Thermal Design and Analysis of a Cable Charger Used for Portable Electronics

As the charging current of mobile electronics increases, the heat dissipation problem is risen for their small portable chargers. By integrating the inductor and heatsink into the cable, a flexible cable-integration charger could be fabricated. In this paper, a thermal resistance model of the cable charger is proposed. Based on this model, the dominant factors related with the thermal performance are extracted, and how they affect the chip junction temperature and the cable surface temperature is further analyzed to ensure its reliability and safety in use. Besides, the method to evaluate the thermal resistance value is obtained, which can be used for the synergetic optimization of the cable charger for better the thermal performance and flexibility performance. Finally, a 3.3/5V prototype is designed, fabricated and tested. The experimental results verified that good thermal performance of the cable charger.