Tag Archives: heat transfer

New maxiFLOW DC-DC Brick Heat Sinks Ideal for Military-COTS Applications

ATS has recently launched a new product line of maxiFLOW heat sinks, specially designed to cool DC-DC converters. The new line of heat sinks can be used with Vicor’s DC-DC converter Bricks, including their military-COTS applications.

Vicor’s Maxi, Mini, and Micro series DC-DC converters are relied upon by over eight thousand OEMs for their proven performance, broad coverage of input and output voltages, ease of mechanical mounting and thermal management flexibility. These converter modules use advanced power processing, control, and packaging technologies to provide the performance, flexibility, and ruggedness expected in a Military COTS product. High frequency ZCS/ZVS switching, advanced power semiconductor packaging, and thermal management provide high-power density with low noise and high efficiency.

maxiFLOW Heat Sink for Half Brick DC-DC Converters

 

ATS’ patented maxiFLOW technology cools millions of BGAs and other PCB components. The same technology is now available for cooling eighth, quarter, half and full brick modules, such as the Micro, Mini, and Maxi series from Vicor. Unlike other converter heat sinks, the patented maxiFLOW heat sink design reduces air pressure drop and provides greater surface area, increasing thermal performance by 30-200%.

Vicor’s Micro, Mini, and Maxi DC-DC Converters

Vicor’s offering of full, half, and quarter-brick modules feature a patented low noise design with the highest reliability and power density available. Fully encapsulated, Maxi, Mini and Micro series DC-DC converters utilize a proprietary spin fill process that assures complete, void free encapsulation making them suitable for the harshest environments. Two grades (H & M) are available with temperatures to -55°C operating and -65°C storage. H & M-Grade modules are qualified to the stringent environmental tests of MIL-STD-810 and MIL-STD-202 and undergo 100% Environment Stress Screening.

By combining technology from industry leaders Vicor and ATS, it can be ensured that DC-DC converters will have superior performance in the harshest environments, which is vital for military and aerospace applications.

To learn more about maxiFLOW Brick DC-DC converter heat sinks, please visit our Power Brick Heat Sink Page or email ats-hq@qats.com, or call us 781-769-2800.

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.

ARM Microprocessors and ATS superGRIP: Attached at the Clip

Advanced Thermal Solutions, Inc., (ATS), has introduced a line of heat sinks compatible with the Sitara ARM Microprocessor family from Texas Instruments.

AM1707 from Texas Instruments

AM1707 from Texas Instruments

The Sitara ARM Microprocessors feature ARM Cortex-8 and ARM9 MPUs, which are used in a wide variety of Industrial, Medical, and Consumer Electronics applications.

The AM17x family consists of low-power ARM microprocessors that enable OEMs and ODMs to maximize product offerings by providing high processing performance life, advanced operating systems and rich user interfaces. Compatible operating systems include Neutrino, Integrity, Windows, Embedded CE, Linux, VXWorks and Android.

ATS patented maxiFLOW heat sinks with superGRIP clip attachment ensure long-term product reliability and maximum performance from the Sitara ARM Microprocessors. maxiFLOW high performance BGA heat sinks feature a low profile, spread fin array that maximizes surface area for more effective convection air cooling. The unique maxiFLOWTM design provides thermal performance that is 30-200% better than conventional heat sinks.

ATS' maxiFLOW Heat Sink with superGRIP Attachment

ATS’ maxiFLOW Heat Sink with superGRIP Attachment

maxiFLOW is available with pre-assembled phase change material, maxiGRIP clip attachments, and superGRIP clip attachments. The superGRIP attachment system features a plastic frame clip that fastens securely around the perimeter of a component and a metal spring clip that slips through a heat sinks fin field and locks securely to both ends of the plastic frame. The resulting superGRIP assembly applies steady even pressure to the component throughout the product lifecycle, improving thermal performance and long-term reliability. The ATS superGRIP heat sink attachment system permits the use of high performance phase changing thermal interface materials that improves heat transfer by as much as 20 times more than typical double-sided adhesive thermal tapes. It also allows for the heat sink to be detached and reattached without damaging the component or the PCB, an important feature for applications where PCB rework and ease of assembly and disassembly are important. The full range of ATS products compatible with Texas Instruments products can be viewed in the new heat sink selection tool on http://qats.com/Distributor/AE-Dist.php

To learn more about maxiFLOW heat sinks and the superGRIP clip attachment, please visit www.qats.com, email ats-hq@qats.com, or call 781-769-2800.

2013 Webinar Calendar Released

ATS will provide two free technical webinars each month in 2013. Presented by PhD-level thermal engineers, each event will focus on an important area of electronics thermal management. The tutorials will provide practical training and insights for all engineers, designers and program managers who want to learn more about electronics cooling.

Most of the ATS webinars are scheduled to run no longer than 15 minutes in respect to the time demands on todays engineers. But each quarter of 2013 will conclude with a one-hour event that presents deeper training on a crucial heat management topic.

Every webinar is free of charge. Attendees can submit questions during the live presentations. For later viewing, each webinar will be archived on the ATS website for free streaming at the engineers convenience. Questions and comments to the recorded webinars will be responded to by ATS engineers.

ATS Webinars

Here are the 2013 ATS webinar dates, run times and titles:

Jan 9: What is the Thermal Management of Electronics?

Jan 23: Thermal Interface Material Overview: Pros and Cons

Feb 13: Calculating Junction Temperature in Electronics Cooling

Feb 27: Important Factors When Doing Heat Sink Design

Mar 13: Analytical Modeling for Thermal Analysis

Mar 27: Heat Sink Materials: Choices and Tradeoffs

Apr 10: LED Cooling: Whats So Hot about LEDs?

Apr 24: LED Cooling: Analytical Thermal Analysis

May 8: LED Cooling: Computational Thermal Analysis

May 22: LED Cooling: Physical Thermal Analysis

Jun 12: Heat Sink Fin Spacing for Heat Transfer Optimization

Jun 26: Temperature Measurements Within Electronic Systems

Jul 10: Heat Sink Types: Pros and Cons

Jul 24: Heat Sink Manufacturing Processes

Aug 14: Thermal Conductivity: What It Is and Why You Should Care

Aug 28: How to Perform Pressure Drop Calculations

All webinars are on Wednesdays at 2pm. Please visit www.qats.com/training to view the entire list of webinars, on-demand webinars in the archive, and to register for the full hour, live tutorials.

New Video Showing Liquid Crystal Thermography


In light of several media spotlights on the TLC-100, including FrostyTech, EDN, and Electronics Product Magazine, ATS has released a new video showing the Liquid Crystal Thermography Kit in action. ATS engineer, Greg, shows us how liquid crystals begin turning red, then into different colors, representing the temperature distribution of the component or board. By applying these liquid crystals, engineers can visually find hotspots and temperature fields on chips and other electronic components.

Learn More about the TLC-100

Order the TLC-100

Request a Quote