The Computer-On-Module market is flourishing like never before. Tremendous growth rates are expected in the coming years, specifically due to implementation of the IIoT (the Industrial Internet of Things). But why is computer-on-module (COM) technology so appealing to the industrial sector? Every application is different and demands dedicated electronics for recording, processing and displaying process data as a result. Production products are often unable to meet these special requirements. They might not have all the necessary interfaces, or a solution with appropriate longevity is not available, or an application might need special main board or enclosure sizes and designs that are not available on the market.

Various thermal flow simulations are used in the development process for a COM carrier system for system design in order to optimize passive cooling using heat sinks. The result is a modular system that can be adapted to meet various customer requirements through selection from a series of available heat sinks. Measurements are carried out at a climate lab for comparing the simulation results. Various interference sources are identified and corrected systematically. The goal is for measurement results to verify the simulations and definitively prove the functionality of the cooling design with analysis indicating that there is very close agreement between the measurement results and simulations.