Aavid Thermalloy, LLC
For nearly 50 years, Aavid has been the world leader in thermal management solutions.
Aavid provides the industry’s broadest product offering, ranging from the smallest board level cooling solution to several thousand kilowatt industrial applications. Aavid's products are used in Personal Computing systems such as desktops, laptops, printers, and video game consoles in addition to Non-PC products including servers, network devices, instrumentation, transportation, and other consumer electronics
Aavid Thermalloy, LLC Postings
12 technical articles »
Jul 20, 1999 | Seri Lee, Advanced Thermal Engineering, Aavid Thermal Technologies, Inc.
With the increase in heat dissipation from microelectronic devices and the reduction in overall form factors, thermal management bmomes a more and more important element of electronic product design. Both the performance reliability and life expectancy of electronic equipment are inversely related to the component temperature of the equipment......
The Thermal Side of 64-Bit Processing
May 06, 1999 | Christopher Chapman, Aavid Thermal Products, Inc.
The newest workstations and servers, targeting computationally-intensive applications and large-scale database management, use 64-bit microprocessors and provide the next generation of computing power. ...
Thermal Management of Electrolytic Capacitors
May 06, 1999 | Christopher Soule, Aavid Thermal Products, Inc.
Input voltage capacitors are typically the parts that fail first in a high power circuit. Today's requirements for increasingly smaller packages is driving high component densities in power systems, as in all systems. As the package size... ...
May 06, 1999 | Craig Johnston, Gary Kuzmin, Aavid Engineering, Inc.
The present problem with cooling microprocessors is a relatively new issue -- about 4 years old. It stems from the collision of two conflicting trends -- end-user desire for more powerful microprocessors to run the next generation software, and the equally strong demand for smaller, more mobile computer form factors. With each, the introduction of faster next-generation semiconductors aimed at improving computing power, heat concentration problems increase....
Miniaturization of Cooling Solutions
May 06, 1999 | Christopher Chapman, Aavid Thermal Products, Inc.
The market's demand for increasingly powerful products, in smaller and smaller packaging, creates a cooling problem. Integrated circuit (IC) lifetime is dependent upon its operating temperature, creating a trade-off situation: either you enlarge the package to accept additional cooling, or you sacrifice IC lifetime....
The Basics of Package/Device Cooling
May 06, 1999 | Christopher Chapman, Aavid Thermal Products, Inc.
The most reliable and well-designed electronic device can malfunction or fail if it overheats. Considering thermal issues early in the design process results in a thermally conscious system layout and minimizes costs through the use of passive cooling and off-the-shelf components. When thermal issues are left until completion of the design, the only remaining solution may be a costly custom heat sink that requires all the space available. Incorporating a heat sink or a fan into a product after it is fully developed can be expensive, and still may not provide sufficient cooling of the device. ...
Larger Packages Fuel Thermal Strategies
May 06, 1999 | Christopher Chapman, Aavid Thermal Products, Inc.
The trend toward surface-mount assembly processes is making ball-grid array (BGA) packaging a popular choice for many types of devices, forcing designers to re-examine cooling of these large packages. While devices in BGAs transfer more heat to the board than leaded devices, the style of BGA packages has a large influence on the ability to transfer heat through other pathways, such as a top-mounted heat sink. Physical characteristics of the BGA further constrain the thermal designer. It takes forethought in board design to successfully accommodate devices that require significant heat dissipation. Multiple solutions exist, however, for BGA packages of all types....
How To Size Heat Sinks For Semiconductors
May 06, 1999 | Jeffery Schindler, Aavid Thermal Products, Inc.
As microprocessor speeds increase, their power needs rise proportionally. This also puts higher demands on the voltage regulator that feeds the processor chip. In spite of the increased power, the regulator chip tends to remain the same size.....
Beat the Heat in Notebooks With Software
May 06, 1999 | Christopher L. Chapman, Aavid Thermal Products, Inc.
Pentium-class portables present significant packaging problems. The heat generated inside a notebook not only reduces microprocessor reliability, but the reliability of peripheries such as hard drives and video chips. Although the processor is the primary heat-generating source, it isn’t always the component least tolerant of temperature......
As Cool as a Cucumber: Managing the Heat Produced by IC Developments
May 06, 1999 | Christopher A. Soule
Many of us tend to think of semiconductors as low power, cool devices. But as the number of transistors in an integrated circuit increases, so does power consumption increases and the need to dissipate the resulting heat load. Microprocessors, in particular, consume more and more power with increase in speed and complexity. ...
