By Josh Perry, Editor [email protected]
A recent article from Advanced Thermal Solutions, Inc. (ATS), a leading-edge thermal engineering firm based in Norwood, Mass., explains some of the thermal solutions that engineers are using to cool high-powered CPUs in dense server board environments where space and airflow are limited.
FloTHERM image reveals hotter and cooler regions on a PCB. (Advanced Thermal Solutions, Inc.)
The industry’s move to smaller but more powerful components has been adopted at the board-level as well. More components are being packed into smaller spaces and this requires different approaches to thermal management, as the conventional cooling options may not fit or may not get the necessary airflow.
This has become particularly common in telecommunications, broadcast, and Internet of Things (IoT) applications, but is a problem for the wider electronics industry as well.
“Part of the trend toward higher density boards is related to the industry’s adoption of increased server density,” the article explained. “This means increasing the power of the chips, putting more chips per rack unit, and filling up the racks as much as possible. Rack power has transitioned from a normal of about 4 kilowatts to 70 kilowatts per rack.”
Fan sinks are a common tool to provide more airflow, but, as the article noted, that may not be enough to cool today’s high-powered chips.
“Obstructions in the intake or exhaust of the fan (e.g. neighboring components) must be carefully considered as their presence will impact the performance of the fan sink,” the article continued. “The size and position of adjacent components can impact the fan’s performance.”
PCB layout and design services need to take into account the impact of component placement on airflow across the system. To optimize thermal management, which is critical to ensuring maximum performance over the full lifetime of the device, engineers need to consider how hot air will travel to other components and how much airflow is actually available for each chip.
Read more about this topic at https://www.qats.com/cms/2018/12/11/effective-cooling-of-high-powered-cpus-on-dense-server-boards.
See some of the low-profile solutions that can be used for sensor level infrastructure in IoT applications in this short video:
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