AR750S heatsink question

jolouis · 2022-03-02T19:30:41.123Z

Hello,

We purchase a fair number of Slate (AR750s) for projects at my work. One of the main reasons for using this unit is the internal solder points for i2c and serial which we use to interface to some other devices. Accessing these is very easy but it does require removing the internal heatsink in order to solder on headers.

On our most recent batch of Slates one of my techs noticed that there is no longer a thermal pad connecting between the heatsink and the QCA8337 chip that is located beside the toggle switch and push button on the PCB. In all previous batches there have always been three thermal pads (CPU, QCA8337 and QCA9887).

I just wanted to confirm that this is an intentional design change (maybe somebody decided the QCA8337 didn’t generate enough heat to require sinking?..?) and not just something that had been missed by mistake during a production run. We typically deploy these units to places where they run 24/7/365 for years at a time so I want to make sure these missing pads will not be an issue.

Thoughts?

alex_zheng · 2022-03-04T01:20:02.506Z

thank you for your attention.It’s not an issue.

We have done some Thermal test and confirm the thermal pads of 8337 can be removed.So we did an intentional design change.

jolouis · 2022-03-04T20:34:16.414Z

Awesome thanks for confirming it was an intentional change. I will let my staff know so we can carry on without concern.

wcs2228 · 2022-03-04T21:21:38.568Z

You could add your own thermal pads or heatsink compound for a little extra “insurance” when reassembling.

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