White light-emitting diodes (WLEDs) composed of blue LED chip, yellow phosphor, and red quantum dots (QDs) are considered as a potential alternative for next-generation artificial light source with their high luminous efficiency (LE) and color-rendering index (CRI). While, QDs’ poor temperature stability and the incompatibility of QDs/silicone severely hinder the wide utilization of QDs-WLEDs. To relieve this, here we proposed a separated QSNs/phosphor structure, which composed of a QSNs-on-chip layer with a yellow phosphor layer above. A silica shell was coated onto the QDs surface to solve the compatibility problem between QDs and silicone. With CRI > 92 and R9 > 90, the newly proposed QDs@silica nanoparticles (QSNs) based WLEDs present 16.7 % higher LE and lower QDs working temperature over conventional mixed type WLEDs. The reduction of QDs’ temperature can reach 11.5 °C, 21.3 °C and 30.3 °C at driving current of 80 mA, 200 mA and 300 mA, respectively.

Fully immersion of servers in electrically nonconductive (dielectric) fluid has recently become a promising technique for minimizing cooling energy consumption in data centers. The improved thermal properties of these dielectric fluids facilitate considerable savings in both upfront and operating cost over traditional air-cooling. This technology provides an opportunity for accommodating increased power densities. It also minimizes the common operational issues of air cooling technique like overheating and temperature swing in the system, fan failures, dust, air quality, and corrosion. This paper presents various data about the thermal performance of a fully single-phase dielectric fluid immersed server over wide temperature ranges (environment temperatures) from 25°C to 55°C for prolonged periods in an environmental chamber. This work explores the effects of high temperatures on the performance of a server and other components like pump, along with potential issues associated with extreme climatic conditions. The experimental data serves as a means to determine failure criteria for the server and pump by subjecting the system to accelerated thermal aging conditions i.e. around 55°C, consequently simulating the most extreme environmental condition that the server may encounter. Connector seals are inspected for expected degradation upon temperature cycling typically at such extreme conditions. Throttling limit for the server and pump power draw for different temperatures was determined to assess pump performance. Determining the relations between component behavior and operating temperature provides an accurate measure of lifetime of a server. The scope of this paper can be expanded by reviewing the effects of low temperatures on server and component performance. Changes to various performance parameters like power draw of pump and server at the higher and the lower operating temperatures and an understanding of issues like condensation can be used to quantify upper and lower limits for pump and server performance.

The high power density of emerging electronic devices is driving the transition from remote cooling, which relies on conduction and spreading, to embedded cooling, which extracts dissipated heat on-site. Two-phase microgap coolers employ the forced flow of dielectric fluids undergoing phase change in a heated channel within or between devices. Such coolers must work reliably in all orientations for a variety of applications (e.g., vehicle-based equipment), as well as in microgravity and high-g for other applications (e.g., spacecraft and aircraft). The lack of acceptable models and correlations for orientation- and gravity-independent operation has limited the use of two-phase coolers in such applications. Previous research has revealed that gravitational acceleration plays a diminishing role in establishing flow regimes and transport rates as the channel size shrinks, but there is considerable variation among the proposed microscale criteria and limited research on two-phase flows in low aspect ratio microgap channels. Reliable criteria for achieving orientation- and gravity-independent flow boiling would enable emerging systems to exploit this thermal management technique and streamline the technology development process. As a first step toward understanding the effect of gravity on two-phase microgap flow and transport, in the present effort the authors have studied the effect of evaporator orientation and mass flux on near-saturated flow boiling of HFE7100 in a 1.01 mm tall by 13.0 mm wide by 12.7 mm long microgap channel. Orientation-independence, defined as achieving similar critical heat fluxes, heat transfer coefficients, and flow regimes across evaporator orientations, was achieved for mass fluxes of 400 kg/m 2 -s and greater. The present results are compared to published criteria for achieving gravity-independence.

In this work, the mechanical behavior of a typical UV curable solder mask material has been explored as a function of ultra violet (UV) curing time, testing temperature, and isothermal aging exposure. Mechanical testing has been performed using standard tensile testing. For the tensile testing, a specimen preparation procedure has been developed to make 80 × 3 mm uniaxial tension test samples with a defined thickness (e.g. 0.30 mm), and both stress-strain and creep tests were performed. The solder mask test specimens were prepared in a unique way and no release agent is required to extract them from the mold. The mechanical behavior changes of the solder mask material were recorded for different curing profiles including various durations of UV exposure and subsequent isothermal curing. The results showed that an optimum UV exposure time was critical to provide acceptable mechanical properties. In addition, the stress-strain and creep behavior of the solder mask were recorded for various temperatures from 25 to 125 °C, and the mechanical properties were found to degrade significantly at elevated temperatures as expected. The experimental results showed that variations of thermal curing profile (curing temperature and time) also change the mechanical properties significantly, so that solder masks have a very small optimum processing window. Finally, the effects of isothermal aging at 100 °C on the material behavior were characterized for different aging times. Using the recorded data, the changes in the elastic modulus, strength, and creep rate were characterized as a function of aging time. Significant variations were observed in the elastic modulus (250%) and ultimate strength (150%) of the aged samples.

