Material improves the reliability of electronic equipment

Citation

(1999), "Material improves the reliability of electronic equipment", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 71 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.1999.12771fad.013

Material improves the reliability of electronic equipment

Keywords AEA Technology, Electronics, Heat transfer, Aircraft, Composites

AEA Technology informs us that it has begun full-scale production of a new material, HIVOL, that it believes will offer major improvements in the cooling of high power electronic equipment. This will improve the reliability of transport, including aircraft.

The market for thermal management materials of this kind is increasing by 50 per cent a year and is expected to be worth some »50 million world-wide by 2003. Barry Moloney of AEA Technology said: "We believe that HIVOL offers significant advantages over other thermal management materials and its use will grow rapidly. The rail industry is the major user of this kind of material but the use of power electronics in cars, aircraft and other equipment means that the market is mushrooming and we believe this material offers the best option for engineers".

HIVOL is a composite of aluminium and silicon carbide engineered to give it particularly good heat transfer properties. According to AEA other thermal management materials such as copper and aluminium are often too soft and their high thermal expansion makes them difficult to use. AEA also considers composite products such as copper-tungsten or copper-molybdenum to be heavy and can be expensive.

The product has important applications in aircraft, where thermal management of safety critical circuits that supply power to the electrical systems is important, and in the latest generation of radar equipment. AEA Technology has developed HIVOL by drawing on its years of experience of special materials and heat management in the nuclear industry.

If heat from the electronic chips is allowed to build up the performance of train drive systems, aircraft electronics, electric cars and other power electronic equipment is seriously degraded, delays can occur and expensive repairs may become necessary. To solve this problem, AEA Technology has developed HIVOL, a heat conductor that carries heat away from sensitive components.

After five years of development HIVOL has gone into full production at AEA Technology's site at Harwell, Oxfordshire. A new plant has been installed and will initially aim to meet demand from manufacturers of train drive systems.

Details available from AEA Technology plc. Tel: +44 (0) 1235 43 3612; Fax: +44 (0) 1235 43 6656.