Unofficial FAQ: Ignition corrections

I don't think the heat is too great for the ignitor. There apparently aren't any electrolytic capacitors in it, and those are the big heat sensitive worries.

The vulnerability of transistors to heat is related to junction temperature and to collector voltage. When the collector junction gets hot enough, the reverse voltage across it can make the dopants migrate and "blur" the junction. That spot gets hotter and eventually melts, leading to the device being shorted.

But the heat required to melt the junction without the voltage stress is much higher than your engine compartment - the melting point of silicon is over 2500 degrees F. The silicon chips are typically soldered to the heat sink internally, and I have personally soldered a UHF power transistor to a large copper heatsink with an acetylene torch.

Mike

-------------------------------------- Yes, but you didn't put power to it until after it cooled down, and I bet you moved a lot of air across that heatsink to keep it cool. In service the transisotr is switching at least 5A. I have the exact value in my notes, and yes it is a fast switch, the transistor is driven completly and rapidly into full conduction so the Vec is about .5V for ~2mS every few

10s of aMsec. Not a haeavy duty cydle by any means, but it runs, with "perfect" heatsinking to the block at ~195F. Those I measured actualy ran about 210~220F.

Somewhere I have the leakage versus temp from motorola and at +200F we are getting too darn hot. I saw a Ducati pointless ignition system that used a flip flop to switch between 2 transitor to cut the Pd in half. But that system was expossed directly to the airstream. Of the people I know who have had igniter failurs, Honda or Toyota, it has always been in >90F weather, most frequently in stop and go traffic on the way home. Except for one that failed in ~-25F weather on startup. I can't prove it, but I suspect if we could reduce the temp 20 or even 10 degrees F, the failure rate would drop "way down". Another failure mode that is only slightly heat related is the piezo effect on the junction when it switches. I had a early JBL switch mode power amp that ate switching transistors at fairly regular intervals. I had built, and still have, a ultrasonic down converter and you could plainly hear the transitors screaming at 40KHz. I supsect that heat, plus current stress, plus the piezo effect could explain most igniter failures. One could always attempt to place it remotly, in front of the radiator to breath cool air, but I suspect the lead inductanc would kill you and the RFI would be "interesting".

When I needed to align my R2000 SW I needed an "ignition like" noise source "with harmonics extending up too beyond 30MHz" I pulled my 1991 Civic under my "long" wire antenna, and adjusted the noise blanker. Worked much better then the puilse generator at the shop where I work.

Terry

Reply to
r2000swler
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the "blurring" is diffusion - the operating temp doesn't even get close to melting - but diffusion is powerful stuff and it definitely destroys semiconductors.

the two factors at play are temperature & time. if the device was physically big enough and you solderd quick enough, there's no reason you couldn't do it - afterall, what temperature does a silcon foundry work at? but you got to be /quick/ if you go to high temps. or best not at all if you want good service life.

Reply to
jim beam

no proof required - it's true. google for fick's laws and the arrhenius equation. i too have considered cooling options for my civic's igniter, even remote mounting in a location where it's not in the air stream heated by the exhaust or getting thermal conduction from a nice warm cylinder head, but so far, i've just not had an appetite for the work involved. i'm also worried about electrical noise. electrically, it makes so much sense to have the igniter mounted in close proximity to the coil - nice clean signal, faster switching, etc. but the reality is that the igniter is kept so toasty warm located where it is, it's always going to fry in short order, unless you live up in the frozen north of course, [tegger]. i now carry a spare.

Reply to
jim beam

jim beam wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@speakeasy.net:

Even the best heat sink does not conduct all the heat away from a semiconductor junction.The semi junction temp increase is probably faster than what the HS can conduct away,and having a higher base temp would make that occur faster.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

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