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46 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018 and the attached film should be near the heat source. For an existing PCB undergoing testing, the protective paint (which has high thermal resistance) should be removed before attach- ing the film. For production, there should be no protective paint coating on the graphene film area. It is important to vacuum any air bubbles between the film and the PCB to achieve the best results. The film surface has an electrical insulation coating, so it is salient to handle it carefully to not scratch off the coating. Finally, one should apply the film to both sides of the PCB, if possible. If not, apply it to the side with fewer components and create holes in the film to expose the areas occupied by the compo- nents. Using these application methods can solve one's thermal issues and significantly improve thermal package performance. Extensive testing of this graphene film heat sink has been conducted over the last four years, with impressive results. The film has been tested on smartphones with glass covers and with metal cases, LED lights, tablets, and notebooks, etc. Analyses have demonstrated a dramatic reduction in the operating tem- perature of the various electronic devices of anywhere from a 23% up to a 52% decrease, depending upon the device tested. The company is continuing to innovate and improve its graphene film, and they are also capable of customizing the film for their customers. In addition, they have developed a graphene spray ink that can be sprayed on metal surfaces such as stainless steel, alumi - num, and copper at a thickness of 5 um to 20 um (which is the most effective range of thickness for the spray ink) to increase ther- mal conductivity. DESIGN007 Pete Christensen is the vice president of sales and marketing for Magi Scitech. He has over 35 years of sales, business development, management, and marketing experience. He can be contacted by clicking here. Optimizing the operation of a mixed-technology power plant is vital to making such power generation profitable and reliable. While optimization schemes have been pro- posed for such virtual power plants (VPPs), the existing approaches take a rigidly risk-neutral approach to dealing with uncertainty in future conditions. Now, by integrating risk parameters into an efficient optimization program for VPP operation, Ricardo Lima and colleagues Omar Knio and Ibrahim Hoteit from KAUST have developed a platform that allows the system to be tweaked for better reliability and profitability. The problem considered by Knio's team is the optimiza- tion of operations and electricity market participation for a VPP comprising a thermal unit, such as a conventional gas-fired power plant, a wind farm and a pumped storage hydro unit for energy storage. The goal of the calculation is to predict the optimal energy output of the thermal unit and input/output from the hydro unit. "The key issue for optimization is always the balance between level of detail of the model and the capacity for obtaining optimal solutions from it," says Lima. This is a large-scale calculation prob- lem with many variables even before the inclusion of risk, which presents signifi- cant challenges for finding the most accu- rate solution. The result is a framework that can accommodate both conservative risk- avoidance and aggressive risk-seeking approaches to maximize VPP profits. Powering the Bottom Line