Reliability Optimization Schemes for Convectively Cooled PCBs.

Abstract

This article discusses the optimum placement of a single row of convectively cooled electronic components In order to reduce failures. It is shown that this problem is analogous to the classical operations research problem of the optimum time scheduling of n jobs on a single machine, where for each job there is a time dependent completion penalty. Several optimization schemes for solving the idealized problem are compared as to their accuracy and computational speed. For the dynamic programming scheme a new compact labeling procedure is proposed.