I've been evaluating the ADC32RF45 EVM for a while now. About a month ago I noticed a drop in performance when I had left the board on overnight, and when I felt the ADC chip itself, it was too hot to touch. I'm not sure how hot it was when it seemed to be operating normally, so I'm not sure if something has failed or if it's always run this hot. I'm now in layout with this part and wanted to revisit the thermal requirements for this part. I notice the EVM has a small heatsink soldered on the backside where the thermal pad is, but that the datasheet says nothing about this (that I could find). Does this part require a heatsink, and does it have to be on the backside as it is on the EVM (or is the part thermally connected to the top of the package as well).
How hot should this part be in normal operation, and do I need to be pointing a fan at it when running the eval board?
Thanks in advance.