Thermal management of 5G smartphones: heat dissipation and insulation

     The 5G market is developing rapidly, and 5G smart phones have been widely used. Currently, global electronics manufacturers are fiercely competing in the 5G smartphone market in terms of technology and product quality.

     So what problems must 5G smartphone manufacturers face?        

     The emergence of new heat and heat concentration problems are due to: 5G cellular signals operating at higher millimeter wave frequencies and the realization of massive MIMO; market demand for lighter, thinner, and faster devices; circuits in the devices Become denser, and the requirements for lighter, thinner and better stretch rates of thermal management materials continue to increase.           

     Managing heat and temperature in 5G smartphones is essential to prolong service life (especially for components), and solutions to thermal management challenges must be addressed at the board level, circuit design/operation level, and through the use of active thermal management solutions.

     CPU cooling In smart phones, dense application processors, power management circuits and camera modules are the main heat sources. AP contains multiple sub-components, such as GPU, multimedia codec, especially CPU, which generates the most heat.           

      In addition, due to the relatively small size and complex circuitry of APs, they tend to generate more heat. This heat can become a problem when the microprocessor is located in a housing with little ventilation or airtightness. It is necessary to control thermal power consumption or increase heat dissipation means to prevent high temperature from damaging the microprocessor and surrounding circuits.

      PMIC heat dissipation 

      PMIC-power management integrated circuit is one of the well-known components that generate a lot of heat during the operation of the smartphone.           

      For the thermal management of performance components such as power management ICs, RAM and image processors, Prostech provides curable thermal gap fillers. These fillers have good thermal conductivity, physical stability under vibration and temperature cycles, and can alleviate stress.

      Thermal insulation of 5G antenna 

      Currently, complex 5G mmWave antenna modules integrate power amplifiers that generate heat near the edge of the device. Due to space constraints, it is difficult to reduce the surface temperature by increasing the air gap, and throttling will damage 5G performance. Traditional cooling solutions are not an option either, because they are conductive and interfere with RF signals.