For improving the functionality and signal speed of electronic devices, electronic components have been miniaturized and an increasing number of elements have been packaged in the device. As a result there has been a steady rise in the amount of heat necessitated to be dissipated from the electronic device. Recently microchannel heat sinks have been emerged as a kind of high performance cooling scheme to meet the heat dissipation requirement of electronics packaging, In the present study an experimental study of subcooled flow boiling in a high-aspect-ratio, one-sided heating rectangular microchannel with gap depth of 0.52 mm and width of 5 mm was conducted with deionized water as the working fluid. In the experimental operations, the mass flux was varied from 200 to 400 kg/m 2 s and imposed heat flux from 3 to 20 W/cm 2 while the fluid inlet temperature was regulated constantly at 90 °C. The boiling curves, flow pattern and onset of nucleate boiling of subcooled flow boiling were investigated through instrumental measurements and a high speed camera. It was found that the slope of the boiling curves increased sharply once the superheat needed to initiate the onset of nucleate boiling was attained, and the slope was greater for lower mass fluxes, with lower superheat required for boiling incipience. As for the visualization images, for relatively lower mass fluxes the bubbles generated were larger and not easy to depart from the vertical upward placed narrow microchannel wall, giving elongated bubbly flow and reverse backflow. The thin film evaporation mechanism dominated the entire test section due to the elongated bubbles and transient local dryout as well as rewetting occurred. Meanwhile the initiative superheat and heat flux of onset of nucleate boiling were compared with existing correlations in the literature with good agreement.

For design of automotive airbag electronic control units (AB ECU), it is essential to have a validated and reliable finite element (FE) simulation model in place in order to allow already in an early design stage for the accurate prediction of the ECU’s structural vibration behavior. A “bottom-up” approach which described in the ASME guide for verification and validation (ASME V&V 10-2006) is applied for the validation of the AB ECU simulation model. The AB ECU is decomposed into different assembly level. Single printed circuit board (PCB) is the lowest elementary component level. In the PCB level simulation and validation, the influence of in-plane pre-stress on PCB’s transverse vibration characteristic has been encountered, but it has been found out that the source of the in-plane pre-stress can not be explained by classical beam/plate theory. Analysis and simulation for PCB fixation reveals that the fundamental source of the in-plane pre-stress is structure’s geometric nonlinearity.

As semiconductor device feature size scales and circuit performance increases, power dissipation and thermal management are becoming very important. Attention to thermal considerations is required throughout the chip development cycle from preliminary architecture planning to deployment on customer board and beyond. This paper describes a versatile thermal test vehicle that can be used to address these requirements. We discuss the architecture and implementation of a specially designed test-vehicle chip, followed by its operation. The programmability and flexibility of this vehicle will be highlighted. In addition, we cover other usage of this vehicle which includes modelling of chip-level thermal behavior with different floorplan, simulating thermal loads in IoT FPGA applications, cross-calibrating thermal numerical simulators with measured silicon data and evaluating the thermal impact of different package form-factor / material (such as thermal interface material) and cooling solutions. The abovementioned chip was fabricated using 0.18um technology and assembled in a flip-chip package. The reminder of this evaluation system is a simple, inexpensive tester from which a software is run to program the chip and to measure the spatial & temporal temperature values. Measured thermal data from different use cases are presented in this paper.

In this paper, several methods suitable for real time on-chip temperature measurements of power AlGaN/GaN based high-electron mobility transistor (HEMT) grown on SiC substrate are presented. The measurement of temperature distribution on HEMT surface using Raman spectroscopy is presented. We have deployed a temperature measurement approach utilizing electrical I-V characteristics of the neighboring Schottky diode under different dissipated power of the transistor heat source. These methods are verified by measurements with micro thermistors. The results show that these methods have a potential for HEMT analysis in thermal management. The features and limitations of the proposed methods are discussed. The thermal parameters of materials used in the device are extracted from temperature distribution in the structure with the support of 3-D device thermal simulation. The thermal analysis of the multifinger power HEMT is performed. The effects of the structure design and fabrication processes from semiconductor layers, metallization, and packaging up to cooling solutions are investigated. The analysis of thermal behavior can help during design and optimization of power HEMT.

