March 20, 2009
Military embedded systems experience harsh and rugged environments. In recent years, the power levels of the electronics deployed in these systems have been rising rapidly. The combination of the harsh environments with the rising heat loads of the electronics has forced vendors to develop more effective packaging technology. Meanwhile, direct spray cooling is proving itself an acceptable alternative to air and conduction cooling, providing exceptional environmental isolation and enabling lower lifetime cost of ownership. A case study is presented on Northrop Grumman's (NG's) Airborne Signals Intelligence Payload (ASIP), which includes a configuration of the direct spray cooled Multi-Platform Enclosure (MPE) and appears on NG's manned U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance plane and the Global Hawk UAV.