Keeping cool

An independent survey by the Aberdeen Group found that users of Flomerics’ thermal analysis software complete thermal design verification three times faster and have over 40% fewer re-spins on average per printed circuit board (PCB) design than non-users.

The survey shows that 65% of Flomerics’ users have only one re-spin, 24% have two, 11% have three and none have 4 or more. For companies not using Flomerics’ software, only 13% have one re-spin, 34% have two, 48% have three, and 5% have four or more.

The survey also showed that Flomerics’ customers are ahead of the industry curve in performing thermal design reviews, with 47% saying they perform “real-time” reviews and 32% “daily” reviews. For companies not using Flomerics’ software, only 11% perform real-time reviews, 5% perform daily reviews, 8% perform monthly reviews, 42% perform ad-hoc reviews and 26% never carry out thermal design reviews at all.

These results are significant because the top pressure in the electronics business – cited by 53% of electronics manufacturers in Aberdeen’s benchmark surveys – is decreasing time to market. This is followed by the need to improve productivity (45%), driven by the need to reduce cost as well as time.