New Industry Products

Thermal Management R&D Instrument Measures Temp. Velocity and Pressure

April 29, 2014 by Jeff Shepard

The iQ-200™ instrument measures the temperatures of solid materials and surrounding air, while also tracking air velocity and air pressure. Measurements are taken simultaneously at multiple points to accurately profile heat sinks, PCBs and card racks for testing and characterization. Developed by Advanced Thermal Solutions, Inc. (ATS), the iQ-200 is a laboratory-grade instrument that simultaneously captures thermal data from up to 12 thermocouples which can be J, K, T and E types. The thermocouples provide surface area temperature measurements on heat sinks, components, housing parts and other locations to track heat flow or detect hot spots. Surface temperature data is recorded from -40 to 750 degrees C.

At the same time, air temperature is measured via 16 hot wire anemometer ports using ATS single-sensor technology. There is no need to change sensors when measuring different velocity ranges. The standard range for air velocity measurement is 0-6 m/s (1,200 ft/min). For custom calibrations, the available range is from 0 to 50 m/s (10,000 ft/min). The iQ-200 can be used with ATS’ low-profile Candlestick sensors.

Four additional ports on the iQ-200 support differential or absolute pressure transducers to capture air pressure drop data along circuit cards, assemblies and orifice plates. Pressure measurements are taken from 0 to 1,034 Pa (0 to 0.15 psi).

The iQ-200 system comes preloaded with user-friendly IQstageâ„¢ data acquisition software. IQstage manages the incoming data from multiple sensing devices, and provides detailed graphical presentation on monitors and documents. The iQ-200 connects via USB to any conventional PC for convenient data management, storage and sharing. List price for the iQ-200 thermal analysis system from ATS is $24,500, including 12 J-type thermocouples, 16 candlestick sensors and 4 differential pressure sensors.