Cooling layers in rectangular heat-generating electronic regions for two boundary condition types: a comparison with a traditional approach

This paper investigates the cooling ability of embedded solid-state, high-conductive layers in electronics applications. A numerical approach is used to determine and compare steady-state thermal characteristics of this internal heat transfer augmentation scheme for two thermal boundary condition types. The boundary conditions under investigation represent cases where a rectangular three-dimensional solid-state heat generating volume is externally cooled from its surface in either one or two orthogonal directions. Various material property and geometric parameters are considered. The numeric results are compared with predictions of a traditional planar conductivity approach. It is shown that a planar approach used for obtaining the thermal characteristics of a laminated composite structure over-simplifies the problem and only supplies an indication of the ultimate ideal cooling efficiency, which may be achieved, with cooling layers. This paper presents trends, which may be used to predict thermal characteristics more accurately for conditions where no thermal interfacial resistance is present.