Datasheet

Heater designs to perfectly fit your application
Custom Design Options
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Introduction
Design
Guide
Polyimide
Heaters
Silicone
Rubber
Heaters (foil)
Standard
Polyimide
& Rubber
Rubber
Heaters
(wire-wound)
Mica Heaters
Thermal-Clear
Heaters
All-Polyimide
Heaters
Sensors,
Controllers &
Accessories
Reference
|
Flexible Heaters Design Guide | www.minco.com
Heater outline shapes
With a 3-dimensional approach the possibilities are endless.
Select the proper Thermofoil heater insulation to meet your
electrical and thermal performance requirements while at the
same time satisfying your demanding packaging needs. Using
selective adhesive backing configurations will also promote
ease of installation of our heaters within smaller and smaller
device spaces. Minco also has tooling and lasering capabilities
which allows us to provide complex part outlines (holes, cut-
outs, radii) with very tight dimensional tolerances.
Profiled heater conductor routing
A profiled element levels out temperature gradients by provid-
ing extra heat where losses occur, such as along edges or
around mounting holes. In a typical case, profiling might
reduce a ±25°C temperature variation across a surface to ±5°C
or better. Once the best profile is determined for the applica-
tion, Minco’s photo-etching process ensures repeatability from
heater to heater.
Methods to derive the profiling pattern include:
• Experimentation: Lay out a pattern with standard heaters
and vary the power levels until temperature reaches the
desired uniformity. Or, Minco can provide a custom heater
with separately powered zones for prototyping. Minco will
then reproduce the successful profile with a single element.
• Finite Element Analysis (FEA): Although more expensive, FEA
modeling of thermal systems can reduce the number of trials
required to design a profiled heater. It may help to map the
temperature resulting from uniform heat input (using a
standard heater), then work backward in FEA to derive the
profiled pattern.
Tight uniformity goals may require more than one profiling
iteration, and a given solution is optimized for only one set-
point temperature.
Other heater element options
• Dual element for redundancy and/or warm-up and
maintenance heating schemes
• Non-magnetic alloys for inductance canceling
• Dual layer constructions in order to provide higher resistance
(ohms) in small areas or for added inductance canceling in
element patterns
Electrical termination
Leadwires
(standard)
Welded leadwires make a strong, reliable
connection. Options include different colors,
sizes, and insulating materials.
Solder pads Lowest cost, but limits foil/resistance options.
Connectors Insulation displacement connectors crimped
onto etched leads make an economical design.
Other connector types are available such as pin
headers, SMT and ZIF termination.
Flex circuits Minco can supply flex circuits integrally
connected with heaters.
Minco puts the heat where
you need it, no matter how
complex the shape
Integrated SMT flex circuit
offers convenient onboard
control circuitry
Low profile flex circuit eliminates
leadwires, simplifying assembly
Exposed foil pads for use with zero
insertion force (ZIF) connectors
LEADWIRES
SOLDER PADS
CONNECTORS
FLEX CIRCUITS
Thermofoil heaters give you design options that other heater
types can’t match. Minco’s custom design options can be
quantified into three sections.
Element design:
Element patterns, outline shapes, heat profiles and
terminations can be fine-tuned to create the exact thermal
and physical component to fit your unique requirements.
Get more information below.
Integrated components:
Integrating temperature sensors directly into the Thermofoil
heater improves your thermal control while at the same time
simplifying the end-use assembly operation.
Get more information on page 12.
Value-added services:
Complete thermal sub-assembly can provide a turnkey
solution for your application. This could entail factory
mounting of heaters to fabricated heat sinks, SMT control
electronics to the Thermofoil heaters, incorporated rigid
multi-layer flex circuits and connector termination.
Get more information on page 13.