Development of the JEDEC forced convection standard

The JEDEC JC15.1 committee is developing standards defining the thermal characterization of integrated circuit devices. A forced convection standard, JEDEC JESD51-6, has been published which defines the measurement of the junction-to-moving-air thermal resistance, θ_JMA or Theta JMA. This paper documents the key work that was done to develop and validate the forced convection standard. A round robin test was conducted involving two sets of test devices. Results were more consistent than expected. Wind tunnel size requirements were further investigated using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study. Altitude considerations are discussed. Consistent results can be obtained at different altitudes using a mass flow type anemometer. Round robin results for thermal characterization parameters Ψ_JT and Ψ_JB are also included