Do you have thermal management issues?

Thermal management has become a high-profile issue in recent years as components shrink in size and designers are under pressure to feed industry and consumer desire for high levels of functionality in smaller equipment. Add to this a trend towards portability, resulting in completely sealed enclosures, and you have a thermal storm brewing.

An important part of the thermal management process in electronic systems is the heat sink which provides passive heat exchange which cools the device by dissipating heat into the surrounding medium. In computers, heat sinks are used to cool central processing units or graphics processors. Heat sinks are used with high-power semiconductor devices such as power transistors and optoelectronics such as lasers and light emitting diodes (LEDs), where the heat dissipation ability of the basic device is insufficient to moderate its temperature.

A heat sink is designed to maximize its surface area in contact with the cooling medium surrounding it, such as the air. Air velocity, choice of material, fin design and surface treatment are factors that affect the performance of a heat sink. Heat sink attachment methods and thermal interface materials also affect the die temperature of the integrated circuit. Thermal adhesive or thermal grease improve the heat sink's performance by filling air gaps between the heat sink and the device.

Panasonic's answer to this problem is the Pyrolytic Graphite Sheet providing a thermal management solution to today’s requirement for efficient heat diffusion in compact electronic devices.   PGS can be used as a clean and efficient alternative to silicon grease.  PGS is extremely effective in the development of equipment where temperature control must be attained in a package that is restricted due to downsizing and where the packaging is lightweight.  PGS is an ideal solution where there are I.C. heat sources such as CPU’s, processors, power amplifiers etc that create hot spots and need to be controlled.

PGS is an ultra-thin. Lightweight, graphite film with thermal conductivity high enough to release and diffuse the heat generated by heat sources such as CPU’s, processors power amplifiers and cameras.  Developed by Panasonic engineers, this synthetically made material was named Pyrolitic Graphite sheet or PGS. With a thermal conductivity up to four times greater than copper (see the video below), PGS is extremely pliable and can be applied to heat source shapes even in high density mounting situations.
• Offers thermal conductivity up to 4 times that of copper
• Thermal Conductivity : 700 to 1750 W/(m-K)
• Lightweight: specific gravity of 0.85 to 2.1g/cm3 
• Flexible and easy to cut or trim
• Withstands repeated bending
• RoHS directive compliant
• Low thermal resistance

The high conductivity and flexibility of PGS are
based on the nature of the crystalline structure
and technology developed by Panasonic.