Active control of boundary conditions for dynamic thermal characterization of electronic components

This paper presents a practical realization of the system for the active control of boundary conditions during the dynamic thermal characterization of electronic components. The control of boundary conditions is exercised by the dual cold plate cooling assembly equipped with Peltier thermo-electric modules and an appropriate control circuit. Additionally, a tensometer bridge is used to assure the parallel alignment of surfaces and to adjust the contact thermal resistance between particular layers. The operation of the entire control system is illustrated based on a practical example where Peltier module currents are adjusted in real time so as to impose isothermal or constant heat flux boundary conditions on a power diode package surface during measurements performed with time varying power dissipation in the device.