Tag Archives: maxiGRIP

ATS Has a New Website!

In effort to  make it easier for engineers to find heat sinks, instruments and other products for cooling hot electronics, ATS has redesigned Qats.com, focusing on improving usability in every aspect, from part searching to page navigation to uncluttered design.

Thousands of new heat sinks have been added, with easy to use heat sink selection tools. The ATS online ordering storefront, eShop, provides more specifications, and multiple parts can be viewed in grid or list form per user preference. The eShop check out process is redesigned for faster ordering.

Proper heat sink choices can be found using selection tools for specific component part number and manufacturers, such as  Altera, Freescale, Intel, and Lattice.  Solutions can also be found by heat sink type, such as cross cut, straight fin, or maxiFLOW or by the needed attachment method, such as maxiGRIP, superGRIP, Push Pin, or Thermal Tape. If the specific dimensions are needed to meet application requirements, heat sink dimensions including length,width and height can be sorted with ease. Thermal performance, schematic drawings, product images, datasheets, RoHS certificates are all included and updated in the new design as well.

Along with heat sinks, the new Qats.com simplifies scanning and comparing all ATS instrument lines for thermal management. These include wind tunnels, sensors and devices for measuring temperature and air velocity. All of the newest ATS instruments can be reviewed, including the newest devices for measuring air pressure and airflow in electronic enclosures.

New pages on Qats.com better show all ATS services for electronic device cooling, from thermal characterization to high volume manufacturing and rapid prototyping of parts.

Qats.com continues to feature the current issue of Qpedia, the thermal eMagazine published each month by ATS engineers. The new site offers fast access to all Qpedia technical articles published over the past six years, with an enhanced Qpedia search feature. The Qpedia Book Series, Volumes 1-4, can noe be purchased through Google, Amazon, and ATS’ eSHOP.

Finally, ATS added more FAQ tools to its product pages to help engineers better match their cooling needs with ATS thermal management products.

Engineers are invited to visit Qats.com and experience a website that matches the company’s constant push for high quality innovations on behalf of their customers. As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, we would love to hear from you. Contact us by phone at 781-769-2800 or email at ats-hq@qats.com.

Getting the Maximum Performance from Heat Sink Clips

As power levels for board components have risen, thermal engineers have been forced to design larger and more innovative heat sinks than ever before.  Along with the thermal challenge has come the mechanical challenge of attaching these heat sinks to the components in a reliable fashion.

One of the most popular methods uses some form of clip. These are low in price and easily applied. Smart engineering has led to clip systems that provide strong, even pressure well beyond the working life of the component. They hold their heat sinks tight even when dropped or shocked, but they can be unclipped manually whenever it’s necessary.

Clips that attach directly to the component provide an advantage over other clip types, (e.g. z-clips) in that no holes are required in the PWB.  The ATS maxiGRIP is an example of such an attachment.   maxiGrip uses a plastic frame clip that attaches directly to the component and provides a mounting platform for a custom spring clip (Figure 5).


The frame clip is installed, using a special tool which expands all four sides of the clip simultaneously, allowing the clip to be placed directly over the component package (A keep out area is usually required).  Once released, tabs on each side engage and secure the clip to the component, creating a secure mounting platform for the spring clip.  The spring clip, which is designed to provide a very precise load, is then installed to hold the heat sink in place, maintaining continuous pressure at the heat sink component interface.   The maxiGripTM assembly has a big advantage over other heat sink attachment methods in that it allows for the use of high performance phase change interface materials.

Extensive FEA and shock and vibration testing of the maxiGripTM assembly have been done to provide a carefully engineered heat sink attachment solution with a high-level of reliability.

 

How ATS heat sinks helped two tier 1 telecommunications companies implement effective thermal management for their LTE and WiMAX equipment

Advanced Thermal Solutions, Inc (ATS), a leader in offering Innovations in Thermal Management, recently demonstrated that its maxiFLOW™ heat sink and superGRIP™ heat sink clip can cool semiconductor dense and thermally challenging LTE and WiMAX telecommunications network equipment.  Two Tier 1 telecommunications equipment OEMs had faced significant thermal and mechanical challenges on their new designs.  Deploying ATS thermal management technology allowed them both to ship their network equipment to customers in Japan and the United States, meeting schedules, and winning the confidence of their major customers, both wireless providers.

In example one, ATS’s customer was faced with a real dilemma.  Having used microTCA and other modular technologies to develop both their WiMAX and LTE telecommunications infrastructure equipment, they faced the challenge of dealing with high heat and restricted air flow in their system.  After considering various options, they opted to test ATS’s solution.  The results were dramatic, reducing board temperature 15%.  The temperature reduction made it possible for the systems to operate at the designed performance levels, and keep the manufacturer’s development costs in check since no architecture changes or fan additions were necessary.  Their U.S. and Japanese wireless customers received their equipment and successfully trialed.

In example two, ATS’s customer was at the start of launching their new 4G LTE telecommunications platform.  Early trials showed great promise but thermal issues dogged the design, making reliability a concern.  This customer knew their design needed some additional thermal management technology to realize its design specification. They called in ATS to perform root cause analysis of the problem and provide a solution.  After performing both CFD and physical tests, the problem was identified. ATS’s maxiFLOW and superGRIP technologies were then deployed in the customer’s system.  Resultant tests successfully improved reliability, while only adding single digit percentages to the product cost.

Both these examples show the advantage of ATS’s thermal management technology in telecommunications equipment.  Learn more about how your next or current telecommunications equipment project can be cooled so it can operate at its peak performance level, click to our web site, http://qats.com/

ATS maxiGRIP is flame retardent and our engineers prove it on video!

From time to time ATS engineers are asked if maxiGRIP, our patented heat sink attach technology that allow phase change interface material to be properly used, can resist  high heat.

Would ATS design something that didn’t pass every possible, necessary rating – never.  We can’t bring ourselves to design it poorly.  We know that thermal management is not just an afterthought and that it can make or break a system performance.

So, to prove our point, we’ve produced this short video on maxiGRIP and a simple flame test.  It’s a simple video of what happens when you use heat stress maxiGRIP.  Enjoy!  I think you can guess the outcome: .

Click to our link to buy your own heatsinks with maxiGRIP by visiting our maxiFLOW/maxiGRIP product page at qats.com

Aavid Thermalloy Offers ATS maxiFLOW & maxiGRIP

Many times, engineers will choose ATS’s maxiFLOW heat sinks with a maxiGRIP attach solution.  Just by adding maxiFLOW they can drop their component junction temperature 20%

But then the engineer goes to purchasing to source it and….ATS is not on their corporate AVL.    Well ATS has a solution for that!

Got Aavid on your AVL?

Aavid Thermalloy now offers the industry leading maxiFLOW Heat Sinks & maxiGRIP HS attach!  Just click on over to Aavid’s site at, “NEW ATS Cooling Solutions for Ball Grid Arrays (BGAs)” and pick up your ATS maxiFLOW and maxiGRIP solutions from Aavid!