours, with those prerequisites teaches at engineering schools generally, cross-checked against the standard textbook for the subject. Treat it as an informed map, not as a transcript of the lectures.