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Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment 01FEB10 V1 PDF
Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment 01FEB10 V1 PDF
Thermal Management in
Electronic Equipment
Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment | February 2010
Contents
Abstract 2
Introduction 3
Medical Electronics 9
Consumer Electronics 11
Automotive Electronics 15
Process Flow 16
Conclusion 17
Appendix 18
Acronyms 18
References 19
Authors 19
ABOUT HCL 20
Abstract
Development in the electronics industry has come a long way
from nascent low performing devices to advanced devices with
high computational speed and power. The advancement in the
industry led to an exponential increase in power densities, which in
turn drove the innovation of smarter and smaller products. These
advanced technologies, coupled with miniaturization requirements,
guided innovation-driven thermal management in electronic devices.
Thermal management is essential in electronics, as it improves
reliability and enhances performance by removing heat generated
by the devices.
This paper highlights the development and challenges faced in the
thermal management of electronic equipment in various domains.
It gives an overview of innovative cooling solutions developed
over the years. It presents HCL case studies in various domains
such as medical, consumer, aerospace and defense, and automotive
electronics. It also gives a process flow chart which demonstrates
the thermal methodology of electronic equipment in general.
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Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment | February 2010
Introduction
The phrase thermal management encompasses the technology of the
generation, control and dissipation of heat generated in electronic
devices and systems. Heat is an inevitable by-product of every
electronic device, and is usually disadvantageous to performance and
reliability. The electronic packaging trend has been to reduce size
and increase performance of the product, both of which contribute
to exponential increase in power consumption of the system.
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Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment | February 2010
Medical Electronics
© 2010, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment | February 2010
© 2010, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment | February 2010
© 2010, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment | February 2010
© 2010, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment | February 2010
© 2010, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment | February 2010
Medical Electronics
The medical electronics area has traditionally included implantable
medical devices, medical diagnostic tools and monitoring devices.
Today, however, the market is being fueled by an explosive growth
in personal medical equipment. Driven by the need to reduce
healthcare costs, patients’ desires to manage their own health, and
an increased emphasis on preventive medicine, the adoption of
consumer based, portable and often wearable medical products is
increasing at a substantial rate. The major medical products can be
classified into two categories.
• Large infrastructure equipment
– Medical imaging systems (e.g. X-ray and MRI)
– IT equipment (e.g. picture archival communication systems)
– Biochemical analysis equipment (e.g. lab instruments and
DNA analyzers)
• Small stationary - portable equipment
– Patient monitoring systems
– Bedside monitoring units
Challenges
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10
Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment | February 2010
Cooling Solution
• Special baffles were designed to divert the flow from fans to heat
sink as the EMI/EMC shields were obstructing the flow
• With the help of dedicated ducts, pressure drop was optimized
inside the system
• To reduce the temperature of the unit, low thermal conductive
material was used between heat dissipating chips and the
unit surface
• A low-noise fan was chosen to meet noise and
vibration standards
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11
Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment | February 2010
Consumer Electronics
In this era of communications and entertainment, growth of
consumer electronics is exploding. Consumer demand for increased
mobility, wireless connectivity and advanced features demand has
paved the way for a variety of new products, including servers,
laptops, ruggedized laptops, hybrid routers, data centers and
cameras. The silicon solutions driving these products are more
highly integrated than ever before, as advancements in process
technology are delivering system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions that are
smaller, faster, and lower cost. These trends, along with the broad
range of emerging equipment, require diversity in new IC package
types to meet specific applications.
The evolution of the microprocessor from a 486 Intel chip to a
multi-core processor shows the exponential increase in power
density needed to achieve superior computing power. Figure 8
shows the comparative changes in processor wattage over the years.
The obvious change in the processors is the amount of power
consumption, which has increased from 70W to 250W in the last
decade. This power consumption has challenged the industry to
create cutting edge technologies to deal with thermal management.
Consumer electronics thermal management is one of the most
challenging and innovative in the entire technological landscape.
The semiconductor which involves chip cooling to server and
datacenter cooling has led to innovation of some of the finest cooling
technologies in the field of thermal management (Fig. 6).
Challenges
• Harsh environment
• High power dissipation
• Miniaturization
• Competitive packaging factor with overall high heat flux
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Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment | February 2010
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Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment | February 2010
Challenges
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14
Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment | February 2010
Cooling Solution
• Detailed modeling was done for complex transformers, inductors
and bus bars
• The cooling solution was provided using liquid technology
• The cold plate was designed for optimum velocity and
pressure drop
• Complex bus bars were designed and optimized
• Joule heating effect was evaluated with respect to optimum
bus bar design
• Transformers and inductors were cooled by routing the flow
through the optimized channels
• Cold plate has been optimized with respect to pressure drop
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15
Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment | February 2010
Automotive Electronics
The quantity, value and complexity of electronics in passenger
vehicles continue to rise. This brings a corresponding increase in
shielding, grounding and thermal management challenges for the
automotive design engineer. Vehicle electronics can be loosely split
into ‘in cab’ and ‘out of cab’ applications.
