Do's and don'ts in thermal management

Abstract

This paper presents some observations and recommendations about thermal management based on my experience as a researcher, teacher, and consultant. These comments are focused mainly on air cooling, at the system and board level. It is important to integrate the testing and CFD approaches to problems and have their results interpreted by someone well-schooled in heat transfer. Data doesn't solve a problem, data simply makes the problem visible. It takes a trained person to solve a thermal problem-someone who can look at the data, recognizes the root cause of the problem, and who knows what to change to fix it. Every house needs one. CFD codes are mainly used to identify potential problems. They can do more. It is not difficult to instruct a CFD code to generate diagnostic data that will help reveal the nature of the problem-not just that a problem exists. It is increasingly important to have a working knowledge of heat exchanger theory and to keep that viewpoint in mind when looking at larger-scale problems, like heat sinks. Recent advances in micro-scale manufacture of heat transfer surfaces show promise of new ultra-compact heat exchangers that will fit in to the electronics environment. That field bears watching.