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6
Design Considerations
6.1
Thermal Management
A heat-spreader plate assembly is available from Kontron Embedded Modules GmbH for the ETX®-CN8.
The heat-spreader plate on top of this assembly is NOT a heat sink. It works as an ETX®-standard thermal
interface to use with a heat sink or other cooling device.
External cooling must be provided to maintain the heat-spreader plate at proper operating
temperatures. Under worst-case conditions, the cooling mechanism must maintain an ambient air and
heat-spreader plate temperature of 60° C or less.
The aluminum slugs and thermal pads on the underside of the heat-spreader assembly implement
thermal interfaces between the heat spreader plate and the major heat-generating components on the
ETX®-CN8. About 80 percent of the power dissipated within the module is conducted to the heat-
spreader plate and can be removed by the cooling solution.
For 1000MHz and 1500MHz modules, the heat dissipated into the plate ranges from 18 to 20 watts.
Design a cooling solution to dissipate the heat load on a heat-spreader plate at a minimum of 20 watts
to accommodate all ETX®-CN8 modules.
You can use many thermal-management solutions with the heat-spreader plates, including active and
passive approaches. The optimum cooling solution varies, depending on the ETX® application and
environmental conditions. Please see the ETX® Design Guide for further information on thermal
management.
Kontron User's Guide ETX®-CN8
38
6 Design Considerations
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