• In cab applications
– Heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC)
– Instrument panels
– Radios
– Infotainment
– Satellite navigation
– Head-up displays
• Out of cab applications
– Engine management ECUs
– Braking ECUs
– Diverse array of sensor units
The emergence and evolution of thick, soft thermal gap fillers in
either die-cut sheet or form-in-place formats range has enabled
engineers to effectively couple surface-mount devices to a chassis
or enclosure. At the same time, this approach can often simplify
and speed module assembly by removing the need for some
mechanical fixes.
Challenges
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16
Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment | February 2010
Process Flow
A thermal engineer makes use of industry-wide best practices and his
judgment for engineering design decisions. The three most important
proponents in making engineering decisions: 1. Understand the
heat transfer circuit of the system (i.e. convection, conduction and
radiation); 2. A thermal equivalent model for analysis needs to be
identified for mimicking the exact model; 3. A process flow chart
must be designed to reduce errors in the model and analysis, and
to obtain the results quickly. Figure 12 shows the indicative best
practice for the thermal simulation of board level and system level
product designs.
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17
Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment | February 2010
Conclusion
This paper highlights the importance of thermal management
(reliability and performance of devices) in electronic equipment
with respect to ever increasing product packaging factors, thermal
wattages, and consumer needs. A glimpse of market trends and
consumer demand for electronics was presented, with a view
of the increasing importance of thermal management. Thermal
management needs, challenges and solutions were also highlighted.
An overview of specialized cooling solutions has been given with
respect to product advancement. Case studies were presented in
various domains (medical, consumer, aero & defense and automotive
electronics) to illustrate HCL’s capabilities. A thermal management
methodology flow chart was designed using best practices, and
simulation approaches from the industry were also presented.
As needs and demands grow every day, thermal management
technology will continue to evolve.
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18
Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment | February 2010
Appendix
Source HCL Technologies Ltd: The data represented in
this paper is from the vast experience of HCL Technologies
in Thermal Management. The data is collected from
100 different products in each of the following domains (Medical
electronics, Consumer electronics, Aero/ Defense electronics and
Automotive electronics).
Acronyms
CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics
CNT Carbon Nanotubes
CRT Cathode Ray Tube
DIMM Dual In-line Memory Module
ECU Engine Control Unit
EMI/EMC Electromagnetic Interference/ Compatibility
IC Integrated Circuit
IGBT Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor
LRU Line Replace Unit
PWB/PCB Printed Wiring Board/ Printed Circuit Board
RF Radio Frequency
UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
VLSI Very Large Scale Integration
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19
Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment | February 2010
References
1. Scott Speaks Vicor, ‘Reliability and MTBF Overview’, Vicor Reliability
Engineering, Europe
2. Tai Phan and Joseph Steinman, ‘AMC/ATCA Thermal Management:
A Case Study’, Interphase Corporation
3. Dr. Robert Hannemann, ‘Thermal Control of Electronics: Perspectives
and Prospects’, Charlespoint Group, Boston, MA
4. Joseph Fjelstad, ‘Thermal Management Challenges’, Verdant
Electronics
5. Roger Schmidt, ‘Data Center Trends and Power Management’,
IBM USA
6. BCC Research, http://www.bccresearch.com/report/SMC024E.html
7. Richard C. Chu, ‘Thermal Management Roadmap: Cooling Electronic
Products from Hand-Held Devices to Supercomputers’, IBM USA
8. http://www.omai.com.cn/en/shownews.asp?id=165
9. http://en.kioskea.net/news/11734-growth-in-consumer-electronics-
sales-to-slow-in-2009
10. http://www.ebis.com.sg/Portals/0/pdfs/InfoByte/Public/
Aerospace%20&%20Defense.pdf
11. http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800480602_499501_NT_d2dce9db.
HTM
12. http://www.ti.com/research/docs/SemiconductorPackagingWP.pdf
13. http://www.prismark.com/
Authors
Jagadish Thammanna is a Manager and Heads the CFD and
Thermal team at HCL Technologies. He has 15 years of experience
in Thermal management in all the niche domains and various
cross-application industries. His areas of interest include
Computational Fluid Dynamics, heat transfer and scientific
programming. In his vast experience, he has presented and published
many national and international papers at technical symposiums.
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Thermal Management in Electronic Equipment | February 2010
ABOUT HCL
HCL Technologies
HCL Technologies is a leading global IT services company, working
with clients in the areas that impact and redefine the core of their
businesses. Since its inception into the global landscape after its IPO
in 1999, HCL focuses on ‘transformational outsourcing’, underlined
by innovation and value creation, and offers integrated portfolio of
services including software-led IT solutions, remote infrastructure
management, engineering and R&D services and BPO. HCL
leverages its extensive global offshore infrastructure and network of
offices in 26 countries to provide holistic, multi-service delivery in
key industry verticals including Financial Services, Manufacturing,
Consumer Services, Public Services and Healthcare. HCL takes
pride in its philosophy of ‘Employee First’ which empowers our
55,688 transformers to create a real value for the customers. HCL
Technologies, along with its subsidiaries, had consolidated revenues
of US$ 2.5 billion (Rs. 11,833 crores), as on 31st December 2009 (on
LTM basis). For more information, please visit www.hcltech.com
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