congatec showcases heatpipe cooling for COM module

German board maker congatec has unveiled a new heatpipe cooling system designed for Computer-on-Module (COMs) at Embedded World in Nuremberg. This innovative system utilizes acetone as a working fluid in the heat pipes, offering several advantages over traditional water-based systems. By using acetone, the cooling system is able to prevent freezing at extreme sub-zero temperatures, ensuring the integrity of the thermal transfer medium and safeguarding the overall system design.

Moreover, the acetone-based cooling system is highly resilient to mechanical stresses such as shock and vibration, making it ideal for applications in harsh environments. This breakthrough technology opens up new possibilities for utilizing COM modules in extreme climatic conditions, including arctic temperatures where more complex cooling solutions have traditionally been required to ensure reliability.

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One of the key benefits of the heatpipe cooling system is its cost-effectiveness, particularly for COM-based designs that need to operate reliably within a wide temperature range of -40 °C to +85 °C. This makes it a compelling choice for a variety of applications, such as autonomous and conventional vehicles operating in challenging environments like ports, airports, and cold stores, as well as rail and aviation systems.

According to Jürgen Jungbauer, Senior Product Line Manager at congatec, “Our acetone-based cooling solution expands the possibilities for module-based designs in extreme operating conditions that were previously unattainable with conventional cooling methods. By leveraging our application-ready COMs instead of costly specialized solutions, developers can streamline their time-to-market efforts and reduce overall development costs.”

The heatpipe cooling system is compatible with a range of congatec COM modules, including the COM Type6 conga-TC675 and conga-TC675r featuring the Intel Raptor Lake processor. Additionally, it can be integrated with COM-HPC Mini and Client form factors, as well as COM-HPC Server configurations for robust edge server applications.