Category Archives: Thermal Design

In PCB Design for filled vias, should you use conductive or non-conductive thermal epoxy?

PCB Solutions, a provider of high quality circuit boards, has a great post on if conductive or non-conductive thermal epoxy should be used for PCB’s needing filled vias.   We’ve expounded on the benefits of including your PCB design and layout as part of your overall thermal management approach here at our blog.  It’s important to do so as including thermal management into those designs might even remove the need for  you to have heatsinks at all.

We’d highly recommend reading PCB Solution’s post, “Conductive vs. Non-Conductive Via Fill“.

Thermal Management Instrumentation Demo Video with SMT Magazine

ATS recently was interviewed by SMT Magazine about what research instruments are used to do the necessary thermal analysis to develop a thermal management solution, including an aluminum heatsink, copper heatsink or other kind of heatsink.

The demo shows a wind tunnel, sensors, differential pressure system, and thermal measurement system and their use.   We do an actual demo of how to use the equipment all in five minutes.   Have a look at this link here, “PCBA in Wind Tunnel Demo at SMT” or at SMT Magazine’s site directly

How to stretch a new project’s thermal management budget by optomizing PCB layout for airflow; an ATS Thermal Labs White Paper

Hardware engineers all bump into this problem eventually: The cost of the heat sink solution part of the thermal management design is out of balance with the overall programs development costs.

The first thought is, “get a cheaper heat sink”. That’s a natural response that probably won’t work since the reason the originally chosen heat sink is so expensive is that it has a thermal resistance geared to your challenging application.  The second thought is, “get a bigger fan”. Afterall, the chips will eventually cool down with enough air, right? (yes your users might go deaf when you implement that bigger fan).

A better strategy within the limits of project time constraint, budget, and technical requirements for trace length, might be to consider how the PCB board can be layed out for optimal air flow. In this ATS Thermal White Paper we talk about how to do that. We give you specific tools and strategies. Why do that when we could sell you a better heat sink? Because at ATS we are passionate about cooling hot stuff down (and saving users from going deaf from larger fans). Have a read here at our white paper: “The Effect of Compact PCB Layout on Thermal Management“.

And ATS can help you with that of course through our Engineering Consulting Services, click to learn more about us: ATS Thermal Management Design Consulting Services or tell us a bit about your project through our on-line project submission: Thermal Design On-Line Project Request

Dr. Kaveh Azar Interview on ATS’s New Thermal Engineering Design Service for Verizon’s VZ.TPR.9208

We’ve started a new regular feature here at ATS, “The ATS Product Highlight”. Our readers can glance to the right hand column to see our inaugral highlight, ATS’s Verizon’s Thermal Management Design Services, a complete set of services to assist the OEM in passing Verizon’s new NEBS VZ.TPR.9208 Thermal Management Requirements for Improved Energy Efficiency of Telecommunications Equipment.

We caught up with our CEO, Dr. Kaveh Azar, to ask him a few questions about why ATS decided to start such a service, what services ATS is providing and more. Just click on the Slidecast below for this 4 minute overview on ATS’s new service:

[slideshare id=4041294&doc=atsverizontpr-9208services-100510144512-phpapp01]

Our readers can also checkout our initial announcement at heatsinks.wordpress.com by clicking to our post, “ATS Announces Thermal Design Services to help Telecom Equip OEMs meet Verizon’s VZ.TPR.9208 Thermal Management Req.” and our readers can see a 3 minute interview of Verizon’s Chuck Graff, the author of VZ.TPR.9208, as to why Verizon decided to release this specification by clicking to, “Verizon’s Chuck Graff speech on VZ.TPR.9208 Thermal Management Spec; Pass Verizon’s tests by partnering with ATS“

Verizon’s Chuck Graff speech on VZ.TPR.9208 Thermal Management Spec; Pass Verizon’s tests by partnering with ATS

Last week we told everyone that July 1st, 2010, Verizon’s Thermal Management Requirements for Improved Energy Efficiency of Telecommunications Equipment, Verizon Technical Purchasing Requirements VZ-TPR-9208, will come into full effect.

Light Reading taped TPR-9208’s author, Chuck Graff, during a speech, where he describes the specification and what is expected of OEM equipment providers:  Verizon’s Chuck Graff Light Reading Speech on VZ.TPR.9208

Clearly this is a big change for the entire ecosystem of equipment providers.

Last week we introduced our readers to ATS’s newly formed Verizon’s Thermal Management Design Services and this week we want to provide more details of our service and how to partner with us.

Our services team and skills include:

  • An expert team with 150 years of collective experience in thermal design
  • State of the art thermal testing facilities
  • Expert-level knowledge of the latest CFD and other simulation tools
  • Unmatched experience in electronics cooling and thermal management
  • CFD analysis
  • Thermal modeling
  • Simulation of a wide range of conditions
  • Design based on NEBS and other requirements

Our service set offers two options:

Thermal Design Audit:

  • Product Is Ready for Verizon Test: before you send the system for testing, ATS team will come to your facility and conduct a full audit on your thermal design and analysis procedure. Minimum engagement fee is $10,000.00 for a five day audit.

Product in Design Stage:

  • ATS will design the thermal and mechanical portion of your system based on industry’s best practices in the shortest amount of time. ATS will provide you with full documentation that is ready for production as well Verizon’s TPR-9208 test.

ATS services allow the OEM to avoid rejection of their systems by Verizon or the approved labs since the design will be done right-the-first-time and in accordance to the requirements. You can learn about our service at our corporate web site by visiting this link: Verizon’s Thermal Management Design Services

Engage with us today by contacting us at our corporate web site:  Contact ATS