Development of thermal solutions for high performance laptop computers

In this research project, advanced thermal solutions for high performance laptop computer have been developed. This development involves design and implementation of a heat sink assembly, application of a heat pipe and thermal evaluation by modeling and measurement. The heat sink assembly has been designed and the thermal performance has been examined by measurements. A heat pipe assembly with two heat spreaders has been designed as the heat transport medium from microprocessor to the heat sink. In the system modeling, a compact model for the flip chip BGA package has been developed. Implementation of the compact model for the packages in the system modeling greatly reduces the grid size and thus makes the system simulation feasible. System measurements are performed with thermal solutions. Measurement results show that present thermal solutions are able to dissipate a power of 25 to 30 W from the microprocessor. The predicted junction temperatures by system simulation are compared with measurements and an agreement within 4% has been attained. Parametric studies have been conducted with the validated system level model.