Thermal Interface materials are crucial elements for packaging of power electronics. In particular, development of high temperature lead free die-attach thermal interface materials for silicon carbide wide bandgap power electronics is a challenge. Failures of power electronics package modules often occur at die-attach areas. Among major options, sintered silver shows advantages in ease of applications. Cost, reliability, and integration are concerns for technology implementation. The current study first discusses issues and status reported in literatures. Then it focuses on cost reduction and improvement of sintered silver using enhancement structures at micro and nano scales. A few design architectures are analyzed by finite element methods. The feasibility of strengthening edges and corners is also assessed. The downside of potential increase of unfavorable stresses to accelerate void coalescence would be discussed in conjunction with design concept of power electronics package modules for paths of solutions in the form of integrated module systems.

Thermal interface materials (TIMs), which transmit heat from semiconductor chips, are indispensable in today’s microelectronic devices. Designing superior TIMs for increasingly demanding integration requirements, especially for server-level hardware with high power density chips, remains a particularly coveted yet challenging objective. This is because achieving desired degrees of thermal-mechanical attributes (e.g. high thermal conductivity, low elastic modulus, low viscosity) poses contradictory challenges. For instance, embedding thermally conductive fillers (e.g. metallic particles) into a compliant yet considerably less conductive matrix (e.g. polymer) enhances heat transmission, however at the expense of overall compliance. This leads to extensive trial-and-error based empirical approaches for optimal material design. Specifically, high volume fraction filler loading, role of filler size distribution, mixing of various filler types are some outstanding issues that need further clarification. To that end, we first forward a generic packing algorithm with ability to simulate a variety of filler types and distributions. Secondly, by modeling the physics of heat/force flux, we predict effective thermal conductivity, elastic modulus and viscosity for various packing cases.

The percentage of the energy used by data centers for cooling their equipment has been on the rise. With that, there has been a necessity for exploring new and more efficient methods like airside economization, both from an engineering as well as business point of view, to contain this energy demand. Air cooling especially, free air cooling has always been the first choice for IT companies to cool their equipment. But, it has its downside as well. As per ASHRAE standard (2009b), the air which is entering the data center should be continuously filtered with MERV 11 or preferably MERV 13 filters and the air which is inside the data center should be clean as per ISO class 8. The objective of this study is to design a model data center and simulate the flow path with the help of 6sigma room analysis software. A high-density data center was modelled for both hot aisle and cold aisle containment configurations. The particles taken into consideration for modelling were spherical in shape and of diameters 0.05, 0.1 and 1 micron. The physical properties of the submicron particles have been assumed to be same as that of air. For heavier particles of 1 micron in size, the properties of dense carbon particle are chosen for simulating particulate contamination in a data center. The Computer Room Air Conditioning unit is modelled as the source for the particulate contaminants which represents contaminants entering along with free air through an air-side economizer. The data obtained from this analysis can be helpful in predicting which type of particles will be deposited at what location based on its distance from the source and weight of the particles. This can further help in reinforcing the regions with a potential to fail under particulate contamination.

Exposure of lead free solder joints to high temperature isothermal aging conditions leads to microstructure evolution, which mainly includes coarsening of the intermetallic (IMC) phases. In our previous work, it was found that the coarsening of IMCs led to degradation of the overall mechanical properties of the SAC solder composite consisting of β-Sn matrix and IMC particles. However, it is not known whether the isothermal aging changes properties of the individual β-Sn and IMC phases, which could also be affecting to the overall degradation of properties. In this study, the aging induced variations of the mechanical properties of the β-Sn phase, and of Sn-Cu IMC particles in SAC solder joints have been explored using nanoindentation. SAC solder joints extracted from SuperBGA (SBGA) packages were aged for different time intervals (0, 1, 5, 10 days) at T = 125 °C. Nanoindentation test samples were prepared by cross sectioning the solder joints, and then molding them in epoxy and polishing them to prepare the joint surfaces for nanoindentation. Multiple β-Sn grains were identified in joints using optical polarized microscopy and IMCs were also observed. Individual β-Sn grains and IMC particles were then indented at room temperature to measure their mechanical properties (elastic modulus and hardness) and time dependent creep deformations. Properties measured at different aging time were then compared to explore aging induced degradations of the individual phases. The properties of the individual phases did not show significant degradation. Thus, IMC coarsening is the primary reason for the degradation of bulk solder joint properties, and changes of the properties of the individual phases making up the lead free solder material are negligible.

