Electronics in cold?

Question

Will silicon-based electronic devices suffer any loss of functionailty when suddenly chilled from room to extremely low temperatures? Think taking a fire extinguisher to a PC board.

Perhaps this will clarify things: I am TRYING to damage electronic components by sprayng them with suddenly depressurized CO2, though not from a fire exitinguisher. Any tips to make the cold MORE damaging would be much appreciated

Answer 1

Heat can cause leakage currents and other problems in silicon chips. Intermittent problems can (sometimes) be located by chilling individual IC chips with a can of cooling spray (Freon), if their problem is heat-related. That is what you seem to be saying, using a fire extinguisher. (You do mean a CO2, not a dry chemical extinguisher, don't you...? ) The problem is momentarily alleviated by the cold. Replace the sensitive component, and the problem is fixed.

There is something called 'thermal runaway' in transistor circuits, where if a transistor gets too hot, it may begin to conduct more current than it should. more current leads to more heat, which leads to more current, etc. The device can be destroyed.

Uneven heating and cooling can cause poor performance, or unpredictable performance. All electronic devices emit heat as a waste product. Certain ones, like the power amplifier transistors, are mounted on 'heat sinks', devices to remove the heat and let it radiate off safely, to prevent thermal runaway. (Heat sinks are usually made of extruded aluminum with fins, often anodized black.) If a device is supposed to be mounted on a heat sink and the heat sink is removed, this will cause poor performance and possible failure as the device heats up inside and damages or destroys itself.

This is why the installation directions for most consumer electronics will tell you not to install the equipment near a window or a heater. Heat from sunlight or the heater can degrade the operation of your equipment. I suppose that letting the equipment sit near a window where it was too breezy or cold could also lead to uneven performance.

Suppose a stereo was set up that way. Say the left channel was cooled while the right channel was allowed to run and heat up normally. You would probably have to fiddle with the balance controls to get the separation of the channels to sound correct. And if the temperature were to change, you would have to adjust the balance again.

Generally speaking, too much heat is a greater problem than too much cold with PC boards. If you are talking about a device intended to get hot, like a heater element or some such thing, then intense heating without allowing time to warm from intense cold to room temp could lead to cracking and sudden failures.

I hope this answers your question. If you want more information, put in additional details and I'll check back later!

Answer 2

It all depends on the electronic device. Commercial ICs are only rated for as low as 0C as where industrial components are rated down to -40C and military to -55C. When devices are designed for military purposes, there are requirements that force them to be designed for extreme temperature changes. Commercial products, on the other hand, are not designed to handle this, as it is not a condition that they will ever see. However if the device is not powered at the time, it can handle lower temperatures. Just make sure it is warm and dry before powering it up again.

Answer 3

Something that extremely cold may damage the cicutry. A lot of computer hardware can handle very low temperatures though. Just make sure when you decide to power it up again, let it warm up at room tempurate for about 30min - 24hrs.

Answer 4

Isnt resistance suppose to decrease with decrease in temperature?
But suddenly cooling it might cause brittleness, so I guess there might be a performance loss.