Thermal optimization of a miniaturized camera with Pentium PC module

In miniaturization with high-speed components, where power dissipation is not negligible, thermal management and thermal design become more and more important. To design and build systems first time right, thermal design with simulation becomes of paramount importance. A miniaturized camera module with built in Pentium III PC, including hard disk and standard PC interfaces, is a system of non negligible power dissipation. Such a system shall be further miniaturized. More functions shall be built in and a faster processor with higher power dissipation shall be used. With thermal simulation, different strategies for heat dissipation are analyzed and validated with measurements. An important condition is that the proposals are producible. We describe the system, the different strategies of power dissipation, the results of the simulation and results of the validation measurements. We discuss the results, their accuracy and their limits.