Thermally managing the temperature of these hot, fast components pays dual dividends. The expensive, critical components operate at lower temperatures, enhancing their reliability, and the heat of these components is removed from the system chassis resulting in lower internal temperatures throughout the entire system. The foundation of the thriving global electronics industry is semiconductor technology, manufacturing and test. Manufacturers exhaustively test integrated circuits before they are shipped to customers. High performance microprocessors and similar integrated circuits present a unique test challenge.
Normal operation requires the microprocessor be cooled by a sophisticated fan-sink.
However, testing the microprocessor is best accomplished without having an attached fan sink. Unfortunately, microprocessors quickly overheat and fail or possibly destroy themselves if powered up without a proper fan-sink. KryoTech's thermal test equipment division is developing and manufacturing thermal management units for use in semiconductor device testing. KryoTech began work with a major semiconductor manufacturer and a major test equipment manufacturer in June 2000 to adapt our vapor compression cooling technology to this challenge. Initial installations are presently in use on a major manufacturer's test floor and in several major semiconductor laboratories worldwide.