Evaluation Engineering - 27

ID 113606174 © Odu Van | Dreamstime.com

States and China. The staggering number
of connected vehicles, along with the increasing level of connectivity, is already
creating a data explosion, from sensors
and cameras, sonar and radar, LiDAR and
GPS systems, and a host of safety, security
and infotainment equipment. According
to a report by Intel, one self-driving car
will burn through approximately the
same amount of data as 3,000 people.
Automotive connectivity components
(modules, chargers, switches and gateways) will be expected to move and process that data in near-real-time. That extraordinary demand for processing power
requires equally extraordinary measures
to manage the resulting thermal energy
that's created.

Approaches to cooling
systems and design

and reliability standards of the automotive industry.
In considering specific design issues
facing automakers and their suppliers,
the challenges related to thermal management can be broken down into two
basic areas of focus:
1. Ensuring that the device design will
generate the least amount of heat
2. Designing enclosures that will help
manage heat and optimize cooling
in these extreme-temperature, often
enclosed, harsher environments
Addressing these challenges is no
simple feat, and it all begins with proper electrical and enclosure designs to
achieve efficient and cost-effective thermal management.

Demand continues to increase

As early as 2025, according to estimates1,
more than 85% of all new cars will be
classified as "connected" and there will
be more than 470 million connected
vehicles on roads in Europe, the United

With the advent of autonomous driving,
automakers are essentially putting the
equivalent of a super computer or enterprise network switch
in the vehicles
of the future.
Minimizing
heat generation and determining the
best strategies
for dissipating
heat are both critical to the design. Ideally,
a natural convection-cooling
method is the most cost-effective solution to dissipate thermal energy because
it does not rely on additional components,
either active or passive.
Currently, the industry is widely using
liquid-cooled solutions to offset the heat
being generated. While effective, liquid
cooled methods generate additional
costs and processing (pumps, fluid-
ethylene glycol or something similar to
prevent freezing and a closed system to
transfer the fluid.) Using liquid cooling
to offset heat in an autonomous vehicle
is not practical or probable in the longterm; that, along with the need to shrink
the size, is creating the need for more
and better thermal designs.
In addition to specifying cooling methods, R&D engineers must also address a

myriad of other challenges inherent to
automotive design, including:
* Mounting and other mechanical
requirements
* Space constraints
* Customization and applicationspecific design parameters
Materials and components available
today (and their ability, or inability, to
handle the heat that will be generated
by tomorrow's systems). Most ICs are
designed for IT computer room environments which do not meet the requirements of the automotive industry, thereby increasing the challenges for thermal
cooling that is critical to end-product
reliability.

Simulating and validating
design innovations for
thermal management
To begin, it is essential to have a full understanding of automotive products and
impact of the design on thermal management, including the basics such as the
Figure 2: Temperature
plotting helps identify hotspots
and other areas of concern.
Molex

solution function, location, etc., and to
consider and plan for things such as:
* Vehicle space constraints
* Power level and dissipation number
for each component and location
* Materials available for use-including maximum material temperatures and location of each (end user
contact surfaces vs. installation
contact surfaces)
* Type of airflow, if any-including
in surrounding components, ducts,
harnesses, etc.
* Costs
OCTOBER 2019 EVALUATIONENGINEERING.COM

27
http://www.Dreamstime.com http://www.EVALUATIONENGINEERING.COM
Evaluation Engineering

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Evaluation Engineering