As the automotive industry shifts towards the electrification of drive trains, the efficiency of power electronics becomes more important. The use of silicon carbide (SiC) devices in power electronics has shown several benefits in efficiency, blocking voltage and high temperature operation. In addition, the ability of SiC to operate at higher frequencies due to lower switching losses can result in reduced weight and volume of the system, which also are important factors in vehicles. However, the reliability of packaged SiC devices is not yet fully assessed. Previous work has predicted that the different material properties of SiC compared to Si could have a large influence on the failure mechanisms and reliability. For example, the much higher elastic modulus of SiC compared to Si could increase strain on neighboring materials during power cycling. In this work, the failure mechanisms of packaged Si- and SiC-based power devices have been investigated following power cycling tests. The packaged devices were actively cycled in 4.5 s heating and 20 s cooling at ΔT = 60–80 K. A failure analysis using micro-focus X-ray and scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM) was carried out in order to determine the most important failure mechanisms. The results of the analysis indicate that the dominant failure mechanism is wire bond lift-off at the device chip for all of the SiC-based devices. Further analysis is required to determine the exact failure mechanisms of the analyzed Si-based devices. In addition, the SiC-based devices failed before the Si-based devices, which could be a result of the different properties of the SiC material.

In this study, we proposed a flexible method to realize a cylindrical tuber encapsulant layer. Firstly, patterned LED substrate with silicone-wetting and silicone-repellency surfaces was prepared by depositing low surface energy modified nanosilica particles. Secondly, coating phosphor gel onto the LED chip. Thirdly, coating the encapsulant (silicone OE6550A/B) onto the phosphor gel layer. The silicone stops spreading at the border of silicone-wetting and silicone-repellency surfaces and its final contact angle can be adjusted to any value between the contact angle of silicone-wetting and silicone-repellency surface, so it is very easy to realize dome-shape silicone layer with contact angle of ∼90°. For COB-LEDs with LED array in series, the final silicone layer geometry is similar to the cylindrical tuber. The results show that compared to the conventional flat encapsulant layer, the proposed encapsulant layer can improve the light efficiency by > 60% for pure blue light and 13.6% for white light at correlated color temperature (CCT) of ∼5500K.

The flow field inside the heat exchangers is associated with maximum heat transfer and minimum pressure drop. Designing a compact heat exchanger and employing various techniques to enhance its overall performance has been widely investigated and still an active research field. However, few researches deal with thermal optimization. The application of elliptic tube is an effective alternative to circular tube which can reduce the pressure drop significantly. In this study, numerical simulation and optimization of variable tube ellipticity is studied at low Reynolds numbers. The three-dimensional numerical analysis and a multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) with surrogate modelling is performed. Two row tubes in staggered arrangement in fin-and-tube heat exchanger is investigated for combination of various elliptic ratio ( e = minor axis/major axis) and Reynolds number. Tube elliptic ratio ranges from 0.2 to 1 and Reynolds number ranges from 150 to 750. The tube perimeters are kept constant while changing the elliptic ratio. The numerical model is derived based on continuum flow approach and steady-state conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy. The flow is assumed as incompressible and laminar due to low inlet velocity. Results are presented in the form of Colburn factor, friction factor, temperature contours and streamline contours. Results show that increasing elliptic ratio increases the friction factor due increased flow blocking area, however, the effect on the Colburn factor is not significant. Moreover, tube with lower elliptic ratio followed by higher elliptic ratio tube has better thermal-hydraulic performance. To achieve maximum heat transfer enhancement and minimum pressure drop, the Pareto optimal strategy is adopted for which the CFD results, Artificial neural network (ANN) and MOGA are combined. The tubes elliptic ratio (0.2 ⩽ e ⩽ 1.0) and Reynolds number (150 ⩽ Re ⩽ 750) are the design variables. The objective functions include Colburn factor ( j ) and friction factor ( f ). The CFD results are input into ANN model. Once the ANN is computed and its accuracy is checked, it is then used to estimate the model responses as a function of inputs. The final trained ANN is then used to drive the MOGA to obtain the Pareto optimal solution. The optimal values of these parameters are finally presented.

This paper firstly reviews the failure causes, modes and mechanisms of two major types of capacitors used in power electronic systems — metallized film capacitors and electrolytic capacitors. The degradation modeling related to these capacitors is then presented. Both physics-of-failure and data-driven degradation models for reliability and lifetime estimation are discussed. Based on the exhaustive literature review on degradation modeling of capacitors, we provide a critical assessment and future research directions.

