Marco Francesco Aimi

Engineering Design of a near Junction Thermal Transport Heat Spreader

This paper describes a convection-based, self-contained heat spreader that provides device-level thermal management for GaN power amplifiers. The concept connects microchannels etched into the backside of the die to a liquid flow circuit that includes autonomous flow-balancing valves, a diaphragm pump, and a high-performance heat exchanger. The integrated system provides a heat spreading capability that reduces transistor gate heat fluxes by up to four orders of magnitude, enabling device-level temperature control using conventional cold plates. This paper will review the analysis used to design the key components in the assembly and to project their performance as part of an integrated system.

Power switch system based on Microelectromechanical switch

A power switching system combining a MEMS (Microelectromechanical systems) switch and an arc suppression circuit has been developed. The system, using a single 3mm × 3mm MEMS switch die coupled with protection electronics, has been demonstrated to switch both resistive loads and inductive loads to a peak power of around 800W. The entire opening and closing operations are completed in a few microseconds, orders of magnitude faster than mechanical relays and nearly as fast as solid state devices. The MEMS switch is an array of microscale cantilevered relays that are electrostatically opened and closed in microseconds. A pulsed diode bridge protection circuitry is used in conjunction with the MEMS switch to open and close the energized contacts without damaging the contacting surface and without generating an arc. This MEMS based power switching system is scaled in both series and parallel to increase the switched voltage and current capability respectively. MEMS switch based power switching has the capability to enable both current limiting and arc free switching, characteristics that can significantly reduce dangerous downstream fault energy for AC and DC protection and distribution applications.

An approach for the study of reliability for a MEMS magnetic actuator

This paper presents a summary of the design for reliability and the reliability test procedures used for the design, fabrication and testing of a MEMS magnetic actuator. The MEMS device reliability is determined incorporating device structure, its fabrication process, the packaging, & their interacting contributions. The goal of the MEMS actuator reliability design task is to increase the probability of failure free operation of a MEMS based system for a specified time period and the use environment. The design for reliability and the subsequent reliability testing procedures are used to determine the reliability of the MEMS actuator and enable the determination of the reliability of the final product that the MEMS device is becoming part of.