Electronics Thermal Management: Thermal Control of Electronics Testing Environments

Electronic components are performance tested after they are manufactured, often at high or low temperatures that represent the extremes of actual operating conditions. Packaged devices may be tested at temperatures as high as 150C and as low as -50C. These test conditions are established within a chip handling machine, which presents the component under test to an automatic tester that is itself at a temperature near ambient. The tolerance on the test temperature is tight, roughly 1C, and, moreover, it must be maintained while the component under test is in thermal communication with the tester. This project was aimed at developing design strategies for high accuracy thermal control of the components being tested.