Electrical & Thermal Performance

How do we help clients test and develop products that will achieve and maintain optimal temperatures?

When developing electronic and computerized consumer products, there is usually significant focus on out-of-the-box performance while long-term reliability is often overlooked. In order to manufacture more reliable electronic and computerized systems, it is critical to design products that maintain safe operating temperatures and that do not overheat and cause failures.

Exponent's electrical and thermal engineers design and execute reliability and accelerated life testing to identify weak points in device design that may limit lifetime or present warranty concerns.

Reliability testing may include testing for:

• High temperature
• High humidity
• Thermal cycling
• Power cycling
• Overvoltage and overcurrent conditions

Our engineers measure ambient and component-specific temperatures and visualize airflow to determine the effect and efficiency of fans or other forms of cooling. We also provide recommendations for performance and reliability improvements based on a review of thermal and electrical measurements.

Our multidisciplinary teams include materials and corrosion, thermal engineering, and mechanical expertise to conduct reliability tests and understand various failure modes, and we can deploy to locations across the world to provide on-site consultation.