{"id":8925,"date":"2019-11-27T12:50:18","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T17:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/?p=8925"},"modified":"2026-03-26T06:21:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T10:21:33","slug":"thermal-design-whos-job-is-it-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/thermal-design-whos-job-is-it-anyway\/","title":{"rendered":"Thermal Design: Whose job is it anyway?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For a first blog on all things electronics cooling I thought\nI\u2019d pose the question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there\u2019s time at the start of a conference presentation,\nor a talk I\u2019m giving on electronics cooling I like to poll the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho thinks that thermal is an electrical problem that\nshould be solved as part of the electrical design?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The show of hands depends on the audience demographic, but with\na mixture of mechanical and electrical engineers typically a bit less than half\nput their hands up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a great many things electrical engineers can do to\nhelp with thermal challenges. The choice of package for a given IC is often not\nwithin their control, but the board layout, local copper distribution, and\nthermal vias certainly are. Circuit design can also influence power\ndissipation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I then ask: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho thinks that thermal is a mechanical issue that should\nbe solved as part of the mechanical design?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, about half are likely to put their hands up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fair enough. Mechanical engineers are responsible for the\nintegrity of the product as a whole, which includes the enclosure needed for\nmechanical robustness, EMI and EMC. The enclosure can be fully sealed, with\nfins to act as an external heatsink, or have openings and optionally fans to\nhelp drive cooling air through the internals. Mechanical engineers have a big\nrole to play in electronics cooling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last question I ask is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho thinks it\u2019s a trick question?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few tentative hands go up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a trick question because both of the above answers are correct, not in isolation, but in combination with other disciplines. As power densities continue to rise, design for steady-state operation at maximum power is often not viable. Where it is, a lighter, thinner cheaper product can be achieved by designing for specific use cases, with software-based control strategies can be introduced to cut power if temperature gets close to a critical limit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xilinx driving Digitalization of 5G, Accelerating Data Center Processing, Powering IoT, & Autonomous Vehicles. <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Xilinx use Simcenter Flotherm to create DELPHI compact thermal models of their parts, which they make available for download from their website, helping their customers to develop the most advanced communication products. Watch Brian Philofsky, principal product marketing engineer for power and thermal at Xilinx Inc. explain how the latest digital electronics incorporated into products across a range of industries is driving the need for ever higher fidelity thermal design practices in this one minute video:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Xilinx provide an application note on \u201cMechanical and Thermal Design Guidelines for Lidless Flip-Chip Packages\u201d<\/a> and run thermal workshops using Simcenter Flotherm at their Xilinx Developer Forums<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a first blog on all things electronics cooling I thought I\u2019d pose the question. If there\u2019s time at the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69040,"featured_media":8928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[174,183],"tags":[242,82,10822,259],"industry":[146,147,145,148,149],"product":[503],"coauthors":[7403],"class_list":["post-8925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-customer-success-story","category-video","tag-computational-fluid-dynamics-cfd","tag-digital-twin","tag-electronics-cooling","tag-thought-leadership","industry-consumer-industrial-electronics","industry-electronic-manufacturing-services","industry-electronics-semiconductors","industry-semiconductor-devices","industry-semiconductor-equipment","product-simcenter-flotherm"],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/11\/Xilinx-Video.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69040"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8925"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19919,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8925\/revisions\/19919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8925"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=8925"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=8925"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}