PCB Thermal Management

January 20, 2022 | Posted By: Degree Controls Inc.
PCB Thermal Management with UAS1000 EF airflow sensors

Do you need to verify thermal designs for electronic products and systems? The UAS1000 EF sensor (electronics focused) is ideal for any case where a sensor needs to be mounted to a circuit board to measure airflow. It is used by hardware designers and thermal engineers to test servers, understand the flow velocity across heat sinks, and verify thermal management of electronic systems.

The compact, low profile UAS1000 EF airflow sensor fits neatly within printed circuit board assemblies to simultaneously measure air velocity and temperature. The EF sensor is easy to install. Adhesive or cable tie mounting attaches it securely to a PCBA. For minimal impact to the airflow profile, the UAS1000 EF sensor uses a thin, flat cable. The cable exits the front of the sensor, near the base, so as not to interfere with sensor mounting. In addition, the UAS1000 EF sensor offers users choices for velocity range, automatically compensates for changes in temperature, and is capable of measuring velocity with ±3% accuracy.

With a convenient USB connector, the EF sensor is plug and play, designed to work with °C Port data acquisition instruments and AccuTrac™ datalogging software. To measure air velocity distribution across an electronic board assembly with 3 – 6, or more, UAS1000 EF sensors, simply mount sensors to the pcb under test. Then, plug the sensors into a °C Port data acquisition unit connected to a PC with AccuTrac™ software. Airflow results are immediate. AccuTrac™ software collects air velocity and temperature data in real time, and will collect sensor readings for as many as 180 measurement locations. Linear graphing and gradient mapping are also part of the AccuTrac™ toolset for airflow analysis. Learn more about the Degree Controls multipoint sensing and instrumentation platform for R&D.  

EF air velocity sensors are found mounted to the PCBs of thermal test fixtures developed for Open Compute Project NIC 3.0 cards (network interface cards). The Open Compute Project (OCP) is a collaborative open-source hardware group working to develop better, more efficient servers and data center products to meet the growing demands of the computing industry.

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