Humbugger: I am starting to read your thread from the beginning and I noticed this comment: Depending on how fast the DUT can raise the temp 30F, a higher number may be better here. We will be timing how long it takes to achieve a given temperature rise, not the end temperature. Using relative temperature rises of a fixed amount won't work here. You can't ignore the fact that the temperature rise vs time is not linear so the slope of the curve is always changing. So DUTs that run at lower power levels will take longer to create a 30F increase in temperature than DUTs that run at higher power levels. The safest bet is to wait five thermal time constants. Also, note that if the thermal test setup is already at a higher temperature than ambient at the start of the experiment, it's still going to take five time constants to be very very close to thermal equilibrium. Another obvious point is that if the power output of the DUT is low, it may not be able to generate a 30F temperature rise. I am not 100% sure that I am understanding exactly what you are saying, so I could be spouting a whole bunch of hot air. I suppose my real point again is to measure a final temp when you are very certain that you are at thermal equilibrium. I tend to be very conservative when it comes to things like this so at least that would be my strategy. Here is the curve for reference (look at the top curve only where you can say temperature is on the vertical axis and time is on the horizontal axis:  Note also that the temperature vs. time curve is "approximately" an exponential curve. The thermal resistance is not necessarily a pure constant as the temperature reading of the DUT increases. However, we don't need to worry about this at all. On the "fun" side of things, anybody know what the curve that describes the changing slope of an exponential curve looks like? It's a sort-of trick question.
« Last Edit: 2011-01-16, 06:00:58 by MileHigh »
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