Are You Practicing 'Thermal Design' or Just 'Thermal Countermeasure'?
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| Are You Practicing 'Thermal Design' or Just 'Thermal Countermeasure'? |
When many engineers join a project for a new electronic product, they start with the exciting imagination of creating a device with "wonderful new features."
The next steps are usually predictable: design the circuit to implement those ideas and build a prototype. Turn the power on. Once the device works, only then do they grab a thermometer and start measuring temperatures inside the device.
If the temperature of a specific component goes over the limit and overheats, what do they do? Then, and only then, they rush to drill holes (vents) in the case, or try to squeeze a fan wherever there is empty space.
Surprisingly, this is how many product development sites still operate. Have you ever seen a product at an electronics store with a fan in a bizarre spot that doesn't match the design at all, or vents in illogical places? Those are the traces of last-minute additions in development.
This is not 'Thermal Design.' This is merely a 'Thermal Countermeasure.'
- Thermal Countermeasure: A post-hoc, patch-work action taken to solve a heat problem after the product has been fully designed and built. It is an "act first, fix later" approach.
For a long time, this method somehow worked. But things are different now. Heat generation has increased exponentially, while products are getting smaller. We are facing too many situations that ordinary post-hoc countermeasures cannot solve.
A more serious problem is that fixing things at the last minute triggers other issues. For instance, adding a fan might make the noise unbearable, or increase the product cost. The absolute worst-case scenario is when the core concept at the product planning stage was thermally impossible from the beginning. In this case, no post-hoc countermeasure will work. You must either scrap the project entirely or go all the way back to the start and redesign. This is a massive waste of time and money.
True 'Thermal Design' is considering the 'Flow of Heat' from the very first stage of planning.
You must deliberate on what shape the product should be for heat to escape easily, and where to place high-heat components, right from the beginning on 'paper,' even before building a prototype. Heat issues are no longer sub-tasks to be solved later. They are the most crucial 'design elements' that determine the success or failure of a product.
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