Product category:
Design and Development Software
News Release from: Flomerics | Subject: Flotherm
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 23 April 2008
Thermal simulation removes basestation
hotspot
Improved cooling scheme first modelled using thermal simulation software enables more powerful amplifiers to be placed in compact enclosures.
Thermacore has used Flomerics' Flotherm thermal simulation software to solve a challenging thermal management problem in a tower mounted amplifier (TMA) for a cellular basestation Thermal simulation showed that the heat from the 1 x 1.5in amplifier chips did not spread out sufficiently to use the full extent of the heatsink, causing the chips to overheat
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 6 Aug 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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The problem was addressed by adding a vapour chamber to each chip to reduce the spreading resistance and use the full extent of the heatsink.
The simulation showed this approach reduced the temperature at the base of the heatsink to acceptable levels.
Matt Connors, Applications Engineering Supervisor for Thermacore, reckons that in the past the company would have used a spreadsheet to evaluate the design.
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Crane Mechanical Engineer Mark Resler simulated a range of different heatsink configurations using thermal simulation software.
"But for the last several years we have used thermal simulation software to evaluate nearly every thermal management challenge provided by our customers", Connors said.
"This method requires far fewer assumptions and provides much more accurate results than we were ever able to obtain with a spreadsheet".
"Accuracy is critical in thermal design because our customers want to know what will and won't work as quickly as possible so they can get their product into manufacturing and start generating revenues".
"When we first decided to use thermal simulation we polled our customers and asked them which software package they would like to have us use", says Connors.
"They said that they preferred Flotherm over the other leading thermal simulation packages".
"They use Flotherm themselves so they have confidence in its predictions and can easily incorporate our models into their full system models".
"Since we began using Flotherm we have been very impressed with its ability to accurately simulate thermal management challenges".
"On average, our simulation results predict real-world measurements within 5%".
The simulation results showed that the vapour chamber efficiently spread the heat across the full width of the heatsink so that each of the fins was fully used.
This reduced the temperatures at the base of the heatsink to acceptable levels.
Thermacore built a physical model consisting of a heat source equivalent to a single RF amplifier chip and the vapour chamber and the third of the heatsink that cools this chip.
As usual, the physical testing results matched the simulation results within 5%.
The improved cooling enables more powerful amplifiers to be placed in compact enclosures.
"This application demonstrates how simulation provides a competitive advantage to thermal solutions companies that are experienced in its use", Connors concludes.
"Simulation is much more accurate than conventional formula-driven thermal engineering methods and also takes less time".
"So we can investigate more design alternatives with a very high level of confidence in the accuracy of the results".
"Thermacore's strength is not in selling metal by the pound but rather in the design expertise that we deliver to our customers".
"Our expertise in thermal simulation plays a key role in meeting and exceeding our customers' expectations". Request a free brochure from Flomerics ...
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