the intel internet of things group (iotg) released a white paper that outlines some of the thermal challenges facing the growth of iot infrastructure and how it used mentor software to help test possible solutions to better serve customers.

the white paper examines iot thermal demands. (intel)

“as the internet of things continues to expand with more and more devices being connected to the cloud the demand for smaller form factor devices with higher compute power is increasing,” the report explained. “not only do customers want better computing, the devices also need to be able to communicate via cellular or wifi to send the data back to the customers' servers. with higher compute power comes an increase in junction temperature which creates a challenge for the thermal engineer.”

small form factors, location and environmental conditions are also concerns for thermal engineers, who need to ensure that the systems run flawlessly regardless of where or how they are being implemented.

in order to explain how use cases were solved, intel broke them down into two categories – application only processing and application plus communication processing.

“we also want to give our customers a method for understanding the thermal capabilities of our reference design, without it being too confusing, to the point that someone not in the thermal field could understand,” the paper added. “this inevitably led us to the creation of the thermal-power envelopes for each classification of use case.”

using mentor’s flotherm simulations, intel optimized its reference design and created a prototype to further test the design. test results showed that simulations were within two degrees.

“the correlated models are now used to generate the thermalpower envelopes for this system,” intel wrote. “these thermal-power envelopes are system dependent which means that a change in the thermal solution whether that be heatsink size, tim selection, or some other variable will result in a shift in the curve.”

the white paper concluded, “the challenges that lay before today’s engineers in a world that demands instant and accurate analysis of complex computations at the edge and in the palm of their hands are far from solved. none of which is more important than ensuring these devices can operate in the harshest environments. this means a properly designed thermal solution.”