The smaller size of the COM-HPC Mini necessitated the definition of appropriate cooling interfaces. Although the Mini primarily targets low-power CPUs, additional cooling is still required to ensure optimal performance and reliability.
Heat Spreader and Stack Height
Along with the size reduction, improvements were made to lower the overall stack height. The height of the heat spreader was reduced to 10mm (from the top of the heat spreader to the bottom of the module PCB). For the COM-HPC Server, this is defined as 18mm, while for the Client, it’s 15mm. This allows for the development of high-performing yet slim computing solutions where size matters.
Mounting of heat spreaders
Cooling solutions and heat spreaders are available with threaded and through-hole standoffs to accommodate different mounting directions. Cooling solutions are often mounted on top of the module, requiring threaded standoffs on the carrier board and through-hole standoffs on the cooling solution. Conversely, heat spreaders are often connected to a chassis using the extra 3.2mm mounting holes. In this case, the module/carrier board combination is typically mounted to the already fixed heat spreader. Here, the heat spreader has threaded standoffs, while the standoffs on the carrier board are through-hole versions to provide the appropriate mounting stability.
