Thermal Management of Surface Mount Power Magnetic Components

Abstract

A numerical and experimental study of conduction heat transfer from low power magnetic components with gull wing leads was conducted to determine the effects of distributing the power loss between the core, the winding and the thermal underfill on the thermal resistance. The numerical study was conducted in the power loss ratio range of 0.5≤PR≤1.0, where the only active power loss was from the winding at PR=1. In addition, the effect of the thermal underfill material between the substrate and the lower surface of the magnetic package on the thermal performance of the magnetic device was also examined. For comparison, a test was conducted on a magnetic component at PR=1, without thermal underfill. This comparison revealed good agreement between the numerical and experimental results. Finally, a general model was proposed for conduction heat transfer from the surface mount power magnetic packages. The agreement between the model and the experimental results was within 8 percent. [S1043-7398(00)00704-0]