Assessment of circuit direct cooling for infrared thermography purposes

One of the most commonly employed methods of electronic circuit temperature measurement is the infrared thermography. This method requires direct access to the structure surface thus, in order to perform measurements, openings must be made in the circuit package. This, in turn, changes cooling conditions and consequently circuit temperature. This work presents the problem on a practical example where the impact of an opening on circuit temperature is assessed by the comparison of infrared and p-n junction measurements.