Did you miss us? For those of you that are faithful readers of Electronics Cooling, we are pleased to inform you that after a short interval of restructuring, we have resumed publication. Given the recent downturn in the economy as a whole, and specifically within the electronics thermal management community, we can hope that this is a sign of improvement and recovery. We will … [Read more...]
Silicon Sponge Ideal for Lithium-Ion Battery Pack Assemblies
Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Foams announces R10404, a thermally conductive, silicone sponge ideal for lithium-Ion battery pack assemblies. Key properties include thermal conductivity, electrical isolation and compression set resistance, which makes the material well-suited for controlling operating temperature and mitigating electrical and vibration hazards. Read the … [Read more...]
The Better Box Model
Introduction For the consumer, natural convection cooling or fan-less cooling is the method of choice. It is silent, it is reliable, it is simple, and it is environmentally sound because no additional energy is used to remove the excess heat. For the thermal engineer, fan-less cooling is more problematic. On the plus side, no fan is needed, so there is an attractive cost … [Read more...]
Health Assessment and Prognostics of Electronic Products: An Alternative to Traditional Reliability Prediction Methods
Introduction Traditional handbook-based reliability prediction methods for electronic products include Mil-Hdbk-217, Telcordia SR-332 (formerly Bellcore), PRISM, FIDES, CNET/RDF (European), and the Chinese GJB-299. These methods rely on analysis of failure data collected from the field and assume that the components of a system have inherent constant failure rates that are … [Read more...]
LED Thermal Standardization: A Hot Topic
Introduction The main topic of the article is how to cope with the increasing need for standardization of thermal characterization of LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) and LED-based products (see Fig.1 showing a typical LED package). The LED-business is growing much faster than analysts predicted five years ago. Unfortunately, the progress in thermal characterization has not kept … [Read more...]