Category Archives: Thermal

This Fixed Cost Plan for Cooling Hot PCBs Saves Money, Simplifies Ordering

For one fixed cost, a QoolPCB plan includes the full set of ATS heat sinks,  attachment devices and all other parts required for the effective thermal management of a PCBs components. There are no additional costs for the thermal engineering, performance testing, procurement or shipping. The heat sinks and hardware are kitted and provided for the full volume of boards requiring cooling.

Pricing for a QoolPCB solutions is based on the number of heat sinks that a specific PCB requires for efficient thermal management. For example, if thermal analysis and testing show that a PCB needs 10 heat sinks to operate safely, the fixed price for the heat sinks and hardware for a production volume of that PCB would be just $50 per board. For larger boards, or those with many hot components, the unit cost per heat sink is reduced.

Whether the solutions are for off-the-shelf heat sinks, custom designed, or a combination of both, the QoolPCB program from ATS provides it at fixed cost. QoolPCB eliminates separate costs for design, tooling, samples, verification and supply chain management. The program offers multiple benefits for companies looking to reduce their product development costs, speed time-to-market and ensure thermal reliability.

To participate, PCB developers simply provide 3D CAD models of their board layout, along with the technical specifications, including power dissipation of all board components. ATS performs a full thermal analysis of the PCB and develops a comprehensive cooling solution for each component on the board. Where possible, ATS engineers will specify existing heat sinks from a portfolio of more than 3000 off-the-shelf and application-specific designs and with in-stock attachment systems.

If any custom heat sinks are required to bring certain components within their manufacturer-designated running temperatures, ATS assumes all tooling charges and sample production costs, including any customized heat sink attachment hardware. In addition, ATS will perform all physical testing at its Thermal Characterization Laboratory, which features advanced open loop and closed loop wind tunnels, temperature and velocity measurement sensors and other analysis instrumentation, to verify the cooling design. All designs and performance reports are provided to customers, who can perform their own thermal analyses and verification studies using the ATS characterization lab and samples of the actual heat sink solutions at no extra cost.

More information about the QoolPCB thermal management program from ATS is available at: http://www.qats.com/Services/QoolPCB—PCB-Cooling-At-Fixed-Cost/57.aspx

 

Novel Concepts thermal calculators give you free tools to get your thermal designs done faster

Novel Concepts has a series of on-line tools to help you get your thermal development work done faster. The tools are free at their site here and include:

  • Slab Thermal Resistance: This one-dimensional steady-state heat conduction calculator provides the thermal resistance through the height axis of a solid slab, given uniform heat input and output, and having insulated sidewalls.
  • Cylinder Thermal Resistance: This one-dimensional steady-state heat conduction calculator provides the thermal resistance through the height axis of a solid cylinder, given uniform heat input and output, and having insulated sidewalls.
  • Hollow Cylinder Thermal Resistance: This one-dimensional steady-state heat conduction calculator provides the thermal resistance through the sidewall of a hollow cylinder, given uniform heat input and output, and having insulated ends.
  • Slab Thermal Resistance With Constriction: This two-dimensional steady-state heat conduction calculator provides the thermal resistance through the height axis of a solid slab, flat heat pipe, or heat spreader, including the thermal constriction resistance resulting from a heat source that is smaller than the slab, given uniform heat input and output, and having all other surfaces insulated.
  • Slab Mass Thermal Resistance: This one-dimensional transient heat capacitance calculator provides the thermal resistance of a solid slab, given the mass thermal properties, finite heat input, and being fully insulated.
  • Mass Flow Thermal Resistance: This one-dimensional steady heat capacitance calculator provides the thermal resistance of a mass flow system, given the mass thermal properties and flow rate.
  • Slab Fin Efficiency: This one-dimensional steady-state heat conduction calculator provides the fin efficiency or effectiveness of a slab or cuboid shaped fin, given uniform cross-sectional area, uniform heat input, and insulated ends.
  • Pin Fin Efficiency: This one-dimensional steady-state heat conduction calculator provides the fin efficiency or effectiveness of a pin or cylindrical shaped fin, given uniform cross-sectional area, uniform heat input, and insulated ends.
  • Forced Convection Heat Sink Thermal Resistance: This steady-state forced convection heat sink calculator provides thermal resistance and pressure drop, given uniform heat input and uniform air flow. This model is based on the fluid properties of air at 50°C, and includes entrance and exit pressure loss effects, and excludes any base conduction resistance.
  • Peltier (thermoelectric) Cooler Thermal and Electrical Performance:
    This steady-state calculator provides the thermal and electrical performance of a Bismuth Teluride based Peltier (thermoelectric) cooling system, as a function of ambient temperature, hot and cold side heat exchanger performance, thermal load, Peltier module thermopile) geometry, and Peltier electrical parameters.

You can check these tools out for yourself by visiting them at this link: Novel Concepts Thermal Calculators

Can superwicking technology deliver on the promise of a better way to cool computer hardware?

Just recently, on April 12th, Electronics Cooling reported on “new” cooling technique called superwicking. They were reporting on an article from Science Magazine entitled, “Toward Liquid Cooling Computers“.

The notion of superwicking is certainly an exciting development and worthy of further exploration to find its right niche for a given cooling application. We asked Dr. Kaveh Azar, the President of ATS, Inc, and someone many of our readers know from ATS’s Thermal Webinar Series, what his take was on superwicking. Dr. Azar told us that “for every cooling solution developed, there is a thermal problem in the electronics industry that would benefit from it, but there is no silver bullet and often the cooling solutions are application specific”.

