Thermal modelling to optimize design in mobile charging applications

In mobile charging applications, there is request for further miniaturization, to reduce the size of the charger adapter and to increase the delivered output power. This may result in thermal issues due to dissipation in smaller volumes. An adapter has multiple dissipating components, which can easily result into hotspots in the application, and therefore not meet the thermal requirements. For a targeted 25W mobile adapter in a 18W casing, a thermal model with all dissipating components was made, which was used to optimize the electrical and thermal design of the adapter. With the help of thermal simulation, hotspots were removed, by changing the location of some of the dissipating components and the layout of the PCB. The prediction by thermal simulation worked very well, it improved the thermal performance the adapter. The adapter was built, and, with this updates, it now meets the thermal requirements.