Electrification is shaping many industries and critical functions of our society. These rapid developments create significant challenges related to the targeted performance and higher power levels. As the power densities of electronic products are increasing, the traditional thermal management solutions are not keeping up. In fact, over 50% of electronic failures are due to temperature issues.
All modern electronics require thermal management, and the requirements for electronic cooling solutions are getting even more demanding for future electronic products. We should remember that 10° C decrease in temperature in electronic devices doubles their lifetime. New thermal management solutions are not only increasing the lifespan of electronics, but also enabling to get better performance and more power out from the electronic devices. Therefore, the development of thermal management technologies is vital for the future of electrification.
Development trends in power electronics are challenging the current thermal management technologies.
Electrification is covering all sectors of industry and society – electrical motor controls, renewable energy production, energy storage and power grids, mobility, and telecommunication. This trend of electrification will continue with an accelerating speed in the next decade. According to McKinsey’s Global Energy Perspective 2022, the global energy demand will triple in the next thirty years.
Electrification and evolution of thermal management will walk hand in hand. Let’s look to the four interesting industry trends which are setting new challenges also for thermal management.
Renewable energy
The global decarbonization targets combined with the current geopolitical situation are boosting the renewable energy market and technology development. This creates a growing need for more efficient wind power, solar photovoltaic, and battery energy storage systems. IGBTs are the most widely used power modules used in these applications. There is a constant need get more power out from these devices, leading to higher thermal loads and need for advanced thermal management solutions.
Electric Vehicle Charging
Due to higher fuel prices and many legislative incentives for buying new electric cars, the number of EVs is increasing rapidly in most countries. This creates a fast-growing demand for EV charging stations located close to people’s homes, local businesses and on the road.
Faster charging speeds are requested by the car drivers for EVs to be a practical alternative for cars with a traditional combustion engine. Especially in urban areas and city centers there are space limitations to install high speed charging stations. This challenge can be handled only by installing more compact units and squeezing more power out from these cabinets. Higher power densities lead to higher thermal loads and need for high performance cooling solutions. The devices need to be equipped with thermal management solutions that can tolerate harsh outdoor conditions and the periods of extreme hot weather we have witnessed in many countries.
5G Telecommunications
5G is the latest generation mobile network standard offering higher data speeds and lower latency than the previous generation. The backbone of 5G is built by using base stations having massive multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) antennas—an array of antennas that can focus and steer multiple beams simultaneously. These devices are offering higher number of channels, more bandwidth and much more signal processing power from compact and light weigh cabinets. These developments together are leading to design challenges in thermal management.
Excessive heat is problematic for electronic components, leading to reduced performance, reliability issues and even more serious system failures. Therefore, a high-quality thermal management solution is needed. Massive die cast aluminum heat sinks are no more a viable solution for the latest generation 5G base stations, as lower weight and compact unit sizes are requested.
LED Lighting
LED has become the dominating light source across the whole lighting industry during the last two decades. The advances in component and packaging technologies have enabled developing new and more powerful luminaires. The COB (chip on board) LED modules have very high lumen output from a compact sized light source. The packaging density of COB LEDs can be 10x higher compared to single packaged SMD LEDs.
COB LED modules can have nominal electrical power levels higher than 500W, and more than half of that is dissipated out as heat. Coping with this amount of heat requires using high performance heat sink structures, even complex heat pipe-based solutions.
CooliBlade’s patented NEOcore technology is an ideal cooling solution for high-power electronics
The demand for advanced thermal management is constantly growing in high power electronics as the power levels and power densities are increasing.
CooliBlade’s NEOcore technology can be adapted to all the applications and market segments described above. NEOcore has many significant benefits compared to the existing solutions. The most important, is performance. NEOcore thermal channel transfers heat instantly from the heat source and distributes it evenly throughout the whole heat sink structure. It also offers design freedom and new opportunities for product designers to utilize its compact and modular formfactor and different mounting options. That enables creating sophisticated product designs tailored to the customer needs and specifications. These designs are ready for manufacturing, starting from smaller pilot series and scaling up to mass-manufacturing in large quantities.
Read more: 5 Reasons to Select NEOcore technology for High Power Electronics Cooling.
CooliBlade helps you to design better and more cost-efficient thermal management for your high power electronics. We are an innovative partner with deep thermal management know-how. We offer superior technology and field proven performance. Our innovative design team a tailored solution based on your specifications.
Please visit our web page to receive a free initial evaluation of the CooliBlade thermal channel adapted to your product and use case.
Vesa Pentikäinen
Chief Executive Officer
CooliBlade
