Heat Transfer in a Surface-Mount Package for a Silicon Chip
Application ID: 847
All integrated circuits (ICs) — especially high-speed devices — produce heat. In today’s dense electronic system layouts, heat sources are many times placed close to heat-sensitive ICs. Designers of printed circuit boards often need to consider the relative placement of heat-sensitive and heat-producing devices, so that the sensitive ones do not overheat.
One type of heat-generating device is a voltage regulator, which can produce several watts of heat and reach a temperature higher than 70°C. If the board design places such a device close to a surface-mounted package that contains a sensitive silicon chip, the regulator’s heat could cause reliability problems and failure due to overheating. This simulation investigates the thermal situation for a silicon chip in a surface-mount package placed on a circuit board close to a hot voltage regulator. The chip is subjected to heat from the regulator and from internally generated heat.
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