Thermal Management for Electronics

Why sealed products run hot

Vents and fans are the easy answer to heat, but many products cannot use them. Ingress ratings, dust, washdown, and outdoor exposure often require a fully sealed housing. That leaves conduction through the enclosure wall and convection or radiation from the outside surface as the main ways heat can escape, so the internal heat path has to be designed deliberately.

Our thermal design approach

• Identify the heat sources, power levels, and temperature limits for critical components.
• Define a heat path from each hot component to the outside of the product, using thermal pads, gap fillers, spreaders, and contact with the housing.
• Choose enclosure materials and surface features, such as fins and metal inserts, that move heat to the environment.
• Use thermal analysis to compare options before committing to tooling.
• Verify on prototypes in realistic ambient conditions, including sun load where it applies.

Thermal design for RF products

Radar and wireless products add another constraint: the parts of the enclosure that pass RF energy usually cannot be metal. We plan heat paths that avoid antenna regions and radomes while still moving heat out of the product, coordinating with the electrical layout so thermal and RF requirements are solved together.