Thermal design in the consumer electronics business is about dealing with two difficult challenges: The first is to fulfill, and if possible surpass, customer expectations. The second is to do this in ever shortening design cycles. After a main initial use of flat displays as computer monitors, larger flat display screens are now emerging for video purposes: the Flat TV. … [Read more...]
The treacherous streams
During the development of a telecommunications product, an unpredictable phenomenon of air streams within the maze of cards and module was encountered. It could only be compared to suddenly confronting powerful inner streams in a calm ocean. Unlike the ocean, however, these streams appeared in a man-made machine. It seemed as if someone had rewritten the laws of physics. It was … [Read more...]
CFD: One measly letter away from CAD
"The stuff you engineers design is too good," the guy from Marketing said, "I need shoddier! Can you make them less efficient and cheaper?" I was working for a small company that made electric power conditioning equipment. Our devices protected against spikes, sags and brownouts in the AC power for mission-critical equipment like air traffic control radar and the computer … [Read more...]
Beyond the arrow plot – New methods for flow visualization
Within the realm of CFD-based flow analysis, the presentation of data is a vital issue. Researchers and developers need to gain insight, and non-technical managers and commercial staff have a critical need to understand the true ramifications of the data. Unfortunately, current methods for visualizing flow have limitations that make it difficult to interpret vast quantities of … [Read more...]
Thermal management of handheld telecommunication products
Introduction Recent advances in mobile communications have enabled large scale development of handheld telecommunication products. Such products include cellular phones, pagers, two-way radios, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other wireless and wireline equipment. The technological enhancements at device, package, and system levels have resulted in increased … [Read more...]