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76 The PCB Magazine • December 2017 to be successful it will absolutely have to be an "all in" proposition. PCB Steve Williams is the president of The Right Approach Consulting LLC. To read past columns, or to contact Williams, click here. with change is change itself. As I mentioned earlier, people are creatures of habit and will be uncomfortable with moving out of their comfort zone. That being said, know that change is difficult and some people will not adapt; this is normal. As with any major cul- tural change (ownership, management, quali- ty system), the only thing that is certain is that not everyone will "drink the Kool-Aid." And while this can be a trying experience, stay the course. Shifting organizational culture is diffi- cult enough with a willing and able workforce; CULTURE SHIFT IS KEY TO QUALITY IMPROVEMENT How can smartphones deal with growing heat management challenges? What are the current solutions? Who are involved in this industry? Yole and System Plus Consulting analysts offer you to- day a snapshot of this promising industry. "The importance of thermal management in smartphones is due to the growing number of smartphone functionalities and raised customer requirements for processing speed, leading to in- creased heat dissipation," explains Dr Milan Ro- sina, senior analyst for Ener- gy Conversion and Emerg- ing Materials at Yole. And he adds: "Additional compo- nents needed to ensure new smartphone functions desired by customers, including wire- less charging, high-resolution cameras, 3D gaming, securi- ty, authentication, and high- speed streaming, also result in denser component integra- tion, making thermal man- agement even more difficult." Actually, smartphones con- tain several components that generate heat, and compo- nents whose performance and lifetime is negatively impact- ed by heat. Excessive heating of some components, such as lithium ion batteries, must be carefully handled for safety reasons. The processor is the most impor- tant and hottest component in a smartphone. Amongst the other heat-generating compo- nents in a smartphone, Yole's analysts mention im- age sensors, light sources and batteries. Suitable thermal management solutions are now sought to avoid hot spots in smartphone and keep the component temperature at acceptable levels. The enclosure temperature, or skin temperature, must be also kept relatively low to avoid users feeling un- comfortable when using the smartphone. According to Yole's ana- lysts, there are different ap- proaches for thermal man- agement, based both on hardware and software solu- tions. Software thermal man- agement (STM) has sever- al advantages. It enables ad- ditional design flexibility and an optimal reaction to a given thermal event and can be im- proved by a software update in existing products. Contrary to hardware solutions, such as heat pipes, STM does not take additional space in a smart- phone. Smartphones: A Significant Challenge for Thermal Management Companies