Tag Archives: thermal engineering

The New Qpedia Thermal eMagazine is Out

Qpedia Thermal eMagazine, Volume 7, Issue 4, has just been released and can be downloaded at: http://www.qats.com/Qpedia-Thermal-eMagazine/Back-Issues.

Featured articles in this issue include:

Dropwise Condensation in Vapor Chambers
Considerable attention has been devoted in the past to the evaporation process taking place in a vapor chamber. However, increased heat fluxes at the condensation end have prompted efforts to improve the condensation performance of the vapor chambers. This article presents a review of a novel method for improving the thermal performance of a vapor chamber condensing section by using special surfaces promoting dropwise condensation.

 

Heat Sink Manufacturing Using Metal Injection Molding

Using Metal Injection Molding It is only in the last few years that metal injection molding (MIM) has gained a foothold in the thermal community and its salient advantages have become more evident. The MIM process allows intricate features to be added into the heat sink design to boost thermal performance and its production process is very scalable compared with machining. Injection molding enables complex parts to be formed as easily as simple geometries, thereby allowing increased design freedom.  This article explore the merits of copper material in the MIM process.

 

Industry Developments: Thermoelectric Modules and Coolers

Thermoelectric modules (TEMs) are rugged, reliable and quiet devices that serve as heat pumps. The real heat-moving components inside TEMs are thermoelectric coolers or TECs. These are solid-state heat pumps and are designed for applications where temperature stabilization, temperature cycling, or cooling below ambient, are required. Today, TEMs are used in electro-optics applications, such as the cooling and stabilizing of laser diodes, IR detectors, cameras (charge coupled device), microprocessors, blood analyzers and optical switches. This article explores some of the latest developments in these devices.

 

Technology Review: Reducing Thermal Spreading Resistance in Heat Sinks

In this issue our spotlight is on reducing spreading resistance in heat sinks. There is much discussion about how this phenomenon can be achieved, and these patents show some of the salient features that are the focus of different inventors.

 

Cooling News featuring the latest product releases and buzz from around the electronics cooling industry.

 

Download the issue now.

 

Not a Qpedia subscriber? Subscribe Now for free at: http://www.qats.com/Qpedia-Thermal-eMagazine/Subscribe-to-Qpedia and see why over 18,000 engineers read Qpedia.

New Consulting Project Subscription Plan

ATS has released a Consulting Project Subscription Plan (CPSP) for engineering services. From our corporate headquarters in Norwood, Massachusetts,we offers comprehensive thermal management analysis and design services for the telecommunications, medical, military, defense, aerospace, automotive, and embedded computing industries. The new plan allows ATS engineers to become an extension of your team for a pre-determined amount of hours, providing expert thermal and mechanical engineering consultation, design, simulation, testing and validation.

ATS Design Services

Services include Design, Simulation, Testing, Analysis & Prototyping

The CPSP includes the use of ATS thermal lab facilities and covers all projects approved by an authorized representative of subscribed customers. ATS thermal management analysis and design services encompass both experimental and computational simulations using proprietary tools and computational fluid dynamics software packages such as FLOTHERM and CFdesign.

Thermal Testing & Analysis

Thermal Testing & Analysis

The new subscription plan gives customers priority access to ATS engineering and manufacturing resources for all chip, board, enclosure, and system related projects. ATS studies the full packaging domain, including components, circuit boards (PCBs), shelves, chassis, and system packaging.

Consulting capabilities include:

– heat sink, board and fan characterization

– heat sink design and optimization

– PCB & fan tray design and optimization

– liquid cooling design

– prototyping of heat sinks and complete cooling systems

– wind tunnel testing of components, PCBs, chassis and enclosures

ATS offers rapid prototyping of machined parts and cooling systems from its US facilities. Sheet metal fabrication and cut heat sink prototypes are quickly provided from international partners.

Liquid Crystal Thermography

Liquid Crystal Thermography

ATS believes that customers who wish to remain competitive should consider a design-to-suit opportunity solution first. Contrary to common perception, this proves to be less expensive to the customer in the long run, because of the ensuing gain in product efficiency and compatibility. Working side-by-side with customers worldwide, ATS engineers provide tailored solutions to thermal and mechanical packaging challenges on real projects with real schedules.

To learn more about the consulting project subscription plan, call 781-769-2800, email [email protected], or visit www.qats.com.

Touch Screen Scanner Simplifies Temperature and Air Velocity Measurement for Thermal Characterization

ATVS-NxTThe ATVS-NxT hot wire anemometer is a fully-portable scanner that provides rapid and highly precise temperature and air velocity measurements for the thermal characterization of electronic packages. The ATVS-NxTis member of our temperature & velocity measurement instruments, along with the ATVS-2020 and eATVS-8, but its touch screen feature and embedded pc speaks to its truly unique capability.

