Is Thermal Management up to the High-performance Computing Challenge?

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October 29, 2021

Is Thermal Management up to the High-performance Computing Challenge?

Published in Military & Aerospace Electronics
Written by John Keller

NASHUA, N.H. - The byproduct of waste heat is the scourge of high-performance embedded computing; the faster the processors, the more heat they produce, and the more difficult it can be for systems designers to keep their designs within temperature limits to avoid compromising performance.

Unfortunately, it’s a vicious cycle. Those who specify processing for demanding systems like electronic warfare (EW), surveillance and reconnaissance, image processing, and artificial intelligence continually want more capability. There’s no end in sight to the need to remove ever-increasing amounts of waste heat from powerful processing.

Fortunately there are solutions for today’s electronics cooling and thermal management challenges that range from conduction cooling, to forced-air cooling, to hybrid implementations of forced-air and conduction cooling, and finally to liquid cooling. Many of today’s thermal design decisions hinge on specific applications and projections for system and growth and upgrades. Embedded computing designers have adequate tools at their disposal — at least for now.

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Designing to reduce failures

Electronic systems have the unique challenge of managing power dissipated as heat, a phenomenon occurring when current flows through a resistance. Without a suitable thermal management design, component temperatures can rise to levels that cause failure. The rate of failure increases as the operating temperatures increase. A general rule of thumb is that with every 10 degrees Celsius reduction in temperature, the failure rate is halved. Solving thermal management problems upfront in the design phase creates a more reliable product as well as prevents expensive changes later on.