Air Cooling Technologies For Electronic Equipment [Book Reviews]

High temperature electronics (HTE) may be a small part of the world’s largest industry but it is undoubtedly becoming very significant in a number of strategic sectors, such as well logging, aerospace, and automotive. There is a demand for electronic systems that are capable of operating at temperatures well in excess of today’s conventional design limitation of 125 C. This limit is hindering the development of distributed control systems for aircraft and automobiles, smart sensors and remote actuators. Without HTE the cost of monitoring hot environments is greatly increased both in direct costs (e.g., increased complexity and use of cabling) but also in indirect costs such as increased weight (e.g., cooling systems) and decreased reliability. This book is the first text book to bring together all aspects of HTE and address the whole electronic system not just the semiconductor or their application. High Temperature Electronics is split into nine chapters moving from an overview through the selection and use of silicon devices, wide band gap semiconductors, and passive components to all aspects of packaging and thermal management, ending with chapters on the application and the thorny issue of testing at extremely elevated temperatures. The list of contributors is impressive. However, the volume lacks unity. There is a mix of styles which make reading the text from chapter to chapter somewhat disjointed. There is also an annoying change in the presentation of figures from chapter to chapter. Nevertheless this should not deter the reader since there is a wealth of information in this text that would be difficult to find elsewhere. Most collated texts on HTE are either conference proceedings or reviews of specific areas (e.g., semiconductors or markets). High Temperature Electronicspresents the complete HTE technology in one volume that should prove a valuable asset to any graduate embarking on their advanced studies or design engineer confronted with HTE for the first time. Indeed it should prove valuable to those already working in the field as an important reference work, with an excellent index and well referenced chapters. Perhaps the most important sections of High Temperature Electronics are those chapters dealing with the passive devices, packaging and testing. One can argue that the semiconductors are no longer the limiting factor for the exploitation of electronics at high temperatures (95% of HTE will be silicon based) rather that the packaging and passive components are now limiting, not necessarily the operating temperature (since most HTE applications are confined to temperatures of less than 200 C) but the system reliability and operating lifetime at these elevated temperatures. Also, once an operating regime of 200 C or higher is set how does one go about testing to prove lifetimes and product reliability? Not easy! High Temperatures Electronics at least begins to address these issues and points to potential ways forward. High Temperature Electronics i an important