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Heatspreader
An important factor for each system integration is the thermal design. The heatspreader acts as a thermal coupling device to the module. It
is a 3mm thick aluminum plate.
The heatspreader is thermally coupled to the CPU via a thermal gap filler and on some modules it may also be thermally coupled to other heat
generating components with the use of additional thermal gap fillers.
Although the heatspreader is the thermal interface where most of the heat generated by the module is dissipated, it is not to be considered
as a heatsink. It has been designed to be used as a thermal interface between the module and the application specific thermal solution. The
application specific thermal solution may use heatsinks with fans, and/or heat pipes, which can be attached to the heatspreader. Some thermal
solutions may also require that the heatspreader is attached directly to the systems chassis therefore using the whole chassis as a heat
dissipater.
Caution
Attention must be given to the mounting solution used to mount the heatspreader and module into the system chassis. Do not use a threaded
heatspreader together with threaded carrier board standoffs. The combination of the two threads may be staggered, which could lead to
stripping or cross-threading of the threads in either the standoffs of the heatspreader or carrier board.
