JAJU844 August 2022
The device package and the PCB material are responsible for thermal performance and conduction of heat out of the device die. The internal power dissipation of the device increases the internal die junction temperature, and the topic is extensively discussed in Section 2.3.3.
For an RGT package with an exposed thermal pad, the heat sink at the PCB bottom plane allows the least resistive path for heat transfer, and the majority of thermal energy is dissipated through the thermal pad to the heat sink. Because of the higher thermal handling capability, the inclusion of a heat sink at the bottom of the device allows for higher internal device power dissipation and subsequently allows for driving higher output current from the device.
For a heat sink design, Figure 2-12 shows the various sources of thermal resistances. Because power dissipation causes a rise in junction temperature that is similar to the voltage drop across a resistor resulting from current flow, a simplified thermal model (see Figure 2-13) can be developed that is analogous to an electrical circuit. The temperature, power dissipation, and thermal resistance are represented as voltage, current, and resistors, respectively. These parameters, as described in Equation 25, allow the maximum internal power dissipation to be solved for by using a simple KCL equation.
where:
To calculate the maximum power dissipation allowed for a heat-sink design, each of the individual thermal resistance parameters in Equation 25 must be known. For the TIDA-060033 EVM, an estimate can be made of the thermal resistances that should hold true for most practical applications:
Plugging in these individual estimated thermal resistances into Equation 25 results in a combined thermal resistance of 27.5°C/W. For a maximum TJ of 150°C and a free-air operating ambient temperature (TA) of 25°C, the resulting maximum internal power dissipation allowed is 4.54 W with the BDN14-3CB/A01 heat sink applied.
Considering Equation 24, driving a 1-MHz, 50-Vpp sinusoidal output into a 1-nF capacitive load with 50 Ω of isolation resistance, will result in 3.1 W of average internal power dissipation in the driver amplifier. Comparing this to the previous result proves that the heat sink chosen is thermally sufficient for these output conditions at room temperature. Further analysis of the safe operating area is discussed in Section 2.3.4.1.