Feature: Thermal management


due to runaway heat. All these systems require effective thermal management to ensure their safe performance, and liquid cooling for batteries is also emerging as a trend in EV design. Renewable energy products, such as


solar panels, wind turbines and the like, use sophisticated power electronics for energy conversion and grid integration. Such power components must commonly operate under challenging conditions and thus heat generation must be managed to ensure both their reliability and efficiency.


Getting the heat out In general there are three methods of heat transfer in order of efficiency – conduction, convection and radiation, but also combinations of these. Still, as one long-time axiomatic saying among thermal engineers holds, when it comes to managing the heat: “It all goes back to air”. In the long view, this remains true but the paths “back to air” can be complicated. Air cooling is thus, and not surprisingly,


the most common method of thermal management for electronics. It can be active (fans), passive (heat sinks) or a


Figure 2: Experimental setup for direct liquid cooling of an IC (courtesy Georgia Technical University)


combination thereof (including heat pipes) to dissipate heat into the surrounding air. Advances in fan design, including blade geometry and speed control, continue to improve the efficiency of air-cooled systems. Liquid cooling systems use a coolant


(water or a specialised liquid) to transfer heat away from electronic components, much like the radiator of your car. Tese systems are more efficient than air cooling alone and are oſten employed in high- performance computing environments. Liquid cooling can either be single-phase


Figure 3: Peltier device operation www.electronicsworld.co.uk November 2023 35


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54