News Release from: Sensor Products
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 21 September 2004
Sensor helps optimise ASIC heatsink design
A novel electronic sensor system that evaluates tactile contact pressures in real time has been used to optimise heatsink design at Cisco Systems.
Note: Readers of the Editor’s free email newsletter will have read this news when it was announced. . It’s free!
HS Liang, Thermal and Platform Engineer at Cisco Systems in San Jose, California, is part of a team tasked with design and production of CAT6K and 4K series heatsinks. Key to any successful heatsink design is a reliable mounting mechanism that can self-correct its pressure during assembly, after rework, and throughout the product service life. Predicting solder column joint performance due to over-tightening of mounting screws and resultant deformation of ASIC solder columns in ceramic column grid array assemblies is an evolving process.
Liang states: "Our mounting mechanism screws cannot exceed a maximum compressive stress load of 35lb/in2".
"Tactilus was able to accurately show that our overall pressure gradients were usually within 11 to 23lb/in2".
"With Tactilus we now had a way to consistently measure the compressive load on the ASIC solder columns".
Tactilus is an electronic sensor system that evaluates tactile contact pressures in real time.
It detects a wide range of interfacial pressures and has great advantages in both adaptability and customisation.
Densely packed with thousands of sensor points as close as 1mm apart, the Tactilus sensor element collects data as rapidly as 65,000 points per second.
Its spatial resolution is fine enough to expose minute surface defects and fatigue marks.
Unlike other tactile pressure sensors, Tactilus also easily conforms to curvaceous surfaces.
Lasting for thousands of uses with consistent repeatability, it is also highly resistant to electromagnetic noise as well as temperature and humidity fluctuations.
Specific analysis capabilities include 2D, 3D, 360-degree, isobar and region-of-interest image viewing.
Graphical displays of data can be analysed in bar charts, line scans and histograms.
Vital statistical data like average/minimum/maximum pressures, total force over any selected area and pressure over time are also easily generated.
Tactilus test data can also be exported to third-party software such as Excel, Access, ASCII, Corel, and PowerPoint.
Free on-site demonstrations of Tactilus can be scheduled by contacting Sensor Products.
• Sensor Products: contact details and other news
• Other news in Sensors and Data Acquisition
• Email this news to a colleague
•
• RSS news feed for Sensor Products
• RSS news feed for Sensors and Data Acquisition
• Electronicstalk Home Page
Copyright © 2000-2006 Pro-Talk Ltd, UK. Based on news supplied by Sensor Products - Subject: Tactilus