Features

Effects of types of TIM types, thicknesses and contact pressure in a real-world application.

Power electronics are integral parts of power components, power supplies, 5G networks, automotive and defense/space applications. All modern power electronics have two critical factors in common that drives the need for unprecedented thermal management: first, increased transistor density to meet the higher demand in increased computing power and second, component miniaturization leading to higher heat flux. It is well known in the electronics reliability field that 55% of the component failures in electronics devices are related to excess heat. The Arrhenius equation in Eq. 11 predicts that, for electronics, the lift of the device decreases by half2 by increasing the device temperature by 10°C. Design engineers mitigate this issue by carefully selecting thermal interface materials (TIM) to keep the system/device temperature at the desired level.

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Summary statistics can be misleading, but in different ways.

Cpk and Ppk are numeric capability summaries of process or product characteristics based on common cause variation (due to chance) and assignable cause variation (special cause). Understanding these capability indices and their limitations is critical in pursuing world-class quality, "on target with minimal variation." Cpk and Ppk indices are reviewed, and details on how to use them synergistically are provided.

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Two unique equations can be used when fusing a trace – each offering its own strengths and weaknesses.

Up until about 10 years ago, when PCB designers searched for information about the current needed to melt a trace on their boards, only two names popped up in the literature, W. H. (Sir William Henry) Preece and I. M. Onderdonk. Each is credited with developing a unique equation, bearing their respective name, and those equations became the basis for many PCB calculations.

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Methods for assessing component temperatures and fan performance.

Cloud technology has become increasingly prevalent, allowing use of 3-D models and numerical methods to analyze CAD models of electronic devices and components. Numerical computations of conduction, convection and radiation are essential for understanding how these heat transfer mechanisms can be utilized for effective cooling techniques.

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The subcontinent explodes with new EMS work, prompting a spate of IPOs.

Putting aside the obvious supply chain disruptions, the two big stories out of the EMS industry in 2022 were the emergence of India, led in particular by Apple's pivoting from China, and the number of IPOs.

While the Indian government is aggressively recruiting foreign electronics investment, there's no question India's appearance as a viable competitor to – dare we say it? – China is being driven by Apple. The world's most valuable company tripled its production to more than $7 billion of iPhones in what is now the world's most populous country during the past fiscal year,1 mostly at the expense of China. Some reports hold Apple will raise India's share of its production to 25% in two years.

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Models for predicting the effects of signal-destroying reflections.

An ideal digital interconnect is a lossless transmission line with characteristic impedance and phase delay flat over the signal bandwidth and termination resistors equal to the characteristic impedance. In such interconnect, bits generated by a transmitter would flow seamlessly into the receiver with no limits on the bit rate. Such a utopian transmission line exists only in our imagination – and in textbooks. The physics of our world prohibits that. One way to describe "what happens to the signal on the way to a receiver" is to use the balance of power that can be written for the passive interconnect as follows:

P_out = P_in - P_absorbed - P_reflected - P_leaked + P_coupled

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