Kaveh told us that though the concept of superwicking is relatively new, the parallels with microchannels are ironic. Microchannels received focus when scientists looked at the definition of the Nusselt’s number and realized that the heat transfer coefficient is inversely proportional to the hydraulic diameter; that is the smaller the hydraulic diameter the larger the heat transfer coefficient. That discovery convened a large amount of inconclusive research on microchannels with data not being duplicatable from one researcher to another. In parallel, much effort has been focused on the pumping technology to make the microchannels work since, as the hydraulic diameter gets smaller, the pressure drop increases exponentially. Yet, despite many promises and revolutionary cooling possibilities with microchannel, except for a few highly niche applications, the practical side of deployment has confined the microchannels to laboratory experiments and academic articles. [editor: we’ve covered Microchannel technology here at the ATS heatsink blog at three different articles here, here and here].

We asked Kaveh should the industry be excited about superwicking? His answer was a resounding, “Yes, from the engineering standpoint this is certainly a milestone. Being able to strongly wick liquids against gravity is an engineering accomplishment”. But Kaveh cautioned that translating this concept to cooling high-power chips or deployment in electronics cooling is a stretch and can actually mislead the inexperienced thermal engineer in the field. The practical application and deployment of super wicking into chips or system-on-chips is an entirely different challenge. In fact, it mandates not just resolving a superwicked structure on a chip but also its deployment in system. Thermal challenges in every electronic structure (whether chip, PCB or a system) have unique requirements and once deployed on a premise, a system is governed by the site’s requirements. Kaveh concluded his thoughts on superwicking by saying, “proclaiming superwicking can solve real world, high power applications and set the expectations for the technology high seems premature. We just need to look at the literature and see how far microchannels have gotten in cooling high power electronics ‘the data shows not far. But, ATS, Inc. strongly encourages and applauds the researchers in this area’ as thermal management sorely needs innovative and visionary ideas.”

EU Funds research program to create more thermally aware design paradigms for semiconductors

The EU is now funding a three-year program called the Therminator Project. The project’s goal, as reported in the Therminator Press release:

  • To devise innovative thermal models, usable at different levels of abstraction, and to interface/integrate them into existing simulation and design frameworks
  • To develop new, thermal-aware design solutions, customized for the different technologies and application domains of interest
  • To enhance existing EDA solutions via thermal-aware add-on tools that will enable designers to address temperature issues more effectively using their existing design flows.

Those are pretty ambitious goals but at ATS we welcome them with OPEN arms! ATS, and other thermal design and heat sink companies, recognized that to get to the next level in cooling we really need to attack the problem at the semiconductor. To meet that goal ATS invented mxiPKG, a new BGA package that allowed for the direct connection of a heat sink to an IC using clip technology. That of course would create the right pressure conditions for phase change thermal interface material to do its magic.

Our experience in approaching IC companies was that almost all of them wanted to push the thermal problem into the system vendors hands and be done with it. That wasn’t such a bad approach 20 years ago but as thermal density has increased over time it is clear we need new innovative approaches.  The IC Packaging companies didn’t want to be included in the thermal cooling solution either.  mxiPKG was our offering in this space and we think whatever the Therminator team does will be very welcome by the thermal design community.

The Therminator program is funded with $11M Euros. Here’s a list of who’s on the Therminator team:

  • STMICROELECTRONICS (Italy)
  • INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES (Germany)
  • NXP SEMICONDUCTORS (The Netherlands and Germany)
  • ChipVision Design Systems AG (Germany)
  • Gradient Design Automation, Incorporated (United States)
  • MunEDA GmbH (Germany)
  • SYNOPSYS, Inc. (Armenia and Switzerland)
  • BUDAPESTI MUSZAKI ES GAZDASAGTUDOMANYI EGYETEM (Hungary)
  • CSEM CENTRE SUISSE D’ELECTRONIQUE ET DE MICROTECHNIQUE SA (Switzerland)
  • FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V and its IIS Dresden and IISB Erlangen Institutes (Germany)
  • IMEC (Belgium)
  • CEA LETI  (France)
  • OFFIS e.V. Germany
  • POLITECNICO DI TORINO (Italy)
  • ALMA MATER STUDIORUM-UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA (Italy)

Read more at the press release:  “THERMINATOR Project Warms Efforts to Cool Semiconductor Design Solutions

Isothermal Plate Provides Precise, Controllable Heat Source to Simulate Hot IC’s for Heat Sink Development or Test and Measurement

Advanced Thermal Solutions, Inc. (ATS) CIP-1000 is a controllable isothermal plate system which produces surface temperatures from 10 to 170°C. The temperature can be controlled with an accuracy of +/- 0.1°C. The CIP-1000 heat source system features a 75 mm diameter isothermal copper plate whose constant temperature can be raised or lowered both automatically and manually. A three wire RTD sensor and integral PID controller ensure specific, uniform temperature across the entire plate. Temperature settings can be programmed for automated ramping, including hold times for each step. Manual temperature management is also supported.

Applications include:

  • Simulating a hot semiconductor for thermal development of heat sinks
  • Temperature control for bio-technology applications
  • Quick spot heating of materials needed in electronics hardware lab prototyping work

You can learn more by visiting the ATS CIP-1000 Information Page