APPLICATION OF CFD TECHNOLOGY TO ELECTRONIC THERMAL MANAGEMENT

Application of a computational fluids dynamics (CFD) tool to the therm al modeling of free convection cooled handheld/portable products and c omponent level products is assessed, The results of two case studies a re reviewed, The first case focuses on a sealed, system level enclosur e typical of portable consumer products; while the second case looks a t a component level analysis of a sealed multichip module (MCM) packag e possessing an internal cavity, Temperatures predicted by the simulat ions are compared to available experimental data as a means of assessi ng the software's ability to adequately solve the coupled fluid dynami cs/heat transfer problem, All simulation results were within 10% of ex perimental results for these two cases, indicating that the software i s readily capable of providing good thermal performance predictions, F or typical handheld portable products housed in a sealed case, the dom inate mode of heat transfer from the components/circuit board to the o uter case is via gaseous conduction, Convection typically fails to dev elop in such designs due to the dominance of viscous forces within the air confined between the circuit board and outer case.