Real-time animated thermal CAD system for 3-D multilayer structure integrated with compact cold plate

A novel 3-D real-time animated thermal CAD system for electronics multilayer structures having interfacial contact resistances integrated with a compact cold plate has been successfully developed on Microsoft Windows 2000 system. The thermal CAD system is composed of pre-processor subsystem, thermal analyzer, post-processor subsystem and relevant user interfaces and databases. The fundamental design concepts for the developed pre-processor, thermal analyzer, and post-processor are introduced. The developed pre-processor has six options such as the selection of heat sources, multilayer structures, cold-plate core, working fluid, ambient conditions, and current data. The effect of thermal contact resistance between contact solids has been considered in the thermal analyzer. The post-processor can interactively generate real-time color isotherms on the heated surface of 3-D cold-plate model. Furthermore, new multimedia technologies with OpenGL libraries, such as graphical illustrations and real-time 3-D visualization, employed in the present developed CAD system provide a very friendly and interactive interface for users. With the developed thermal CAD system, a practical thermal design case for multilayer structure, which has double-sided discrete heat sources, integrated with a compact double-stack cold plate has been studied. The superiority of the developed CAD system has been demonstrated.