Kontron ETX-LX - Manual (Page 26)

9 Design Considerations
Kontron User's Guide ETX®-LX 26
9 Design Considerations
9.1 Thermal Management
A heat-spreader assembly is available from Kontron for the ETX®-LX. The heat-spreader plate on top of
this assembly is NOT a heat sink. It works as an ETX®-standard thermal interface to use with a heat sink
or other cooling device.
External cooling must be provided to maintain the heat-spreader plate at proper operating
temperatures. Under worst-case conditions, the cooling mechanism must maintain an ambient air and
Heatspreader plate temperature of 60 C or less.
The aluminium slugs and thermal pads on the underside of the heat-spreader assembly implement
thermal interfaces between the Heatspreader plate and the major heat-generating components on the
ETX®-LX. About 80 percent of the power dissipated within the module is conducted to the heat-spreader
plate and can be removed by the cooling solution.
The total power consumption of the ETX®-LX module is 6.6 watts typical (with 512 MB DDR400). Design
the cooling solution accordingly.
Design the cooling solution to dissipate 10 watts to provide adequate cooling for the ETX®-LX.
You can use many thermal-management solutions with the heat-spreader plates, including active and
passive approaches. The optimum cooling solution varies, depending on the ETX® application and
environmental conditions. Please see the ETX® Design Guide for further information on thermal
management.