Measuring the heat generated by electronic components
Identify patterns of heat generation and causes of increasing temperature with heat flow (heat flux) measurement
Increases in the speed and power level of electronic components are combining with shrinking package sizes to drive significant increases in heat generation density. Consequently, the heat design of electric circuits is becoming extremely important. Physically, temperature changes are always accompanied by the movement of heat. These movements of thermal energy can be measured using a heat flow logger and a heat flow sensor*. Since this approach allows you to measure the manner in which electronic components generate heat with a high degree of sensitivity, it is possible to assess heat generation during different operational regimes, for example to determine the amount of heat generated during different types of processing.
Individual heat flow sensors have different sensitivities, and it is difficult to configure scaling when using such sensors with a standard data logger. However, the Heat Flow Logger LR8432-20, which is specifically designed to measure heat flux, makes it easy to configure the sensitivity.
* Sensors used to measure movements of thermal energy are known as heat flux sensors, heat flow sensors, or heat flow meters.
