Mechanical Analysis Blog

In a recent survey, 60% of mechanical engineers in electronics companies stated that thermal issues had forced board layout changes during the previous 12 months. While I can’t purport to know how much respins cost within every organization, I’m willing to bet it is not an insignificant amount – especially if the company has a large portfolio. But I know that thermal simulation can help minimize the … Read More

FloTHERM PCB, Respin, Design Engineer, Thermal Design

If you’re involved in CFD in education in any way this will be of interest to you. Since shortly after Flomerics were acquired by Mentor Graphics we’ve been working towards getting out products into Mentor’s Higher Education Program (HEP), and we’ve finally got it done. To my knowledge, the availability of potentially millions of dollars worth of commercial CFD software, plus support and training, … Read More

Mentor HEP, Higher Education, Thermal Design, Concurrent CFD, Education, CFD, Thermal Management, FloVENT, Upfront CFD, Electronics Cooling, FloEFD

“Authorities in the US have instructed Sony to conduct a recall of its Vaio laptops, after problems with overheating were reported.” started this article on the BBC’s web site. There is a saying, ” the news is never as good or as bad as it is first reported”. And so it is with this story. It’s not a product recall, as the story later goes on to explain, but what grabbed my attention was that the problem … Read More

Design Process, Electronics Cooling, CFD, Thermal Design, Thermal Management, Reliability

Just a quick note that I will be participating in an EDN Editorial Webcast on Friday, June 25, 2010.  There are four panelists that offer up some valuable insight into the challenges associated with the reliability of LEDS.  LEDS are a relatively new technology when compared to other semiconductor devices and standards for testing and reliability prediction are not yet universally accepted. You can … Read More

MCPCB, Reliability, LEDs, Thermal Testing, Thermal Design

I’ve not posted for a while, which is rather remiss of me. I underestimated the response we would get to our Heatsink 201 webinar, which I gather was our most popular ever, and the number of questions that people would ask. I had around 120 questions, which after removing duplicates and those to do with logistics ended up at around 80, so it took a while to answer them all. I’ll select a couple of good … Read More

Thermal Design, Concurrent CFD, Electronics Cooling, CFD, JEDEC JC15, NAFEMS, Heatsink, heatsink 201

I don’t like dark rooms –it’s probably because I’ve lived in California most of my life so I’ve gotten used to having lots of ambient daylight.  My heart sinks when I walk into a room in the middle of the day and it’s darker than a cavern. The guys in the office always know when I’m in the building because I flip the light switches as I walk through the building.  Now let me make this clear… I don’t … Read More

LED, Optimize, CFD, Thermal Design, Physical Prototype

Thermal management of LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) is an important application for CFD software, which is helping designers use LEDs for high-power lighting applications. However, LEDs are changing our lives in so many more ways than simply providing more energy efficient or more aesthetic lighting solutions. Last year I posted about a light therapy device that desensitizes the nasal passages, inhibiting … Read More

Skin Cancer, Reliability, Thermal Characterization, CFD, Electronics Cooling, Air Cooling, Thermal Design, LEDs, Light therapy, Energy Saving, FloEFD

I’m just back from a very productive SEMI-THERM Conference where we launched our new FloTHERM IC product. We had meetings with the editors of 5 leading electronics magazines to coincide with the launch, which was made at our vendor presentation during the exhibition at the start of Tuesday afternoon. Well done to all involved! If you want to see what others are saying about FloTHERM IC check out the … Read More

Thermal Design, SEMI-THERM Conference, Thermal Management, DELPHI Model, Electronics Cooling, 2-Resistor Model, JEDEC, JEDEC JC15, FloTHERM IC

Ok, last time I promised you to put a picture of me as Dr. Zoidberg from Futurama on here. Well here it is! What do you think? Now back to the PC model. In the post before the last one I said I will show you the Mainboard and its main features. As you can see I modelled the heat sink in pretty good detail. I did that to show you a little feature of FloEFD™V5 or better said in all of our FloEFD … Read More

FloEFD, FloEFD Project, Electronics Cooling, Thermal Design

Just a very quick post to alert you to the new ElectronicsCooling Magazine web site.  We’ve updated the look of the site to improve navigation ahead of the relaunch of the printed magazine. Here’s just some of the features of the new site: New look and feel Search Improved Article and Content Navigation by author; category (Calculation Corner, New Products, Technical Brief); channel (Industries, … Read More

Thermal Management, Thermal Design, FloEFD, FloTHERM.PCB, Electronics Cooling, Design Process, FloTHERM.PACK, CFD

I was on a conference call and WebEx yesterday with the NAFEMS CFD Working Group, of which Mentor Graphics is a member. One of the people on the call had a lot of background noise on his phone, which turned out to be a due to a fan by his desk to keep his computer cool. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a memory hungry, CPU intensive activity so I guess he was running a fairly substantial case. … Read More

Thermal Management, Thermal Design, Upfront Analysis, Concurrent CFD, Design Process, CFD, Upfront CFD, Kolb's Learning Styles, X-ray Vision, Electronics Cooling, Experiential Learning

I got my eyes checked on Friday and I walked out of there over $400 lighter in the wallet, and I’m covered under two vision insurance policies.  What did I get? An eye exam for contact lenses Some sample cleaner solution A commitment for them to buy 6 months worth of contacts once we determine the pair they prescribed are fitted correctly. $350 worth of contact “fitting”. That last one is … Read More

Thermal Design, Multifocal

I’m off to SEMI-THERM later this month. SEMI-THERM is one of the premier thermal management conferences and has the best exhibition by far. The conference runs from 21-25 February, the first two days of which are devoted to professional short courses delivered by a number of leading names in electronics cooling, and past recipients of the IEEE’s THERMI Award. Short courses at SEMI-THERM 26 are eligible … Read More

Thermal Standards, JEDEC JC15, Electronics Cooling, Thermal Design, Thermal Management, SEMI-THERM Conference, SEMI-THERM Exhibition

Mentor’s Thermal Design Software Is The Best. OK, say’s who? It’s the conclusion from some independent research carried out by Aberdeen Research Group. Last time I showed that Aberdeen had found that Mentor’s customers are almost 3 times faster at completing thermal verification than users of other tools. Let’s take a look at why that is. Aberdeen found evidence of what users of other tools were doing … Read More

Thermal Management, Thermal Design, Design Flow, Design Process, CFD, FloTHERM.PCB, PCB Respin, Electronics Cooling

When a person describes their ideal design software, or any software for that matter, Ease-of-Use is always on the list of desirable attributes. It makes sense that in order to be productive with the software in the shortest amount of time the software must be easy to use.  All of the  CAD and CFD tools I work with strive to achieve this goal (except for one which I won’t name and it isn’t one of our … Read More

Data Center, Ease of Use, CFD, Thermal Design, Electronics Cooling