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Worldwide Emerging Thermal Management Technologies (Technical Insights)
Frost & Sullivan, March 2005
Thermal Management Helps Dissipate the Larger Quantities of Heat Generated from Smaller Integrated Circuits
With electronic devices incorporating microprocessors and the integrated circuits (ICs) breaking through all barriers of Moores Law, remarkable innovations and technologies have become the order of the day. However, these new ICs have to face the challenge of dissipating the excess amount of heat generated to save electronic devices from imminent failure. This is where thermal management steps in by letting the heat out into devices known as heatsinks or heatpipes on a regular basis, thereby helping to extend the life of ICs. Advances in thermal management have resulted in specialized software tools that simulate a thermal design of an IC before it goes into production. Significant technological research is expected to produce more efficient and cost-effective thermal management solutions in future.
This Technical Insights study, World Emerging Thermal Management Technologies, examines innovative technologies that are fast making their way toward commercialization. The research service defines key markets and applications and reports on technology drivers as well as obstacles in the way of commercial success.
Scientists Need to Develop a Distinctive and Cost-Effective Solution that Works Optimally
The glut of heat dissipation technologies notwithstanding, there is an urgent need for cost-effective, yet optimal solutions to thermal management. Heatsinks made of high conductive metals such as copper and aluminum offer cheaper solutions to low thermal density issues. Such sinks are also suited for high-volume production and help slash costs at the device assembly level. Composite materials such as aluminum-silicon carbide (Al-SiC) for thermal applications also bring down machining costs, and thereby, the overall expenses.
Depending on the type of heat sink selected, tooling charges vary. The processes (die casting, extruding, bonding, brazing, and machining) by which the heat sink is fabricated determine not just the heat sinks cost but also the vendors ability to optimize the heat sink to users’ specifications, says the analyst of the research. The use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software for thermal modeling has reduced the complexities a little, but the optimization process is still a long-drawn-out one and has to be improved considerably if thermal management is to become more efficient in ICs.
Industry Requires Software that can Facilitate Thermal Designs to Aid in Optimization of ICs
Although there a number of software solutions that simplify thermal, the industry is still in need of a solution that will help achieve optimization of ICs in a shorter time. Several projects have been initiated to solve this issue. For instance, Daat Research Corporation recently launched OptimizeIt, a tool that makes design optimization faster and more effective. This solution can be used to gauge a system’s sensitivity to design variations.
OptimizeIt adjusts component sizes, material properties, and placement within enclosures to compute airflow as well as conduction and radiation, thereby enabling engineers to examine many more design possibilities, notes the analyst. The software features a sophisticated graphical user interface (GUI) with in-built libraries and an array of data that can make the thermal design of an IC much easier. It is user-friendly and can operate even on a simple desktop. By optimizing the thermal design and shortening the design cycle period, it also reduces device manufacturers’ time-to-market and gives them a competitive edge.
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