The V-Fetron Comes To Life

Let’s plug in a few guesstimated values and see what we get:

Let’s assume:

Power Dissipated = 80 W
Ambient Temp = 25 C
Theta(Heatsink-To-Air) = .3
Theta(Bracket-To-Heatsink) = .1
Theta(Case-To-Bracket) = .3 (Kapton & Grease)
Theta(Junction-To-Case) = .7 (Guess For Super TO-3)

That would give us a chip temp of:

TA+PD*(THA+TBH+TCB+TJC)

=25+80*(.3+.1+.3+.7)

=25+80*(1.4)

=137 C
 
It's normal for the case of the transistor to feel much hotter than the heatsink, one will be touchable, the other will not. It's possible your thermal interfaces are fine, but you can't know for sure until you measure. The temperature probes that come with inexpensive DMM's would be adequate, maybe even a cooking thermometer if you have one of those around. Have fun 🙂
 
For illustration:

Here's the inside of my F3. The dark purple/black areas are around 25C, the bright yellow/white areas are the TO-247's at 75-79C, and the fluorescent pink area is the heatsink on the outside of the case at a comfy 50C. 🙂
 

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Some images: on the VFET, on the T bracket close to VFET and on the heatsink close to T bracket (at 1.5A bias)
I combined two mica of TO-247 size for insulator. Unfortunately, the new material insulator from Panasonic (graphite) is so thin (the thickness is 0.5mm = 0.01mm graphite + 0.506mm adhesive) => easy to short circuit and thermal conductivity is hard to transfer through thick adhesive layer. I bought a new graphite (0.1mm) without adhesive and test later.



 
I have a plan to build a new mono block VFETRON 75 for my friend with lower power supply and higher current bias (2.5A to 3A) for easy to drive ATC loudspeakers.
@Mike: you was right, the temp on VFET never the same the temp on heatsink😛