Thermal design software is made for collaboration

Version 2 of FLO/PCB provides a new 3D viewer and a conduction-cooled operating environment and automatically calculates maximum power dissipation for a given operating temperature.

Version 2 of Flomerics' FLO/PCB software - developed specifically to enable electronic and thermal engineers to collaborate on PCB design - provides a new 3D viewer and a conduction-cooled operating environment and automatically calculates maximum power dissipation for a given operating temperature.

The 3D viewer in the new version allows designers to determine the effect of the height of components on cooling issues.

The ability to simulate conduction-cooled environments makes it possible to evaluate boards in sealed enclosures, such as those found in military electronics and ruggedised systems.

FLO/PCB users can now define maximum allowable junction temperatures for components and the software will compute the maximum power that can be dissipated without exceeding those temperatures.

Version 2 also provides thermal solutions for equivalent problems in half the time of the previous version.

Finally, new SmartParts are available to represent RF shields.

FLO/PCB is a unique, new software program from Flomerics for streamlining concept development of PCBs, while ensuring good thermal design and accelerating the PCB design process.

FLO/PCB facilitates collaboration between product marketing, electronic engineers and mechanical engineers on PCB design, particularly during the conceptual phase of the design process.

FLO/PCB promotes a conceptual design process that is derived from the functional block diagram.

The result is pre-optimised concepts in less time and drastic reductions in late-cycle rework as product marketing, mechanical, thermal and manufacturing issues are solved before concept commit.

The board systems architect typically develops the initial concept design by creating a functional block diagram in FLO/PCB.

Hardware design engineers can then derive the first physical layout directly from the block diagram.

A powerful 3D computational fluid dynamics solver predicts airflow and temperature, for both sides of the board, in minutes.

Cooling management can thus be considered from the earliest stages of the design process.

Changes made to the functional block diagram are instantly reflected in the physical layout and thermal representations.

This keeps all team members in sync and enables them to contribute to concept development in real time.

FLO/PCB can be used with other Flomerics products to integrate the physical design of electronics products into a single analysis environment.

As mechanical engineers begin to develop the physical design, they can drag the FLO/PCB model and drop it into a system level thermal design that they develop with Flotherm software.

The integrated environment not only ensures the transmittal of accurate information to mechanical engineers but also provides immediate notification of design changes.

The same model that is created for system level thermal analysis can also be used to address EMC issues far earlier than is normally possible.

Being able to address thermal management and EMC issues within a single environment makes it possible for mechanical engineers to get a head start on the difficult design tradeoffs that are frequently required between these two disciplines.

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