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2010
congatec
AG
QTOPm14
20/80
4
Cooling Solutions
An important factor for each system integration is the thermal design. The heatspreader acts as a thermal coupling device to the module and
its aluminum plate is 2mm thick.
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 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 thereby using the whole chassis as a heat dissipater.
Caution
congatec Qseven® heaspreaders have been specifically designed for use within commercial temperature ranges (0° to 60°C) only. When
using industrial temperature variants of the conga-QA6 in industrial temperature ranges (-40° to 85°C), use of the conga-QA6 heatspreaders
is not recommended by congatec and furthermore its use is at the risk of the end user. It is the responsibility of the end user to design an
optimized thermal solution that meets the needs of their application within the industrial environmental conditions it is required to operate in.
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.
Only heatspreaders that feature micro pins that secure the thermal stacks should be used for applications that require the heatspreader to be
mounted vertically. It cannot be guaranteed that the thermal stacks will not move if a heatspreader that does not have the micro pin feature
is used in vertically mounted applications.
Additionally, the gap pad material used on all heatspreaders contains silicon oil that can seep out over time depending on the environmental
conditions it is subjected to. For more information about this subject, contact your local congatec sales representative and request the gap
pad material manufacturer’s specification.
