Robin Bornoff's blog
Robin Bornoff's blog RSSAgile software development practices in the Mechanical Analysis Division
From a software user’s perspective it really doesn’t matter exactly how that application was developed. A user is concerned with functional capability (what the software does), non-functional performance (how the software behaves) and ultimately their personal experience when using the software. Those tasked with creating the application though need to meet such user expectations whilst working within time, quality and resource constraints. The software development industry has undergone quite radical changes over the last 10 or so years in the methods used to produce sellable product. Moving away from classic waterfall developments methods, a whole slew of what are termed agile development practices have emerged. Indeed an entire industry of terms and tools have themselves grown up around what is essentially an (agile) attitude towards developing software product.
Tags: Agile development, flotherm, FloTHERM PCB, FloVENT, SCRUM
A Little Goes A Long Way (But A Lot Doesn’t Go Much Further)
It has been almost 3 years since I started this blog and I hope you’ve found it as interesting as I have cathartic. Although I’m not as yet bereft of topic ideas, I thought this would be a good time to solicit a guest blog from industry. It was either that or a Simponsesque montage of previous posts. I covered the highly successful provision of FloTHERM models of power packages from NXP previously. Now I’d like to hand over to Chris Hill, NXP Applications Engineer, who will discuss diminishing returns in thermal design…
Tags: electronics cooling, flotherm, NXP, thermal design guide
More Than Two Decades and Still Going Strong; FloTHERM and FloVENT V9.3 Now Released
In 1989 Flomerics was the first organisation to provide application specific CFD based simulation software where all pre and post-processing capabilities were contained within a single WIMP based graphical user interface. That pioneering period involved missionary sales to add simulation to the arsenal of the design engineer, enabling virtual prototyping to be used as a precursor to physical build and test. The result was then, and continues to be now, a step change in the effectiveness of the design process. Virtual prototyping through the use of simulation minimises the risk of first physical prototype failure, reducing project completion times and budgets. 23 years later, and with the release of V9.3 of FloTHERM and FloVENT, we’re still going strong.
Tags: electronics cooling, flotherm, FloVENT, HVAC, xml
Simulation Software So Simple Even Teenagers Can Use It
The UK government has a policy for all year 10 or year 11 students to undertake a week’s work experience. Last week we welcomed a 15 year old student to the Mentor office where the FloTHERM and FloVENT software development is done. The student was tasked with simulating the air flow and temperature distribution in the office space using FloVENT. Using our own software to model our own offices has always been considered a bit of a busman’s holiday but we all looked forward to finding out what the student would learn about our own workspace thermal comfort.
Tags: CFD, electronics cooling, flotherm, FloVENT, HVAC, thermal comfort
Bottlenecks and Interface Materials; Part 3 – Relieving Thermal Bottlenecks Reduce Temperatures
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.
Tags: bottleneck, electronics cooling, flotherm, thermal bottleneck, thermal chokepoint
Bottlenecks and Interface Materials; Part 2 – When TIMs Go Bad
‘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 for everything else. Nothing comes for free and the ease by which bits can be stuck to other bits is more than compensated for by the fact that such joins are sometimes unreliable and/or tend to offer a substantial barrier to heat flow, raising temperatures, effecting performance and reliability. There are a ream of TIM vendors out there and each of their sales pitches are as scary and worrying as they are genuinely concerning to those involved in product design and manufacture.
Tags: CFD, electronics cooling, flotherm, T3ster, thermal bottleneck, thermal chokepoint
Bridging the Simulation Supply Chain; NXP Semiconductors, a Case in Point
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. Who should be responsible for providing such models, the simulation tool vendor or the component vendor? A FloTHERM user isn’t concerned with such subtle distinctions, they simply want a model of their critical actives and they want it yesterday.
Bottlenecks and Interface Materials; Part 1 – Great Thermal Bedfellows
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 excite those of us working in the electronics cooling line of business here in the mechanical analysis division and that’s just what John and I found when inspecting the power supply board of this particular defunct DVD player.
Tags: beer, bottleneck, electronics cooling, flotherm, thermal bottleneck, thermal interface material, TIM
Emails, more Emails and Jeff Bridges
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 we command photons and electrons to do our communication bidding. Goodness knows what the future holds but knowing our luck it’s highly unlikely that it will address the quality and relevance of what is transmitted.
Tags: electronics cooling, email, flotherm, telecoms
LEDs; The future’s bright and hot.
LED based lighting is now a very hot topic (believe me, in electronic thermal management circles that used to be funny, the first few times). Control of packaged IC junction temperatures will always have a bearing on reliability but for LEDs thermal also effects functional performance in terms of brightness and colour. The hotter they get, the dimmer they appear. A particular contradiction in the context of incandescent forms of lighting where the opposite is true. Whereas there are warranty and brand recognition concerns about LEDs not working there are equivalent concerns about them working badly. Yet more motivation to consider their thermal performance through the design process.
Tags: electronics cooling, flotherm, LED, LEDs, T3ster, teraled
About Robin Bornoff's blog
Views and insights into the concepts behind electronics cooling with a specific focus on the application of FloTHERM to the thermal simulation of electronic systems. Investigations into the application of FloVENT to HVAC simulation. Plus the odd foray into CFD, non-linear dynamic systems and cider making.
Latest Posts
- Agile software development practices in the Mechanical Analysis Division
- A Little Goes A Long Way (But A Lot Doesn’t Go Much Further)
- More Than Two Decades and Still Going Strong; FloTHERM and FloVENT V9.3 Now Released
- Simulation Software So Simple Even Teenagers Can Use It
- Bottlenecks and Interface Materials; Part 3 – Relieving Thermal Bottlenecks Reduce Temperatures
- Bottlenecks and Interface Materials; Part 2 – When TIMs Go Bad