Because the power consumption of consumer electronic products varies according to processor execution, which depends on software, thermal risk may be increased by software changes, including software updates or the installation of new applications, even after hardware development has been completed. In this paper, we first introduce a typical system-level thermal simulation model, coupling the activities within modules related to software, electrical parts, and mechanical structure. Then, we investigate a case study of thermal management in both the development and maintenance phases of the product lifecycle. Reusing the simulation model, the thermal risk of software changes that may cause an enormous number of variations can be efficiently evaluated.

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Thermal design of electronic products has become increasingly complicated with leakage current characteristics and their variation of semiconductors. This paper proposes an application of a thermal system model to a production system of electronic products. The thermal system model is developed for architecture design to determine design parameters of modules. The model is described with Systems Modeling Language (SysML) considering interactions among parameters of mechanical structure and electrical components that include semiconductors with temperature-dependent leakage current characteristics. In the system model, constraints of heat generation and heat transfer are described using equations and relation between equations and parameters are clarified in parametric diagram. The system model that is developed at the early stage of product design is used at the beginning of integration, such as receiving inspection. To prevent quality degradation by variation in component characteristics, semiconductor components such as processing units are screened with thermal simulation result before their implementation on Printed Wiring Board (PWB). The simulation result is being referred to temperatures that cause low-temperature burn injury. As a case study, a system model of portable product is developed and demonstrates thermal simulation to determine limitation in large variation in leakage current characteristics to satisfy product thermal quality. To improve yield ratio of the semiconductor components after screening, system models are developed for various products in which same processing units are installed. The system model can be applied for each product changing the design parameters and simulate to determine allowable range of component characteristics keeping the product quality. Implementing a component that causes more leakage effect into a product that has more allowable range, degradation of product quality can be avoid without losing the component yield ratio.