Thermal tests and measurements (SBCX)

Info Box Applies to SBC AXEL

History

Version	Date	Notes
		First public release

Introduction

This document describes the tests that have been performed on SBCX board to characterize thermal behavior of some configurations. The results here presented can be used by integrators building systems upon SBCX board as a basis for comparison. In fact, as stated in the SBCX's Hardware Manual, systems integrators have to perform thermal analysis on the application's definitive configuration that generally differs significantly with respect to the use cases here described, in terms of both hardware and software.

Test beds

Five different test beds have been considered. From the electronics point of view, all of them are based on the following parts:

• SBCX equipped iMX6 Dual Lite processor (maximum frequency = TBD) and 1GB SDRAM
• LCD TBD.

Settings common to all test beds:

• SBCX supply voltage: 12V
• Linux governor: TBD
• LCD backlight intensity: 100%
• still air flow
• software load [1]
  • TBD.

Test bed #1

• • Tamb = TBD °C
  • system layout
    • SBCX and LCD lie on a table horizontally (see also the following picture)

tbd inserire foto

Test bed #2

• • Tamb = TBD °C
  • system layout
    • SBCX and LCD are enclosed in a metal box that lies on a table horizontally (see also the following picture)
    • iMX6 processor is thermally coupled with an heat sink (TBD) through TBD

tbd inserire foto

Test bed #3

• • Tamb = TBD °C
  • system layout
    • SBCX and LCD are enclosed in a metal box that is positioned vertically (see also the following picture)
    • iMX6 processor is thermally coupled with an heat sink (TBD) through TBD

tbd inserire foto

Test bed #4

• • Tamb = TBD °C
  • system layout
    • SBCX and LCD are enclosed in a metal box that lies on a table horizontally (see also the following picture)
    • Axel Lite SOM is thermally coupled with an aluminium heat pipe
      • heat pipe dimensions are: 40x22x16.5mm
      • on SOM side, heat pipe is placed on the iMX6 processor and top side SDRAM chips; it is coupled with 40x22x2.03mm gap filler (Hala Thermal TGF-FUS2030-SI)
      • heat pipe is thermally coupled with the metal box with
    • in turn, heat pipe is thermally coupled with the box through TBD

tbd inserire foto

Test bed #5

• • Tamb = TBD °C
  • system layout
    • sytem layout is the same used in test bed #4, apart from the orientation: in this case the box is vertical

tbd inserire foto

Results

• test bed #1
  • overall power consumption (steady state): TBD [1]
  • SOM power consumption (steady state): TBD [1]
  • Tj = TBD °C
  • ∆T = Tj - Tamb = TBD °C
• test bed #2
  • overall power consumption (steady state): TBD [1]
  • SOM power consumption (steady state): TBD [1]
  • Tj = TBD °C
  • ∆T = Tj - Tamb = TBD °C
• test bed #3
  • overall power consumption (steady state): TBD [1]
  • SOM power consumption (steady state): TBD [1]
  • Tj = TBD °C
  • ∆T = Tj - Tamb = TBD °C
• test bed #4
  • overall power consumption (steady state): TBD [1]
  • SOM power consumption (steady state): TBD [1]
  • Tj = TBD °C
  • ∆T = Tj - Tamb = TBD °C
• test bed #5
  • overall power consumption (steady state): TBD [1]
  • SOM power consumption (steady state): TBD [1]
  • Tj = TBD °C
  • ∆T = Tj - Tamb = TBD °C

[1] Even if the software load is the same for all of the test beds, overall and SOM power consumptions differ accross the test beds. This is due to the silicon static power consumption that is a function of the temperature itself.

Useful links

• Power management (Axel)
• FAQs (Axel)
• Thermal management (Axel)
• Power consumption (AxelLite)