Heat Transfer in a Surface-Mount Package for a Silicon Chip

Application ID: 847


All integrated circuits (ICs) — especially high-speed devices — produce heat. In today’s dense electronic system layouts, heat sources are many times placed close to heat-sensitive ICs. Designers of printed circuit boards often need to consider the relative placement of heat-sensitive and heat-producing devices, so that the sensitive ones do not overheat.

One type of heat-generating device is a voltage regulator, which can produce several watts of heat and reach a temperature higher than 70°C. If the board design places such a device close to a surface-mounted package that contains a sensitive silicon chip, the regulator’s heat could cause reliability problems and failure due to overheating. This simulation investigates the thermal situation for a silicon chip in a surface-mount package placed on a circuit board close to a hot voltage regulator. The chip is subjected to heat from the regulator and from internally generated heat.

This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products: