3-DIMENSIONAL COUPLED CONDUCTION-CONVECTION PROBLEM FOR 3 CHIPS MOUNTED ON A SUBSTRATE IN AN ENCLOSURE

The coupled heat conduction/convection problem for three heated chips mounted on a conductive substrate in a three-dimensional enclosure ple d with air is solved by an operator-splitting pseudo-time-stepping fin ite element method, which automatically satisfies the continuity of th e interfacial temperature and heat flux. The main feature of the solut ion procedure is that the multiphases are treated as a single computat ional domain with unknown interfacial boundary conditions. The tempera ture distribution in the chips, in the substrate, and in the surroundi ng air, together with the convective flow pattern are obtained simulta neously. A maximum dimensionless temperature correlation is developed and can successfully predict the maximum temperature in heat sources, which provides a useful tool for the electronic designer.