July 14, 2011 -- It is well known that IC components heat up during operation as they dissipate power while doing their analog and digital magic. But how can the user determine if a component (semiconductor device) is too hot? Many engineers have seen videos on this or may even have personal lab experience with overloaded components which start to smoke or melt. What is not commonly known, however, is that well below this temperature the component function or reliability starts to degrade. How can you be certain that each component in an electronic system is within its safe operating range?

This article, the first of a series of three, walks you through some brief background on the component specifications themselves, and then details four recommended methods to estimate component temperatures. The series gives specific guidance on methods to understand and to perform temperature measurements, and also to make the necessary calculations to ensure that component operating temperature limits are met in the final application.

By Matt Romig and Sandra Horton. (Romig is the Packaging Technology Productization Manager in the Analog organization at Texas Instruments, Inc. and Hortonis a leader in thermal modeling, Analog Packaging Group, Texas Instruments.)