The rapid growth in cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), and data processing via Machine Learning (ML), have greatly increased our need for computing resources. Given this rapid growth, it is expected that data centers will consume more and more of our global energy supply. Improving their energy efficiency is therefore crucial. One of the biggest sources of energy consumption is the energy required to cool the data centers, and ensure that the servers stay within their intended operating temperature range. Indeed, about 40% of a data center’s total power consumption is for air conditioning[1]. Here, we study how the server air inlet and outlet, as well as the CPU, temperatures depend upon server loads typical of real Internet Protocol (IP) traces. The trace data used here are from Google clusters and include the times, job and task ID, as well as the number and usage of CPU cores. The resulting IT loads are distributed using standard load-balancing methods such as Round Robin (RR) and the CPU utilization method. Experiments are conducted in the Data Center Laboratory (DCL) at the Georgia Institute of Technology to monitor the server outlet air temperature, as well as real-time CPU temperatures for servers at different heights within the rack. Server temperatures were measured by on-line temperature monitoring with Xbee, Raspberry PI, Arduino, and hot-wire anemometers. Given that the temperature response varies with server position, in part due to spatial variations in the cooling airflow over the rack inlet and the server fan speeds, a new load-balancing approach that accounts for spatially varying temperature response within a rack is tested and validated in this paper.

As electronic devices continue to shrink in size and increase in functionality, effective thermal management has become a critical bottleneck that hinders continued advancement. Two-phase cooling technologies are of growing interest for electronics cooling due to their high heat removal capacity and small thermal resistance (< 0.3 K-cm 2 /W) [1]. One typical example of a two-phase cooling method is droplet evaporation, which can provide a high heat transfer coefficient with low superheat. While droplet evaporation has been studied extensively and used in many practical cooling applications (e.g., spray cooling), the relevant work has been confined to spherical droplets with axisymmetric geometries. A rationally designed evaporation platform that yields asymmetric meniscus droplets can potentially achieve larger meniscus curvatures, which give rise to higher vapor concentration gradients along the contact line region and therefore yield higher evaporation rates. In this study, we develop a numerical model to investigate the evaporation behavior of asymmetrical microdroplets suspended on a porous micropillar structure. The equilibrium profiles and mass transport characteristics of droplets with circular, triangular, and square contact shapes are explored using the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method. The evaporative mass transport at the liquid-vapor interface is modeled using a simplified Schrage model [2]. The results show highly non-uniform mass transport characteristics for asymmetrical microdroplets, where a higher local evaporation rate is observed near the locations where the meniscus has high curvature. This phenomenon is attributed to a higher local vapor concentration gradient that drives faster vapor diffusion at more curved regions, similar to a lightning rod exhibiting a strong electric field along a highly curved surface. By using contact line confinement to artificially tune the droplet into a more curved geometry, we find the total evaporation rate from a triangular-based droplet is enhanced by 13% compared to a spherical droplet with the same perimeter and liquid-vapor interfacial area. Such a finding can guide the design and optimization of geometric features to improve evaporation in high performance electronics cooling systems.

Power output to electric traction drive systems varies over a wide range during real-world operation. As a result, the inverters, responsible for converting direct current battery (DC) to alternating current (AC) for electric motor operation, experience temperature changes that are important to consider in thermal design of the whole system, as well as implications for reliability in actual use. Because of the implications of temperature on device & system reliability, it is necessary to design appropriate thermal management systems to control their temperatures to meet product reliability goals. This study utilizes US Environmental Protection Agency standard driving schedules as case studies in how driving characteristics result in power module temperature profiles during operation for various heat removal schemes and design efficiencies. The temperature profiles obtained in this study clearly demonstrate a strong relationship between motor power output and inverter heat sink temperature. Moreover, when integrated with various degrees of road incline, the driving schedules show how road and elevation also impacts the need for various cooling technologies. This information can be integrated into use condition analyses for predicting reliability of the electronic components using reliability models developed from accelerated testing and qualifications to ensure the proper certification envelope is demonstrated for any given vehicle and environment, as well as demonstrate the effectiveness of cooling methods for determination of technical and economic feasibility.

This work experimentally studies the impact of facility cooling failure of a direct liquid cooling (DLC) system on the IT equipment (ITE). The facility side of a DLC system removes the heat from a secondary loop — in direct contact with the ITE — and discard it in a chiller loop or ambient. The CPU utilization and coolant set point temperature (SPT) are varied to understand the effect of failure under different operating conditions. The ITE response is studied in terms of chip temperature and power, and fan speed. It was found that failure of the facility cooling system is not hazardous to the IT operation. The rate of change in temperature after failure is low and is sufficient to turn the ITE off safely. This is attributed to the surrounding air in the data center and the thermal mass of the cooling system.