Mentor.com :: Mechanical Analysis Resources

Blog Post:Bottlenecks and Interface Materials; Part 3 – Relieving Thermal Bottlenecks Reduce Temperatures

Robin Bornoff — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:02:45 GMT

As with all good inventions, you quickly wonder how on earth you could have done without them before. Relieving thermal bottlenecks reduce temperatures; it’s so blindingly obvious. Now that we have the ability to visualise with FloTHERM exactly where the thermal bottlenecks are in a design, the job of the (overworked/underpaid) thermal design engineer just got that more productive. Electronic

White Paper:State of the Art in Solid State Lighting Thermal Design

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:00:00 GMT

Unlike incandescent lighting that relies on heat to cause a filament to glow and produce light as hot black body, light emitting diodes (LEDs) are semiconductors and as such must be kept cool. When LEDs produce light, heat is a by-product. Heat generated in an LED increases its temperature. As the LED’s temperature increases, the light output decreases, the light changes color, and the lifetime of the LED reduces. Temperature adversely affects both the functional performance of the LED and its longevity. As a consequence, thermal management has become the most predominant issue in solid state lighting (SSL) design.

White Paper:State of the Art in LED Thermal Characterization

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:00:00 GMT

Using the JEDEC standard static test method for transient thermal measurements in accordance with JESD51-14 and CIE 127-2007 has increased the level of accuracy in light-emitting diodes (LEDs) thermal characterization. These higher standards have resulted in increased customer confidence and market share. In compliance with these standards, the Mentor Graphics T3Ster system can complete more than 100 LED thermal measurements in a single day, and it is the most accurate. The T3Ster post-processing software fully supports the latest thermal testing standard (JEDEC JESD51-14) for junction-to-case thermal resistance measurement. This paper discusses the importance of more accurate thermal characterization to the rapidly evolving marketplace and how the T3Ster and TERALED systems are meeting this challenge for lighting manufacturers and their customers.

Blog Post:Bottlenecks and Interface Materials; Part 2 - When TIMs Go Bad

Robin Bornoff — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:54:41 GMT

‘Bits stuck onto other bits’, a succinct definition of an electronic product, if not a product that contains electronics. Soldering is the method of choice for getting the components to attach to the pcb, the layered board that contains the metallic traces connecting component pins to other component pins. Rivets, welds, screws or bolts for the chassis, some form of gluing or sticky adhesion

White Paper:Thermal transient measurement of high power bipolar transistors: chances and challenges

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:00:00 GMT

Transient thermal testing becomes more and more important for discrete power transistors (BJTs), IGBTs and MOSFETs. While reaching proper power levels is relatively simple for the two latter, measuring BJTs is more challenging. Existing standards such as the JEDEC JESD51 and MIL-STD-750 give general guidelines on their transient measurements, i.e. powering and transient recording. However, the typical realization of the standard needs two high current power supplies with fast switching capabilities. Furthermore, BJTs operate as high frequency amplifiers in the circuit scheme needed for thermal testing, which may cause unwanted oscillations. This paper proposes an exact realization of the existing standards with a more cost effective instrumentation and better stability. Also a small add-on to the T3Ster line facilitating the standard measurements is presented in a case study.

Blog Post:Bridging the Simulation Supply Chain; NXP Semiconductors, a Case in Point

Robin Bornoff — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:45:38 GMT

By far and away the most common enquiry by someone using FloTHERM, especially at the start of their adoption, is “How do I model my components?”. This is hardly surprising as the mainstay of electronics thermal management is the control of operating component temperatures (junction and/or case). A virtual prototyping design by simulation approach requires models of components capable of such predictions.

On-demand Web Seminar:Simulating and Optimizing Reaction Forces in Product Design using CFD

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:26:17 GMT

This complimentary web seminar will focus on how concurrent CFD can be used to predict the working performance of a potential pre-manufactured product. By using CFD that is fully embedded in CAD, early in the design process to simulate the products design, the engineer can make sure the design meets all specification requirements, reducing the number of costly prototypes and potential product recalls.

Blog Post:Bottlenecks and Interface Materials; Part 1 - Great Thermal Bedfellows

Robin Bornoff — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:47:35 GMT

Probably due to the beer fridge, I now seem to be becoming the repository of broken electronic products with an expectation that the cause of their demise can be identified, retrospectively, using thermal simulation. This week my good colleague John Parry dumped a rather poorly DVD player on my desk with a ‘go on then’ look. There’s nothing quite like the sight of a scorched PCB to

Blog Post:Is Pipe Insulation Effective?

Travis Mikjaniec — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:14:34 GMT

It’s that time of the year, when the weather turns cold and people start to think about winterizing their home to reduce heating costs. Usually it takes the first winter heating bill to provide the motivation to undertake this task. With this in mind, I would like to talk about pipe insulation. Specifically, the foam wrap insulation you can find at any hardware store (http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202318552/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053) In

Blog Post:Emails, more Emails and Jeff Bridges

Robin Bornoff — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:21:07 GMT

It’s estimated that, from a figure of 0.4% in 1995, now about 30% of the world’s population are ‘internet users’. Not sure exactly what being a ‘user’ entails; looking at a web page? clicking a link? sending an email? Probably the latter considering how many I receive. The Romans used little wax or wooden tablets, the Victorians introduced a penny-post system, today