Chip-level spray cooling of an LD-MOSFET RF power Amplifier

We report here the application of water spray cooling directly to the top surface of a lateral diffused metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (LD-MOSFET) in a 500-MHz RF power amplifier. With the amplifier running in Class A, spray cooling at a flow of 0.14 l/min increases the output power from 66 W to 84 W, and the power-added efficiency increases from 26% to 34%, all at 34 W input. This improvement is attributed to a large spray-induced reduction in junction temperature and total package thermal resistance. At the point of highest measured RF output and DC power dissipation, the reduction in junction temperature and total thermal resistance were estimated to be from ≈214°C to ≈115°C and from ≈1.5°C/W to ≈0.6°C/W, respectively, and the maximum spray-induced heat flux was ≈162W/cm². In Class AB, the increase in output power and power-added efficiency are less, ≈8%, but the amplifier can be driven harder before failure occurs. The maximum output in class AB is 79 W compared to 70 W without spray cooling.