The unique touch screen feature allows users to control the stageVIEW software at their fingertips, quickly acquiring temperature and air velocity data, analytics, and reports. It includes an 8 GB hard drive and a CD/RW drive. Ethernet connections allow the scanner to be operated over an intranet or the Internet.
Watch the quick 30 second video showing the ATVS-NxT touch screen feature

The ATVS-NxT supports up to 32 sensors for simultaneous, single-point air velocity and temperature measurements in environments where single or multipoint measurements are required. The sensors are calibrated for both low (natural convection) and high velocity flow rates.

The easy to use ATVS-NxT collects heat and airflow data useful to heat sink manufacturers, IC houses, board designers, and other electronics manufacturers. The scanner’s single-point measurement of temperature and air velocity provides faster, more precise data enabling more efficient thermal management solutions. Visit qats.com to learn more or to request a quote.

ATS Design Services Contacted for ECL’s New Recycled LED Street Light

Eco City Lights (ECL), a leading supplier of commercial and industrial LED lighting products, recently contacted ATS design services for help in solving thermal challenges on a newly developed application.

ATS performed a full thermal analysis on ECLs retro-fit solution for cobra head street lights. Services provided by ATS included simulation, validation and reporting for the heat sink, enclosure and system level applications. Experimentation was done in order to validate and optimize the current design and the thermal solution. Using IR Technology and multiple sensors throughout the fixture, LED, heat sink, and power supply, testing was performed to determine the true temperatures of the output and enclosure parameters. After numerous studies were conducted, in addition to reviewing 3D CAD models of the enclosure and application components, ATS was able to successfully analyze the existing thermal management solution for the retro-fit street light.

ATS performed testing and analysis on the LED application

ATS performed testing and analysis on the LED application

Eco City Lights felt it was most important to find a thermal management company to evaluate, analyze, and comment on our led lighting solutions. “After researching our options ECL determined that ATS was the best qualified to handle our project. After personally visiting with Joe Gaylord of ATS and talking with their engineers, we now have a product line that is thermally tested, proven, and cost effective. As our company continues to grow, we will be adding addition products and look forward to working with ATS in the future” said Ken Moeller, President of Eco City Lights.

ECL's Cobra Head Street Light

ECL’s Cobra Head Street Light

Eco City Lights LED products are used in street, sidewalk, parking lot and warehouse applications for municipal, government, and commercial enterprises. It is crucial that the LEDs thermal performance is maximized, ensuring product reliability and an extended lifespan. The new recycled LED streetlight module is proven to save customers over 60 percent of energy consumptions costs, providing long lasting, low maintenance, and energy efficient LED lighting.

From its computational facilities and thermal/fluids laboratories in Massachusetts, ATS specializes in providing thermal analysis, mechanical and design services for the telecommunications, networking, medical, aerospace, defense, embedded computing, and automotive industries with high performance electronic products. To learn more about ATS Design Services, call 781-769-2800, email [email protected], or visit www.qats.com.

New Qpedia Thermal eMagazine Published!

Qpedia Thermal eMagazine, Volume 6, Issue 11, has just been released and can be downloaded at: http://www.qats.com/Qpedia-Thermal-eMagazine/Back-Issues. Featured articles in this month’s issue include:

Honeycomb Heat Sinks for LEDs

LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, are a form of solid-state lighting. An LED light is often made of a small piece of semiconductor, an integrated optical lens used to shape its radiation pattern, and a heat sink, used to dissipate heat and maintain the semiconductor at low operating temperature. LED lights present many advantages over incandescent light sources, including lower energy consumption, longer lifetime, improved physical robustness, smaller size and faster switching. This article examines Ma et al’s  findings with respect to the honeycomb heat sink design employed in LEDs, which has proven to be highly efficient.

Characteristics of Thermosyphons in Thermal Management

With the increase of heat fluxes and shrinking chip sizes in electronics applications, there is a need to spread the heat from the small chip to the larger heat sink or to transport the heat to a location where there is ample space to remove the heat. Heat pipes, vapor chambers and thermosyphons have been introduced to undertake this task and, in this article, we focus on some aspects of the design of thermosyphons. The advantage of thermosyphons is that they have no capillary limit and can transport large amounts of heat over long distances.

Industry Developments: Heat Pipes Providing High Performance

Heat pipes are increasing in type and use for the benefits they provide. Because of their lower total thermal resistance, heat pipes transfer heat more efficiently and evenly than solid aluminum or copper. Heat pipes contain a small quantity of working fluid (e.g. water, acetone, nitrogen, methanol, ammonia). Learn the conclusions of a recent study that focused on the best working fluid and another study of heat pipes in outer space.

Technology Review: Cold Plates, 2010 to 2012

Qpedia continues its review of technologies developed for electronics cooling applications. We are presenting selected patents that were awarded to developers around the world to address cooling challenges. After reading the series, you will be more aware of both the historic developments and the latest breakthroughs in both product design and applications.

Cooling News featuring the latest product releases and buzz from around the electronics cooling industry.

Download the issue now.

Not a Qpedia subscriber? Subscribe Now for free at: http://www.qats.com/Qpedia-Thermal-eMagazine/Subscribe-to-Qpedia and see why over 18,000 engineers read Qpedia.