Advances in Engineering Education - Winter 2009 - A Thermal Management of Electronics Course and Laboratory for Undergraduates

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Đào

A thermal management course with an associated laboratory is developed for mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering undergraduates. The material details lecture topics, term projects, computer modeling, and six hands-on experiments built from scratch, with lecture content plus all lab manuals and project information distributed through a course website. Pre- and post-tests are administered and analyzed using a t-test, showing a significant improvement in students’ understanding of fundamental thermal management problems.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Challenges in electronics cooling

Cooling technologies and integrated design

Educational gaps and curriculum rationale

Course objectives and structure

Advances in Engineering Education WINTER 2009 A Thermal Management of Electronics Course and Laboratory for Undergraduates Nicole okamoto and tai-RaN Hsusan Jose state university san Jose, ca culleN e. BasH Hewlett Packard laboratories Palo alto, ca AbsTRAcT A novel thermal management of electronics course with an associated laboratory has been developed for mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering students. The lecture topics, term project, computer modeling project, and six associated experiments that were built from scratch are described. Over half of the course lectures as well as all lab manuals and project information are made available via the course website. Pre-and post-tests were performed and analyzed using a t-test and showed a significant increase in student understanding in fundamental thermal management problems. Keywords: electronics cooling, education, student experiments I. INTRODUcTION the cooling of electronics has emerged as a challenging and constraining problem during the last several decades. the economic market demands ever faster clock speeds and simultaneously smaller physical enclosures. since computer chip heat fluxes (rate of heat transfer per unit area) increase with increasing clock speeds and decreasing chip sizes, these demands have led to skyrocketing heat flux removal demands. indeed, the famous moore’s law, which predicted a doubling of the number of transistors on a chip every two years, has held true since its inception in 1965. transistors in current applications are as small as 45 nm [1] . at the same time, current technology continues to require a low junction temperature (typically of no more than 125􀀘 c [2], but which varies widely with application) . above this maximum temperature, the lifespan of the chip decreases significantly. the challenges posed by increasing chip heat fluxes, smaller enclosures, and stricter performance WINTER 2009 1 AdvAnces in engineering educATiOn A Thermal Management of electronics course and Laboratory for undergraduates and reliability standards have made thermal management of electronics a vital technology in the continued development of 21st century microelectronic systems [3] . indeed, thermal management of many systems that are likely to be developed in the next several years cannot be done with the current state of technology [4] . in the early 1960’s, heat removal rates ranged typically from 0.1 to 0.3 W. air cooling was and still is the most common technique used to cool electronics. innovative air cooling techniques allowed heat dissipation rates of 60–70 W by the late 1990s [3] . However, many industries have had to begin looking to high-capacity cooling technologies rather than air cooling. liquid cooling, has been used for many years by such companies as cray (using immersion in liquid nitrogen) and iBm and Honeywell (in their water-cooled mainframes) but is receiving increased interest for more widespread applications. technologies receiving a lot of interest include liquid cooling using microchannel heat exchangers or microchannels etched into silicon, heat pipes (already used heavily in laptopsand many non-electronics applications) and thermo-electric devices. Whatever the methodology, cooling must be a part of an integrated, chip-to-system design for many new systems [2] . Who will perform these integrated designs and develop the next-generation cooling systems? undergraduate mechanical engineering curricula include a class on heat transfer, but the cooling of electronics typically receives limited attention. some electrical engineering curricula now include a course in heat transfer, but these courses by necessity emphasize fundamentals without in-depth analysis of electrical systems or laboratory work. most industrial work in this area is performed by engineers with advanced degrees and/or significant training on-the-job. some universities (such as stanford and maryland) offer classes on electro

FAQs

What course components are included in the proposed thermal management curriculum?

The course includes lecture topics, a term project, a computer modeling project, and six experiments. Lab manuals and project information are provided via the course website.

How is student learning evaluated in the study?

Pre- and post-tests are conducted and analyzed using a t-test. Results indicate a significant increase in student understanding.

Why is a new undergraduate thermal management curriculum considered necessary?

Electronics cooling is increasingly challenging due to higher heat fluxes and tighter reliability standards, while thermal management receives limited emphasis in existing undergraduate curricula and dedicated laboratories are scarce.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Đào