Mentor Blogs

My colleague Ed and I were marvelling the other day at the CPU cooling unit from one of our training desktop PCs undergoing a repair. “What, all that just for that!?”. The CPU itself was but a small square wafer compared to the behemoth that was the ducted fan and heatsink with integral heatpipes mounted on top of it. Whereas transistor sizes are measured in nanometres cooling systems can … Read More

CPU cooling, Electronics Cooling, CFD, PC cooling, Heatsink

What do you call someone who doesn’t believe in Father Christmas? A rebel without a Claus. Right, that’s that out of the way. This week Facebook announced that it plans to build a 300,000 ft^2 data center in Lulea, Sweden. The Lulea business agency who helped attract Facebook to their city are dutifully excited as should Facebook be as they look set to capitalise on 10 months each year of … Read More

data center cooling, data centre, Data Center, HVAC, PUE, Electronics Cooling, FloVENT

‘Rubbish In -> Rubbish Out’ is a well accepted fact in the world of simulation. Regardless of the technical capabilities of your thermal simulation tool, the accuracy of prediction will always be tightly coupled to the accuracy of the input data. The most accurate thermal  IC package model is a so called ‘detailed’ model where all the internal construction is represented explicitly … Read More

Electronics Cooling, detailed thermal IC package models, T3ster, FloTHERM PACK, strucutre functions

It would only have cost me an extra £170, a small extra compared to the cost of the rest of the build, but I decided against laying thermal insulation boards directly under the underfloor electric heating mats. Surely better to leak some of the heat down to heat the 100mm thick concrete screed which would maintain its heat through those cold winter weeks, giving thermal support to the heating mats in … Read More

FloVENT, Electronics Cooling, HVAC, underfloor heating

3D simulation can provide a detailed prediction of temperature and heat flux values at 10s of 1000s of points in a 3D model, experimental methods are somewhat limited in terms of the wealth of data they are capable of providing. But hey, this isn’t going to degrade into a pitched battle between simulators and experimentalists, nowadays good engineers (should) do both. “No one believes simulation … Read More

HVAC, Electronics Cooling, underfloor heating, FloVENT

It’s been over two years since the foundations went in for the extension we’re building on our house. In that time I’ve come to respect and somewhat rely on glib phrases such as “Good things come to those who wait” and “Patience is a virtue”. I told my better half we’d be moved in by Christmas, I didn’t say which one though. In this blog series of … Read More

FloVENT, Electronics Cooling, HVAC, underfloor heating

Thermal simulation of electronic systems using FloTHERM usually involve the definition of the 3D geometry and relevant material properties, specification of the power dissipation of the components as well as the ambient temperature that together lead to a numerical prediction of the resulting heat fluxes and temperatures. If the predicted component temperatures are too high then you’ve got a problem. … Read More

Electronics Cooling, active heatsink, LN2, overclocking

I’m a big fan of product demonstrations. Having once been an application engineer, there’s nothing quite like the thrill of showing the use of a software like FloTHERM live in front of a prospect. Concentrating on highlighting the main features of the product whilst being bombarded with a barrage of questions about it is certainly a lesson in focus. At the Gadget Show live event mentioned … Read More

liquid nitrogen, Electronics Cooling, LN2, overclocking

Automotive aftermarket modification has both mass appeal and a multi-million dollar turnover. Neon underbody lighting, enhanced radiator systems, aero-dynamic side skirts and hood scoops are but some of the ways in which you can part with your hard earned cash for that unbeatable feeling of looking sideways at the person in the car next to you as you narrow your eyes and nod your head slowly, marvelling … Read More

Heatsink, Electronics Cooling, PC, Liquid Cooling, overclocking

OK, so it won’t go down in the annals of history as the best April fools ever but it had me going until I tried to order it on line. Here’s what you get: April 8th 2011, Ross-on-Wye … Read More

Electronics Cooling

"Plagiarism saves time" as can be seen in the title of this blog, a nod to Tom Hausherr’s excellent blog series, particularly Part 15 that focuses on QFNs. Whereas the internal construction of a package is of little interest when defining CAD library symbols, from a thermal simulation perspective they are absolutely critical. FloTHERM PACK can be seen as a ‘pre-processor’ … Read More

Electronics Cooling, bottleneck, QFN

FloTHERM, and its sister product FloVENT, have been going since 1989. Many in the Mechanical Analysis Division in Mentor have been working on these products for that time, personally I’m up to 15 years. It’s testament to the products and their success that our passion for them continues unabated. V9.2 was released this week, the ~20th release in these product lines. Many vendors will stand … Read More

CTM, Electronics Cooling, bottleneck, FloVENT

What a wonderful expression this is … putting feathers in our caps. I looked up the origins of this phrase and found that in the days gone by people used to put a new feather in the headgear of warriors for every enemy they defeated in battle. And the more feathers in the headdress, the more victories and the better the warrior. Our CFD battlefield is symbolic in nature but it exists nonetheless. And … Read More

Shortcut field, Bottleneck field, CFD, Award, EDN Hot 100, Electronics Cooling, Design Engineer, Design News Golden Mousetrap

The convergence of technology platforms continues apace, especially in the mobile telephony world. The world of overclockers and case modders isn’t standing still either. For the bargain price of $29.99 you can bag yourself a 5.25 inch bay toaster from CrazyPC.com. The wonderful dichotomy of having a system that requires both electronics thermal cooling and benefits from electronics thermal heating … Read More

toast, Electronics Cooling, toaster

One of the highlights of the electronics thermal management calender is the annual SEMI-THERM symposium held in sunny San Jose, California and it’s with the usual sense of excitement that I’m preparing to attend it. The acquisition of Flomerics by Mentor Graphics was two and half years ago and, despite the expectations of many, the activities and success of the ‘Mechanical Analysis … Read More

Semitherm, Electronics Cooling, T3ster